Ten Reasons to Buy Wisconsin

1. Creates new jobs (local businesses are the largest employers nationally).
2. More money re-circulates in our communities and grows the tax base.
3. Helps area non-profits, as local business owners donate more to local charities than non-local owners.
4. Encourages ‘uniqueness’ and character.
5. Reduces environmental impact.
6. Better customer service at the local level.
7. Local owners reinvest locally.
8. Public benefits outweigh public costs, as relatively little infrastructure is needed to run a smaller Wisconsin business rather than a giant national chain.
9. Competition leads to diversity: A Wisconsin marketplace of thousands of smaller businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.
10. Gives consumers more influence.

Where You Spend Your Money Matters

Across the US, only about 33.6% of the revenue from national chains is reinvested into the local community; local businesses reinvest an average of 64.8%.

Where Are the Jobs?

These are the words of too many Wisconsin workers and too many Americans still struggling to find work as our economy continues to be rigged in favor of the rich and well-connected. Wages have failed to keep up with productivity and inflation, the income gap between the rich and the poor is widening at an alarming rate and the middle class is disappearing. People are working longer hours for less pay and many in Wisconsin are cobbling together multiple jobs to make ends meet. Jobs are being offshored to foreign countries in a dangerous race to the bottom.

Manufacturing is Picking Up

Fortunately, there is good news among the dismal economic outlook. Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector is recovering stronger than anticipated and providing good jobs to thousands of Wisconsinites.

In Wisconsin, we can support local workers, combat offshoring and spur economic recovery by purchasing Wisconsin made or American made goods and services. There are two main ways in which we can think of our job-saving purchasing power. One is for the state of Wisconsin to prioritize procuring goods and services from state businesses and suppliers. The second is for individuals to consciously look for the label and favor buying state made and American made goods whenever possible.

Facts About Manufacturing in Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the most manufacturing heavy states in the nation, but corporate greed and fierce offshoring threaten to crush one of our state’s strongest engines of economic growth and meaningful employment. Currently, over half a million people work in manufacturing in Wisconsin. Unionization rates are strong in manufacturing so manufacturing jobs tend to provide family-supporting wages and benefits to workers with or without a college degree.