Do You Buy from China?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boston's Bulldozer never sleeps. The Cooner Report Weekend edition on
the Voice of Boston w RKO.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jeff Coner Liberalism's Worst Nightmare six one seven two six
six sixty eight sixty eight lines are blazing. Kathy in Rochester.
Thanks for holding Kathy, and welcome.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Hello, Jeff. First of all, I think Donald the President
Trump for a run the travel band, you know, that
makes so much sense. What he said, just listening to
what he says makes so much sense. And when you
listen to liberals speak or the Democratic Party, who are
basically Marxist communists, they don't make any sense. No matter

(00:45):
what they say, they make zero sense. And when you
listen to Donald Trump, everything the man says makes total
sense because he wants to protect Americans and that's his
job is to protect us. That's what we voted him
in office for us to fix our country and protect us.
The Democratic Party, they are criminals and all they do
is support the criminals. They never support we, the people

(01:09):
of this country. They're always on the wrong side of
every issue, no matter what it is. It's just amazing.
But what I want, the reason I was calling you
is I wanted earlier you were talking about Walmart, shopping
at Walmart and buying ten dollars sneakers that are made
in China. But you know, I just wanted to make
you aware that Americans really don't know what's going on

(01:29):
in this country. Many of our brands, iconic brands have
been taken over by private equity firms. And I'm going
to give you an example. Knit Well. Okay, the company
is Nitwell. They own the brands and Taylor, Chico's, Lane,
Bryant Loft, Talbot's, White House, black Market, and more so.
And they are owned by a company called Sycamore Partners,

(01:52):
who is a private equity firm. They also own they
bought a winery, Saint Michael Winery, a school, it's the
guy at school. Other products Express, let me see. There's
quite a few here, you know. And that is what's
happening in this country is that all our brands, hotels
on Cape Card, they're all owned by private equity firms.

(02:14):
Everything is being purchased by private equity firms. And they
are the people that we should be blaming because they
are the people that allow all the manufacturing to go
on in Muslim countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. Then
we have other you know, manufacturing going on Pakistan and Vietnam, India, China.

(02:34):
India is really growing. They're starting to manufacture a lot
of products in India. But we have to blame our
own companies, not so much the Chinese government. They're smart,
I mean, they're brilliant. They're smart. If we're the idiots
that want to go over there and set up shop,
of course they're going to welcome us because they're gonna
benefit from that. But we have to start making wiser

(02:55):
choices as to what we buy. Because everything, no matter
what is Nike sneak is they made in Vietnam, So
it doesn't matter if you're paying ten dollars for a
par of sneakers are two hundred and ten dollars. Stuart Weisman,
that's another example, is owned by this Sycamore Partners. Go
into the Stuart Weisman shop in Rentum. They're selling shoes

(03:15):
for eight hundred dollars a pair. I mean, it's but
they made it, you know, in China. It's crazy. So
we as consumers have to either stop buying all this junk,
but we have got to blame our own corporations because
they're the ones who are creating this mess.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh, Kathy, I couldn't agree with you more. And look,
this is when I really became an economic patriot or
an economic nationalist, or if you want to call me
a protectionist, I really don't care. It was in the
nineteen nineties and I was then at Ohio University. I
was a teaching assistant. I was working on my PhD,

(03:55):
my doctoral dissertation, and I was teaching a lot of
the students at Athensoho and many of them came from
different parts of Ohio, and many of them came from
military families, families who had served in Vietnam, in Korea
in World War Two. Many of them came from small towns,
good decent, salt of the earth people. And when NAFTA

(04:20):
got implemented, it took less than a year. Everything start
to go overseas. It was American companies, So you're talking
about now these big hedge fund people, private equity people,
corporate America, wealthy corporations who just emptied out these towns,
hollowed them out, factory after factory, plant after plant. And

(04:45):
I remember these kids were in college. Now I say
kids affectionately, they were adults obviously, and they're like, we
don't understand. Our town has been destroyed. There's no jobs,
there's no opportunity. We can't even sell our homes because
nobody wants to live in our community anymore because all
the jobs are gone. So my parents spent their whole

(05:07):
life working, scrimping, saving, and now not only are my
parents out of work and they can't find any work,
but our home has suddenly lost all its value overnight.
And you know, they're like, my father served in Vietnam,
or my uncle served in Korea, or my you know whatever,
my granddad or whatever served in World War two. You know,

(05:31):
many of them have siblings that are in the military,
and they're like, why is our country doing this to us?
Like they were literally bewildered. It broke my heart, and
they just were asking. They were just posting, like they
putting up their hands and like, you know, they call
me professor. There was saying, professor Kunner, we don't understand.
And remember this was Bill Clinton and New Gingrich. So

(05:54):
this wasn't just one party. It was the Democrats and
the Republicans, and it was the Clintonistas, Bill Clinton and
the Republican led Congress and I'll never forget. I was
dead set against NAFTA. I said, this thing is going
to be a disaster. Ross Perot warned everybody in the
nineteen ninety two presidential election debate, You're going to hear

(06:16):
this giant sucking sound, and that's going to be our
jobs and our manufacturing and our factories going down to
Mexico and god knows where else. He was completely right.
And I'll never forget this, Kathy. And it's something i'd
love to write about if I ever get around to,
you know, with my kids and everything, but I'd love
to write at least a chapter on what happened during NAFTA.

(06:40):
I'll never forget it. It was naked bribery, naked Bill
Clinton went to Congress and it was there were Republicans
against it, Democrats against it because their constituents were against it.
So they're ringing their phones off the hook. The Middle
America did not want that disastrous trade deal. They knew

(07:01):
what was coming. And Clinton went one after another, what
do you want, literally, name your price, you got it.
Next member of Congress, what do you want, name your price?
You got it? And it was bribe after bribe, pork
after pork deal after deal. It was one of the
most corrupt things I've ever seen. And that and that,

(07:26):
you know, and I was, you know, I was a
Reagan guy, a Reagan baby. I loved Reagan to me.
American business, even big business, frankly, could do no wrong.
And I started to look at this. I'm like, have
they forgotten the country that made them wealthy? Yes, the companies.
Of course, you're obligated to your shareholders. I get that,

(07:49):
But you're an American company. And that's when I began
to realize, Kathy. No, they're an international company. They see
themselves as quote multinational. Now there's no allegiance to America
or to the country, or to its workers or to
its citizens. They just go where they can make a

(08:12):
maximum buck. And if they'll trade with our enemies, they'll
trade with our enemies. And if they'll sell us out,
they'll sell us out. And you nailed it. So Look,
the problem is just to go full circle to because
you're completely right, Kathy. Look, I try not to buy
from Amazon. I try to avoid Amazon, but some occasionally

(08:32):
the kids want something, or graates want something. Sometimes on Amazon,
if you buy a package whatever, it is an alarm clock.
I bought action an alarm clock, for example, recently, and
I'm like, Ashley, can we just go to the store. No, No,
we got to buy it on Amazon. Daddy, Okay, you
don't know where it's made. I always look where is
it made? And you really don't know where it's made

(08:56):
until you open up the package. And of course we
order an alarm clock for Ashton and guess what made
in China. I was gonna throw it against the wall.
I was so upset. But anyway, Okay, Ashton, here's your
alarm clock. That's why I say, Daddy prefers if we
go to a store, best Buy whatever, and I can

(09:16):
see what I'm buying and look at the back and okay,
where is this made? Now? I always buy American. Whenever
I can, I buy American. If I can't buy American,
I'm not kidding. I will buy from a country that's
an ally of ours, or I'm not kidding at a
bare minimum, is not an enemy of ours. Like I really,

(09:38):
I underwear whatever, A lot of it something I don't
know why, but it's made in Honduras. Okay. Many of
the illegals from Honduras are here. I figure what the
hell before Trump. You know, Oh, they're gonna get amnesty anyway,
so it's they're gonna be their Americans say in the making.
But you know, all kidding aside. I'll buy something from
Honduras if I can't buy a m but I don't

(10:01):
buy from China. As much as I can. I don't
buy in fact, I'm being honest with you unless I
don't know, like that case where I got an Amazon
package and it's made in China if you know, and
I didn't know it was. But if I know that
something is made in China, I don't buy it, period.
I don't buy it. I'll even buy from Vietnam. And

(10:24):
I'm telling you, I'm still bitter about the Vietnam War, okay,
because the Communist Party is still running that country. But
you know, let that go. I would still rather buy
from Vietnam than from China. Well, why, Jeff, Because China
is our mortal enemy. Vietnam can never defeat US, China can,

(10:44):
Vietnam can never subjugate US, China can so to me,
I buy from any country but China.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
If Jeff doesn't get a day off. This request came
from his wife. The Kuna Report weekend edition Voice of
Boston w r KL