To keep the dollar strong and fellow citizens employed, we are told to "buy American" whenever the urge to spend a buck hits. Makes common sense, doesn't it?

It seems reasonable that, for every American-made product sold, that is one more worker somewhere who has just been assured that his handiwork is acceptable. Translation: he or she gets to keep the job for another day.

But this may not be such an easy decision for the shopper with limited dollars. What do you do when the American-made product costs $10, $20, or hundreds of dollars more than a similar imported product.

Which is more important, keeping an unknown person employed somewhere, or saving money which could be used elsewhere in the family budget? This is the dilemma many consumers face.

A quarter-of-a-century ago, this really wasn't much of a problem for American shoppers. Most imported items were of inferior quality when compared to the more reliable American-made products.

My grandfather game me a simple piece of jewelry when I was a child; a necklace whose clasp disintegrated before the end of a day. "Well, what did you expect," my mother said, "this was made in Japan."

The derision in Mom's voice told me that as far as she was concerned products made in that particular country were inferior to American-made products. At that time this was a widely-held belief.

The consumer knew that the better buy in the long-run was the domestic product -- it was going to be more dependable than the cheaper but shoddily made foreign import. This is no longer the case.

The phenomenon of foreign-made items gaining in reliability was best described in a passage in the novel "Red Sun" by Michael Crichton.

There, Crichton describes how the Japanese gained control of the electronics market, especially with radios, tape recorders and other such items. Crichton said, Japanese inventors would take an American idea or invention and make one small improvement. A transistor or crystal would be reworked to be smaller but still provide the same power, which in turn would make it more cost productive.

Crichton said the same opportunities were open to American manufacturers, but while the American producer would stop with one improvement in a product each year, the Japanese make improvements in the same products monthly. With this technique, Japanese inventors rapidly caught up to and surpassed their American counterparts.

This first impacted the market with the sale of inexpensive but reliable transistor radios, cameras and tape recorders. As the communication age began in earnest, the Japanese swiftly made inroads with an expanding computer technology.

Within a relatively short time, the Japanese began to dominate the electronics industry -- all from the simple beginning of making one small change.

Some foreign imports, especially in the electronic fields, often may offer a superior product and still beat American pricing.

Another example of where American manufacturing has simply not kept up with foreign competition is in the automotive industry. I should at this point acknowledge the fact that I do drive a foreign car and that every car I've ever owned, except the lemon I inherited with my divorce, has been foreign-made.

There are people who have owned American and foreign-made cars, and have liked both. There are people who swear they'll only drive domestic-made autos and those who swear the only sensible buy is a foreign car.

It seems to be a matter of individual preference.

At one time though, it was thought to be very foolish to buy a foreign-made car (unless it was a prestigious car such as a Mercedes or a Rolls-Royce)because very few mechanics knew how to repair them or even where to find parts. This though, is no longer the case.

Now replacement parts for foreign cars are sold side-by-side with parts for American cars, and any mechanic has had some experience repairing the imported models.

So the American consumer is now faced with a very real dilemma: either be what is now to be considered the politically-correct choice and "buy American," or shop wisely and possibly a foreign import.

It seems that this dilemma has been caused by the short-sightedness of our own American manufacturers. Some industry heads thought it more important to channel profits into larger and larger corporate bonuses than into product improvement.

While the boys at the top were becoming bigger and bigger fat cats, their foreign counterparts were delaying grabbing at the golden ring and plowing profits into product design and improvement.

It seems that our corporate heads still haven't learned a lesson. Instead of cutting salaries at the top, reducing golden parachute bonuses for inept chief executive officers, and putting the money back into product improvement -- what did they do? They gave bigger and better bonuses to the "suits" and laid off workers or down sized factories instead of trying to find ways to improve them.

How can the average consumer think "buy American," when companies are sabotaging themselves? When the bottom-line becomes not the profit margin for fat-cat salaries but product reliability once again, then and only then will the phrase "buy American," have any true meaning for many consumers.

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If you would like to drop the author a note about the article please email to deborah@ipa.net

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