In it someone throws a brick through the window of a bakery. A crowd gathers. After pondering the event for a while, several of the onlookers begin to think that maybe there was a bright side to the destruction. After all, a glazier will now have to be called by the bakery owner to install a new window at a cost of about $1500, money the glazier would not have had otherwise. The glazier will spend what he receives by buying goods and services from other businessmen in town, funds that they, too, would not have had otherwise. They, in turn, will do the same. Soon thereafter, the spectators agree that because many people will benefit from the broken window, the deed was not a dastardly one. 

However, what the onlookers didn't know was that the baker was planning to buy some new equipment for which he had put aside $1500. Now the people who were to provide the new equipment will not get that money, which they, too, would have spent around town. For them the broken window is a loss. For the baker, it's also a loss. Before the event, he had $1500 and a window. After the event, he had only a window. 

In the case of “Buy American Only,” if you go into a store with $50 and spend it all on a shirt made in this country, you wind up with only a shirt. But if you pay $25 for the same quality shirt made in another country, you wind up with a shirt and maybe a belt or a tie or both that you buy with the other $25. 

Now which would you rather do? 

Think about it.