They tried the rebate thing in 2001, and it didn't work all that well because A) it wasn't much, B) because all the money went out of the US. (Some beleive towards technology built overseas)
If people understood what it was trying to accomplish, it would work alot better.
Problem is, %90 (est) of the goods we buy are produced by foriegn manufacturers, so the other countries get richer, and we get poorer. Kind of like buying a brand new car and not being able to afford the gas to put in it. You can save the money, but it doesn't do any good because it doesn't help inovation or invention.
During the 20th century, most of the world was trying to figure out how to be as good as the US Economy. In the 90's it started catching up, but we were still kicking ass, and they saw that they would need to market themselves as the producers of all the things we didn't want to produce. Now that most of Asia, South America, and Europe have caught up, their buying power has increased as our demand has grown, their jobs have started paying them better, and they've equaled the playing field a bit. We're still on the leading edge of new innovations, but we rely on other economies to mass produce those innovations.
So again, buying foreign products would defeat the purpose, and only make economic historians say 5 yrs from now "that economic stimulus was pointless".
In the biking world, American design bikes are usually the best. Ya, Shimano has got some great products, but that's also because it devotes millions of dollars to R&D within the US. It caters to us. SRAM, while an American company, still produces alot of its products over seas, simply because American's hate manufacturing work. Yes, it does give the consumer a better product at a cheaper price, but your putting food on the table for the laborer and his family. Is that a bad thing? No. Could it be someday the road? Possibly. When its harder for Americans to keep their homes, you've got to start paying attention. (The housing market is a result of many other factors however.)
In the Urban/DJ sector, we're fairly lucky. Alot of our products are made right here in the US, because most of the world isn't nearly as good as jumping bikes as us (haha).
Will I immediately stop buying foriegn products? Not completely. Will I consider products Made In America more so? Definantly.
