The Fuller Brush Factory in Great Bend Kansas 

 Don't let this come true. Whether you are shopping for Fuller Brush or anything else, please buy American wherever possible. Look for the USA symbol on MOST Fuller-Stanley products on my shopping-cart page.

 - Thank you. 99%.

I want to say that Fuller Brush does not understand TWO things. (or they do, and they feel they are too small to fight it.)

1. Made in China means they diverted jobs from the Americans they are trying to sell to. If Americans don't have jobs, they don't have money to buy products. I understand the Catch-22 that Fuller is in, trying to stay competitive with the hundreds of "big corporations" doing this. We need a Congress who also understands this. I find the Republicans to be the worst in upholding the "freedom" of corporations to do as they please and not pay their fair share of taxes, but most Democrats certainly don't deserve any awards either. It is hard to have backbone against the corporations buying your campaigns.

2. What exactly does Made in the Peoples Republic of China mean? First, this is a communist government, but that is not necessarily bad in itself, if you take the dictionary definition of communism. What is bad is the human rights aspect, communist or not. Dictatorships are both left and right wing, or sometimes neither. There probably are some factories in China with fair working conditions, but with the magnitude of abusers, how can anyone tell the difference?
You all know about that 47% comment in the last election. Well, the guy who recorded that did NOT record it for that reason; that was just gravy. In his interview on The Ed Show, what got his dander up and making him decide that the world needed to hear this first hand, was Romney's such obvious pleasure with the Chinese factory he was buying and touring, because of their productivity measures. They hired only young girls under 25 who were desperate for an income before they were able to marry. They were "protected" by armed guards so they wouldn't get distracted from their work; they were not allowed to stop work to look up at visitors to the plant; and the factory was surrounded by high fencing topped with barbed wire to prevent them from escaping. Romney said the fencing was to keep other people from breaking INTO the factory to work!!!!!, but the barbed wire was pointed toward the inside just like the prison that may be near you.

Until people worldwide care more about people than saving a few dollars, the corporations will own you and the downward spiral will accelerate. So.... vote with your pocketbook, but also with your actual VOTE, after an analysis of every candidate's position on corporate rights vs human rights.

Check out this article and recording:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/15/why-scott-prouty-went-public-with-the-47-tape/

ROLAND RHOADES, LARRY GRAY, & MY PRIUS

Larry Gray, the head of Fuller Brush Distributor Services, visited me in Maine 5/15/07.
We discussed the business and the future for about 6 hours, treating me to lunch.
Our team does what it takes to make this business a success.
 

Roland's personal Holiday Letter 2011 (mostly my genealogy interests)