I'm a free-market person and while it might be hard to accept the export of jobs overseas look at this way.
Everyone is trying to save money. Including companies. In order to compete, companies have to continually stay on top of price curve in order to stay in business. Otherwise someone will come in with an "as good" product at a cheaper price point and put them out of business. That said, Thomas Friedman in his latest series of articles and in his latest book "The World is Flat", gets it right when said that the way Americans compete in this global free market is to offer employers something they can't buy elsewhere. .
(I think a wonderful case in point is Bridge City Tools - they produce some fantastic tools and I think that it would be hard for them to ship jobs overseas - couldn't get the quality. At least not yet!)
We need to fix up our educational systems, our trade schools, etc. This is a crisis in the making and it will bit us in a shorter time then the so-called SS problems that the current president is so fixated on.
The big benefit I see with India/China and elsewhere making our products is that the money that the employees get there is helping to increase the middle class in those countries. It also helps to foster peace by giving those people a vested interest in the world economy.
(Imagine if the disaffected Muslims in Iran/Iraq and elsewhere had a stake in gainful employement, would the terriorist groups have a harder recruiting job? I'd think so. Doesn' t mean that they won't find fanatics, but if there was something they could see happening for their families, I'd think the be relucant to join a group that espouses death).
So, buy US, if you can, if not buy locally, if not then buy what you can afford.
MJ Wallace