Local products

If you ever talk to Uncle Merv, inadvertently you will come to the topic in which he is adamant that local products are the best in the world. Well to be fair, occasionally, he does talk about Nivea cream, which purportedly originated from German. When I talk to older people here, the converstion always gets a little emotional when it comes to buying a product with the kangaroo logo on it. Well, almost always more emotional without.

There was an article in the Age today, about locals being drawn to purchase products which has this logo affixed to it. It goes further, and divided the consumers into those between 18 and 45 and those aged 45 and over. A study of 900 people by TNS found that while the two generations may support local products, they have different reasons for doing that. Generations X or Y who see themselves as more globally connected, are less emotionally attached to this notion. The fact that something is made locally appeals to them only because they perceive local products to be fresher or of better quality. This is in contrast to the older generation who support local products because they think that they are, in a way, helping to create jobs and in doing that make Australia a stronger country. Either way, this creates local demand for local products, which is a good thing.

If you go to Japan, the same sentiment applies. Over there, things can even go to extremes, where a competing product is never ever imported. Seriously, I have never seen Hyundai cars, or Samsung cameras in my six years living in Japan. I am pretty sure there are thousands of budget conscious people there who would not mind getting a similarly spec-ed product with a lower pricetag. I know I would.

I remember when I was in my secondary school days, there was a government campaign in Malaysia which encouraged people to buy Made in Malaysia products. Beli-lah barangan buatan Malaysia, the then Malaysian premier would urge us. The idea was pretty much the same. Spend money on locally made products to keep the economy going, stave off unemployment, and prevent precious local currency from flowing out of the country. Except at that time, the mentality of the general public was that local products were very much inferior to imported goods. So, the idea didn't catch on very well then. Nowadays, with a proliferation of companies that are promise tax breaks to come ashore, a lot of consumer products like TVs and fridges are made in Malaysia. How times has changed, the computer that you are reading this blog on could very well have been assembled in Malaysia or at least the chips inside it is. Now, I feel proud to buy good quality made in Malaysian goods. Some may argue that local currency are still flowing out when these foreign companies report back to headquarters. At least, spill over effects like generation of jobs are still there.

With the global economy in such a mess now, it is no wonder that people are more cautious about spending. But is it really good advice to be biased towards locally made products no matter the cost? In times like this, I am reminded of the old saying, "Don't be penny wise but pound foolish". I will start to grow my own vegetables, only if the time spent doing it, outweighs the benefits that I get. So, unfortunate as it may seem, I don't see why I shouldn't buy cheap imports. In the long term, it doesn't make economic sense to support an inefficient way of doing things. If a farmer somewhere in the world can produce a cheaper way to grow rice, I would not reinvent the wheel and plough my own padi fields. I'd just buy it from the supermarket and choose to spend my time making an iPhone which that farmer may want to trade for. Makes sense? What do you think?