What ‘Buying American’ Really Means

There’s this great scene in the 1984 film Moscow on the Hudson. The late actor Robin Williams’ character, a Russian musician who defected from the Soviet Union, is shopping in an American grocery store for the first time and, overwhelmed by the several coffee brands to choose from on the shelves, nearly has a nervous breakdown.

As a 13-year-old watching this flick at the height of the Cold War, I found this amusing, but was more struck by the defection scene itself, which is punctuated by a police officer telling the Soviet handlers trying to stop Williams: “This is New York City, the man can do whatever he wants.” That line, to me, was the essence of American freedom and what differentiated the United States from the USSR. But I’ve been thinking about this movie, and the grocery store scene, anew lately amid President Donald Trump slapping tariffs on virtually all foreign commodities and products imported from nearly every country on earth.

That Americans can purchase the product of their choice among countless available domestic and foreign brands is a quintessential part of living in a free society.