Made in.....?

     I have my job title in the profile section of my job.  I am a DME technician.  Which basically means I drive around in a van all day long, delivering medical equipment to private homes and long term care facilities (nursing homes).  The company I work for is Therapy Support.  It was started by two brothers in the state of Ohio.  Their story, as far as the story of starting their company, probably doesn't differ a whole lot from a lot of other entrepreneurs.  They went to college, took what start up money they had and borrowed a little extra from the bank, bought some equipment, and essentially......through a lot of hard work and determination, built a very successful DME company.  DME, stands for durable medical equipment, by the way.  Now, I tell you that story, because while I was at work today, I saw something that made me pause and think.  The two brothers that started the company I work for, were born and raised in the United States.  They've never worked a day in their lives outside of this country.  They've never delivered any equipment, or had any employee deliver equipment to anyone outside of this country.  Every employee at Therapy Support, was born in the United States.  There are Therapy Support offices in the states of Ohio, Missouri and Texas. 

     Getting back to what I saw, while I was at work.  Now that I've told you all about the origins of Therapy Support.  Now, that I've given you a little back story, into the company I work for.  Knowing those things now, I would like to pose a question to you.  Where do you think the equipment, that we deliver on a daily basis comes from?  Here at the Joplin office, we get most of our inventory from our big office in Springfield.  So, when we are running low on supplies, I have to make arrangements with the manager in Springfield, to either meet a driver from that office in Mt. Vernon, or try and sweet talk him into sending someone all the way down to Joplin, from Springfield.  Now, just so you know, we deliver all types of medical equipment.  Hospital beds, air mattresses, wheelchairs, oxygen machines and tanks, etc.  One of our primary vendors is Invacare.  While I was unboxing a wheelchair, I happened to notice on the front of the box, right below the Invacare sign, in big blue bold letters.....Made in Mexico.  I probably have looked at the box for all of the equipment that comes from Invacare about a million times.  But, for some reason today, it really made me stop and think.  I got to thinking about all the wheelchairs, I've had to replace in the almost 5 years I've been with the company.  Either for faulty brake handles, or bad wheels (I had the tread come off of the back wheel of a wheelchair the other day, which up until that point, I didn't realize that was possible.), to the arms, literally falling apart.  Now, I'm not trying to put the good citizens of Mexico down.  In all actuality, it was probably some machine in Mexico, that did the assembling.  Not some underpaid worker, who really could care less where the wheelchair he was building was being shipped. 

     But what if that's not the case?   What if the hospital bed that I delivered to the Missouri Veterans Home in St. Louis (lived and worked there for a short period at the beginning of last year), was made in Vietnam.  How ironic would that be.  A veteran sleeping in a bed, that very well could have been made by the ancestor of someone he killed in combat years ago.  Or made by the ancestor, of someone he met in combat that got the better of him....and that's why he has to live in a nursing home in the first place.  I realize that, in this world today, the majority of everything we buy isn't made in the U.S. anymore.  To be completely honest with you, as I type this blog, I am enjoying a Bud Light.....which up until a year ago, when Anheuser Busch sold out to a bunch of Belgiums, was made in the U.S.  I realize, that to buy only American, would probably put more of a burden of cost onto your family.  I wish I had an easy answer.  But, maybe the first step, is just being more conscious of where it is, your goods come from.