Budding free-market economists say the darndest things!

After going through a fast-food drive-through recently, my 6-year-old daughter started tearing apart her kid's meal with wolverine-like ferocity to get to the toy inside.

It was a cute blonde doll, which typically would've spurred a little squeal of delight from my little girl. Instead, I kid you not, I got this question after she scrutinized the packaging:

"Why are all the Madame Alexander dolls made in China!?"

Interesting question. Smarter people have been asking variations of that same question for years now.

The long answer is complicated. The short answer? America just doesn't make stuff anymore.

Start with your clothes. Take 'em off and check the labels on what you're wearing, and see how much stuff has been manufactured overseas. However, you shouldn't do that in your cubicle at work. Don't ask me how I know this.

Some of the most iconic, quintessentially American consumer products aren't so American anymore.

Did you ever have a Radio Flyer red wagon when you were a kid? They used to make them in Chicago. But they got too expensive to make. So in 2004, the company cut 45 jobs and moved production to China.

Levi's jeans used to be a proud American-made product, symbolic of America itself. But a pair hasn't been made here since 2003. Now they're sewn at factories in Latin America and Asia.

What's more American than baseball? The balls officially used by major League Baseball are made by Rawlings - and stitched in Costa Rica.

Oh, and NBA uniforms? Adidas used to make them in America, but in 2009 it cut short a contract and moved production to Thailand.

Now I know you used to have an Etch-a-Sketch. Fun toy. It's made by a company called Ohio Art. How American-sounding can you get, right? Well, that company wanted cheap, nonunion labor, so in 2000, after 40 years in business, it moved production to - wait for it - China.

And if you thought my daughter was quizzical about her little Madame Alexander doll being made in China, imagine how her mind would be blown if I told her that her Barbie dolls were made over there, too.

And even if something is technically "made in America," it could be composed of a gazillion parts from other countries. Government data about our Gross Domestic Product is chilling: In 2009, about 60 percent of the value of goods sold in America was imported. In 1980 it was 14 percent. In 1960, 8 percent.

The Federal Trade Commission has 40 pages of regulations that companies have to follow if they want to claim their products are "made in America." They're not always "made," either. Sometimes products are merely "produced," "created," "assembled" or "designed" in America. Tod Marks, a senior editor at Consumer Reports, says five federal agencies help hash out the $64,000 manufacturing question "What does 'America' really mean?"

What does it mean? These days, not as much as it used to, especially with China beating our brains out when it comes to manufacturing.

Kevin Kearns, president of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, pointed out to IndustryWeek how China "has consistently manipulated its currency to steal productive capacity from the United States." That allows China to "devastate America's invaluable productive industries, addict the country to debt-fueled, bubble-created 'growth' and destabilize the global economy."

Maybe I could've said all or part of this to my daughter on the drive home from the restaurant, but I held my tongue. Talking about America's crumbling manufacturing base with a 6-year-old on a Sunday afternoon just would've been too depressing.

Maybe I can try something else. Did Milton Friedman write any Fisher-Price board books? Where can I find a colorful pop-up version of Atlas Shrugged?