Don’t buy American goods

[Davidhowarth29]

Stop buying American goods. The only thing Trump understands is money. Take it away

The majority of companies named here are just American brands, who sell goods over here produced in the UK, Europe or elsewhere - this is not trade with the USA and these are not American goods. They may or may not pay a dividend to a US based parent company, but this would ultimately be paid to the owners who again, may or may not be American. I think our main import is IT services and software that are likely vital to our infrastructure as some have pointed out.

there are other reasons to boycott Tesla and according to the news most Europeans are already doing this.

Again this virtue signally put down, it’s so lame. You do you but don’t try to shame other people. You do know that most of the small stores on Amazon can be found off Amazon yes? People can shop directly with them without passing on a cut to Bezos or they can make a conscious decision to try and find it locally (if they are still lucky enough to have local shops). Amazon is notorious for poor working conditions and Amazon pays little in UK corporation tax as it shifts profits through complex intragroup transactions, going directly to smaller companies isn’t brainless. But you do you!

Same, cancelled Amazon Prime. Buying from UK or EU based companies.
Even if people sneer it won't work. It is already working. Look at Tesla sales dropping worldwide and American made whiskey in Canada.

No, one person isn't going to make a difference. But collectively, yes it will make a difference. Handy sheet from Reddits Buy EU to help anyone doing it.

Do we learn foreign history that doesn’t affect us ? I don’t think soe

possibly we know more globally due to colonising it.

I'm also doing what I can here. I feel very angry and helpless at what Trump is doing to Ukraine. I'm horrified he reposted the bizarre Gaza as a Trump resort video, I am unsettled at him declaring he's going to annex Greenland. The trade wars are all about lining his personal pocket, he doesn't care about the American people unless they can give him money.

It is very hard not to use any American products but I will have a thought before I buy from Amazon and look at supporting local where I can. As pp say, go to Amazon and find the original seller who has to pay Amazon 18%, and buy from them direct instead.

I couldn't afford a Tesla (and would never buy one anyway) so that's a moot point but I'm glad to see those sales on a downturn.

I’m realistic. I can’t switch away from Microsoft or stop using things like AWS and all the tech stuff.

but I can choose stokes ketchup rather than Heinz. Or McCoys crisps rather than Walkers. I bought tango instead of cola.

when I did the shopping last night I was genuinely checking which brands were us owned and I switched to a lot of own brand makes instead. I can’t say I’ll always do this, but certainly this week I feel scared, anxious and pissed off. I figure if I start focusing on British and EU brands now, I’m doing what I can to support our economy.

the challenge is to figure out what to swap Jack Daniel’s with!

Any dr pepper fans the Aldi knock off professor peppy is banging (and hilariously named).

@Sassysoonwins

"I'm also doing what I can here. I feel very angry and helpless at what Trump is doing to Ukraine"

Genuine question- why are you not angry at the NATO European nations that are failing to support Ukraine by taking up the slack by replacing the reduction in US military aid. So far only France and the UK are willing to step up their help.

It seems many Europeans want the US taxpayers to pay to support Ukraine when they are not willing to do the same?

whataboutery.

Whilst I agree with your feelings on Trump, it is necessary to acknowledge that the other party was powerless to do anything about a man with impaired cognitive function being president for 4 years. This would lead me to have serious misgivings about voting for that party.

talking about cognitive impairment, Trump seems pretty cognitively impaired right now and some experts are suggesting he has frontotemporal dementia due to issues with his gait, speech and so on.

And talking of cognitive deficits, apparently he boasts that he has never read a book FFS.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/

Because of the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine was pressured to give up all their nuclear weapons which it was keeping mainly because of Russian threats. They agreed to do so because UK France and the US of A promised to protect them if Russian invaded.

Trump has decided that the US benefits financially more from allowing Russia to take what they want of Ukraine. In fact it doesn't benefit the US at all to protect any European countries against Russia so why bother?

Your comment is in effect confirming that Trump voters are not very intelligent. You are pointing out that they voted against their own interests because the other side is sneering at them. Doesn't say much for their critical thinking skills does it?

Also it's untrue that is why Democrats lost. There was a campaign of disinformation, pro-fascist conspiracy theories, bot propaganda and billionaire backing for Trump.

And Trump said Elon "knew all about those voting computers".

If there's an alternative to the brands I use I would switch.
Probably can't stop using stuff like WhatsApp but I would think twice now about buying goods from America.
Ethical consumerism is difficult though as markets and supply chains are complicated, but where and how you spend your money is something everyone can choose how they do at least some of the time.

Here's a good subreddit showing alternatives:

www.reddit.com/r/BoycottUnitedStates/comments/1j19bwz/alternatives_from_around_the_world/

Is it?

most drugs the nhs buys will not be at US prices. I doubt the NHS buys many drugs from Us manufacturers. It would be unaffordable.

Europe has a vast amount of pharma companies, both research and manufacturing.

boots developed ibuprofen remember. They aren’t just a high street store. Ireland is the 5th largest drug manufacture in the world. The us may be the largest single share country but the rest of the world combined is bigger. Plenty of other, cheaper options.

Our purchasing power as individuals may be small, but as a collective force it is a powerful leverage. It's not easy to navigate products these days with "made in" and "product of" etc., but every little change we make can collectively send a message and help local businesses as well.

How is Trump selling out America? European security has been more than a trillion dollar drain on our treasury over the years. Trump is cutting that back with a goal toward ending it completely, and that policy is very popular. In the most recent poll after his address to Congress this past Tuesday, 73% of Americans said they support him on Ukraine.

You're all just upset that you will have to pay for your own security from now on, just like we pay for ours. I'm sorry about the Ukrainian people, but the only way they're winning that war is for the US to go toe to toe with Russia on European soil. You should be thanking us for not being willing to take that risk with your and your children's lives, because nuclear fallout from Ukraine would blow west.

USA is the only country that has triggered article 5 so far, no other NATO country has done this.
USA signed Budapest memorandum and is going back!
Remember 9/11 - who came to US rescue and stood by their side ?

USA withdrew intelligence sharing with Ukraine with no notice! No decent country will do this.

Now, USA has no allies in Europe, both their neighbouring countries are treated like enemies,
Middle East loves them after their disastrous foreign policy in the region, as well as Australia and New Zealand!

I would say US has made itself even more a bigger target to terrorist attacks, well refusal of intelligence sharing works both ways!

Yeah, we're real stupid. Our GDP per capita is $83,000. UK GDP per capita is $49,000. Yup, we're just a bunch of gun totin' idiots...that are much wealthier than you.

The stuff that people are allowed to say on here about Americans would not be tolerated if it referred to any other country in the world. And you wonder why we don't want to pay for your security anymore.

Don't believe numbers coming from either Ukraine and Russia, since both sides have reason to downplay them. US intelligence says there have been around 1.5 million casualties on both sides to date. Casualties include the dead and those physically wounded to the point of not being able to continue fighting. The problem for Ukraine is that about 1/2 of its men are either war casualties or have fled the country. That's why they want American boots on the ground.

If y'all feel that strongly about Ukraine, you and the rest of Europe will need to send your own troops, because Ukraine is running out.

It’s very hard not to point out such blatant stupidity.

We don't want allies. We don't need allies. Allies are a European mindset because you are small countries. Small countries need to band together against large threats to survive. NATO was enacted to tie the US to Europe militarily, but we no longer want that.

Before you start talking about 911, yes, we Americans appreciate what you did. You answered the Article 5 call. But that call was made for American internal political reasons--to provide cover to Bush and Cheney who were itching for war in Iraq and Afghanistan and needed to be able to say, "it's not just us, the Europeans are in, too" to sell the war to a skeptical American public. Those British and other European young men didn't need to die or suffer terrible injuries and I'm very sorry they did.

We spend $1T on defense each year and have over 5000 nuclear weapons. We are completing our iron dome missile defense system to protect the whole of the US from conventional missile threats. Other countries may annoy us, but they don't threaten our homeland.

Terrorism is a threat, but it be a problem regardless of what happens in Ukraine and since 911 we have built a robust anti-terrorism network.