Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Politics The Lacey Act Is Good for American Businesses
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 7:16 AM
If we don't have some measures in place to conserve these rare woods, then we won't have them in the future. And if Gibson gets to flout the law while other guitar manufacturers follow it, it puts Gibson at an illegally obtained advantage.
There is a strain of conservatism in this country that seems to be based on the political philosophy of South Park's Eric Cartman. Gibson twice says "I do what I want," and folks like Marsha Blackburn jump up to champion them like great heroes.
But there are still conservatives who hold onto the idea of conservation. Hell, we wouldn't have Ducks Unlimited if the hunters of the country — who are mostly conservative — didn't understand the importance of conserving wildlife and harvesting responsibly so that there will be animals for the future. And look at the massive amounts of good Ducks Unlimited has done.
There's no reason Gibson can't take the position — a conservative position — of other guitar manufacturers: "We all believe that at some point we’re going to run out of our favorite species. We all want to continue to enjoy those, but we have to be very responsible with how we do that."
When you realize a resource is limited, you have two choices: You can burn through the remaining supply in a hedonistic orgy of lawbreaking, or you can manage the resource to ensure that, while no one has as much as they used to have, everyone has some for a long time. The latter used to be a respectable Republican position.
It's a shame it's not still.
Comments (13)
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" Alyssa Rosenberg at Think Progress..." LOL!!!!! That sounds like someone who lives in Greenwich Village and sips latte all day long and rides a little scooter everywhere! The Lacey Act is simply unAmerican! And you know who else said "I do what I want?!?" That's right, the Founding Fathers! They were against all regulations, taxes, fees, tributes, and laws! They mostly just argued over women and slaves! If they could come back today, they would be standing tall and proud with the Gibson CEO! Hell, they'd probably form a militia and throw President Osama out of office! After all, it was Benjamin Franklin who said "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, so we must cut down the tree of tyranny with the blood of tyrants!"
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By most estimations the manufacturing of musical instruments takes up less than 1% of all logging activities as far as resources, legal or otherwise.
The Hill quotes some U.S. wood industry reps who support the Lacey Act, pointing out that it protects American jobs in the wood products industry. It's a policy that keeps the U.S. industry from having to compete with illegal foreign loggers. That is the point I made in my own blog post about this: which creates more jobs? Making guitars from foreign wood illegally harvested? Or from legal wood grown here in the U.S.?
From The Hill:
Jameson French, CEO of Northland Forest Products and the former chairman of the Hardwood Federation, a trade association, said illegal loggers evade environmental and trade laws and sell their products more cheaply than law-abiding companies can.
French said he is “flabbergasted by the misinformation that’s been put out there” by Gibson. In particular, he said that rather than costing jobs, the Lacey Act has “saved a lot of American jobs” by protecting American wood companies from illegal competition.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/18250…
Why doesn't Gibson exclusively use wood grown right here in the good ole USA instead of FOREIGN wood? Henry Juszkiewicz (not a very American-sounding name, by the way), why do you hate America?
I see we have representatives from the US timber industry here.
The law is unwieldly. It's not being enforced in any manner except selectively which is bad enough. No one knows how to fill out the documentation for a music instrument.
Jobs? If the law is enforced it'll cripple the whole music industry. I've seen the gov't's actions towards "creating jobs" thus far. Thanks, no thanks. Keep yer mitts away from my guitars, and I'll stay out of your political catbox, thank you very much.
I have yet to find a single person who can fill out a Declrations form on a guitar or a musical instrument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_2FQY12GpM
PS: Anyone know where I can get some ebony for my violin made in the USA?
@ Bubba: Mahogany and ebony - woods, not pole dancers - are not native to North America although there is Honduran mahogany from Central America. I should include rosewood, too, and it would work with pole dancer jokes if it were Rose Wood. Birch and maple (American woods) are used for the necks and fretboards of a lot of electric guitars but the preferred wood for fretboards is ebony with rosewood used on less expensive models. The soundboxes of acoustic guitars are usually constructed with spruce tops; the sides and back are usually rosewood, mahogany, or kola, which grows in Hawaii. Gibson also makes a blond dreadnaught that is either maple or birch. Most of the guitars you see in stores are imported and probably involved a broken law somewhere.
"Why doesn't Gibson exclusively use wood grown right here in the good ole USA instead of FOREIGN wood?"
Because Spotted algore won't let them, that's why! According to Nashville's own Phil Valentine, Spotted algore introduced laws making it illegal to cut down any tree that a current bird is nesting in or has previously nested in! Spotted Al is currently lobbying President Osama to try to make the law even tougher by insisting that any tree that has potential for a bird nest cannot be cut down! These onerous regulations are killing the American logging industry!
And you're right Scott Berrian! This is all going to kill the American music industry! I wonder how all those East Nashville hipster doofuses will take it when they can't listen to their Wilco anymore?!?!!
"PS: Anyone know where I can get some ebony for my violin made in the USA?"
The persimmon tree is an ebony species, grown here in the U.S. Also Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico. Or, you know, use spruce or maple, which apparently is what they *actually* use to make a violin.
But hey, I'm not a luthier, I'm not going to argue about how to make a violin -- I only know what the Google tells me. I am going to challenge the idea that the music industry would come to a grinding halt if people aren't allowed to destroy forests in Asia and Indonesia. That's just stupid and wrong, nor is it an argument anyone in the music industry would agree with. Unless these woods are managed in a sustainable way, we won't have them in the future to use for creating instruments. The Lacey Act and similar laws helps ensure the continued existence of these materials.
Plenty of instrument makers and musicians support the efforts of groups like the Forest Stewardship Council, Soundwood, the Rainforest Action Network, etc. These groups are focused on productive things like replanting efforts and use of reclaimed wood, rather than political grandstanding because their current plight happens to match the GOP's talking point du jour.
As I recall, the supposed complaint on this Gibson case is there wasn't finishing work done on the wood by workers in the country where the wood came from.
So it wasn't that the particular wood in question wasn't supposed to be used at all, it was merely that workers in the country of origin were supposed to be getting some of the related work on it.
@ Betsy - what's the source of your "hunters of the country - who are mostly conservative" claim? Point me towards the polls and studies. Thanks
