Bob Greene`s Jan. 14 column excerpted his readers` unanimously favorable responses to his suggestion that department stores set up special floors with only U.S.-made goods. I suppose he was trying to show that patriotism survives in America.
All he really illustrated was that many Americans are ignorant about economics. It is not patriotism to ”buy American” when a foreign country makes a better product cheaper. Indeed, it is uniquely ironic such attitudes persist in a country that purportedly cele-brates markets and gloats over the triumph of its economic system over communism.
Bob Greene`s readers are not doing anything for their country, or themselves for that matter. What they are doing is subsidizing people-Lee Iacocca springs to mind-in a few industries who find it easier to whine about foreign competition than to build a better product. They are not patriots.
