this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
337 points (94.7% liked)

News

22852 readers
3464 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Soon, Old Glory will have to be born in the land of the free and not merely flying over it.

Congress has passed a proposal to require the federal government to purchase only American flags that have been completely manufactured in the U.S. The U.S. imports millions of American flags from overseas, mostly from China, and the sponsors of the proposal said it’s time for American flags to originate in the country they represent.

Supporters of the proposal, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, said the change is more than just symbolic — they believe it will support American jobs and manufacturers while preserving the nation’s most recognized banner.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

I don't get why people are tilted about this. The government should always buy US made unless the item literally cannot be found from a US manufacturer.

Tax payer money should stay in the country when possible. Yeah it's a small issue but I doubt much time was spent on this

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

"Oh... okay. But did you want to do anything about that giant list of actual REAL problems over there behind you on the table?"

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

To be fair, it is extremely weird to imagine the U.S. government buying U.S. flags from China. Like, I'm not some patriot flag-code respecting type, but it does feel like a powerful metaphor to be importing our symbol of freedom from abroad. It's some severely bad optics at a minimum.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Sounds very american to me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I've always said that "made in China" is way more American than "made in the USA".

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

Yep, even giving a shit where a piece of cloth was made is fucking weird

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

but it does feel like a powerful metaphor to be importing our symbol of freedom from abroad

Freedom to buy from the lowest cost provider!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Why did I think this was already a thing?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

The current number of congresspersons, 435, was created in 1913. In the 1920 census the US population was 29,662,053.

29,662,053/435 ~= in 1913 there were 68,188 persons per member of Congress.

In 2020 the population was 331,449,281

331,449,281/435 ~= in 2020 there were 761,952 persons per member of Congress.

One person can't represent three quarters of a million people in a national assembly. That isn't representation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Perhaps one day we’ll finally ratify Article the First.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

But do you think American flags should be made in America?!?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

You think those numbers are bad? Wait till you look up the averages for each US Senator.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Capitalism. Until we don’t like particular ramifications of capitalism and then we legislate nationalisation of particular industries….because.

Truly the invisible hand of the market at work.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There’s a Pretty Good Chance Your American Flag Was Made by a Prisoner: People of color are incarcerated in huge numbers. And they’re manufacturing America’s symbol of freedom.

Harris was referring to the visit she made to the Central California Women’s Facility in July, a visit on which I tagged along. It was a surreal experience to watch dozens of women, mostly women of color, at work stations inside of the country’s largest prison for women, laying out and printing fabric and then dyeing it royal blue. It was just as surreal, if not more so, to hear prison officials point out that these flags would one day fly atop every state and federal building in California, describing this with something almost adjacent to pride.

U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Considering this only covers US Government purchased flags, this IS the invisible hand of the market. It’s a consumer choosing where they want to purchase products.

And it is t nationalizing the industry. They still will be privately produced. And individual Americans can still by Chinese flags.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The particular industry that’s being nationalised is American flags produced for US government consumption. (The nationalisation part)

They’ve decided to legislate because they don’t like the optics of some foreign made products. (This isn’t an invisible hand; it’s opaque)

How is that justified in a supposedly capitalist society when China can produce flags of the same quality but at a cheaper price?

Edit: maybe protectionism is a better word than nationalise, end effect is the same; The government of a capitalist country is directly interfering with the market.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Nationalization means the government takes full control of an industry, not merely sets standards on their purchase.

And buyers are able to have any reason they want for their purchase decisions, including optics. It’s still the invisible hand. And besides, I think it’s more than optics to want American tax dollars to go to Americans.

Capitalism doesn’t mean “always buy the cheapest.” It means anyone can sell at any price and quality, and the people choose. And, in my experience, Chinese made goods are often of lower quality, made with poor environmental standards, and produced with questionable labor practices (including outright slave labor).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Haha oh my God right?

Oh shoot can someone fuck with our supply of flags while trying to push nationalism???

But not healthcare huh?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You know what, for context for anyone late to the discourse.

All of this is about a bill passing through the Senate for the manufacturer of the government bought flags to go from 50% American manufactured materials to 100%.

Enjoy the ride.

load more comments
view more: next ›