Generally I think a person should just buy products that brings value to their lives regardless of where the item comes from. To quote the article, "shoppers should buy from local suppliers when the positive attributes of the local supplier are more important to them than the advantages of a more distant supplier—whether it be personal service, free delivery, the freshness of the product, the uniqueness of the product or the simple fact that you like the vendor's personality. You throw all those factors onto the scale and weigh them against other factors like price, convenience, and the variety that may be available from more distant vendors. Then you choose what's best for you. People will vary in their decisions because everyone's set of preferences is unique. Sometimes you'll choose the local vendor; sometimes you'll choose the distant one.
But the last thing consumers should be swayed by are appeals to guilt, to a false sense of community obligation, or to economic arguments that, upon close examination, prove to be full of logical errors. Buy locally or globally or anything in between."
Chattanooga: Local food travels less
and pardon my typos...
Chattanooga: Local food travels less
This sounds more like an advertisement than an economic arguement for buying local. You may disagree but I would recommend you at least read this
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Selicklocal.html
or listen to this
http://www.econtalk.org//archives/2007/04/boudreaux_on_th.html
Generally I think a person should just buy products that brings value to their lives regardless of where the item comes from. To quote the article, "shoppers should buy from local suppliers when the positive attributes of the local supplier are more important to them than the advantages of a more distant supplier—whether it be personal service, free delivery, the freshness of the product, the uniqueness of the product or the simple fact that you like the vendor's personality. You throw all those factors onto the scale and weigh them against other factors like price, convenience, and the variety that may be available from more distant vendors. Then you choose what's best for you. People will vary in their decisions because everyone's set of preferences is unique. Sometimes you'll choose the local vendor; sometimes you'll choose the distant one.
But the last thing consumers should be swayed by are appeals to guilt, to a false sense of community obligation, or to economic arguments that, upon close examination, prove to be full of logical errors. Buy locally or globally or anything in between."