No, but it’s good marketing. Nothing wrong with that.
Funny story: At the end of the 19th century Great Britain pushed for all products to be branded with their country of origin, not to market their products better but for protectionism – to make it easier for customers to recognize real or perceived knock-offs.
That works if those other countries really make inferior products but it backfires when other countries make products of equal or better quality. “Made in Germany” (for example) then becomes a mark of quality, not inferiority.
These days a lot of it is due to localism. A lot of people would rather avoid buying stuff that's already circumnavigated the globe three times before it reaches them.
It applies more to food I guess, but the principle is the same.
The customers win, either way. They are informed and have a choice. It's not only quality, its also supporting the national economy. E.g. you might buy a made in Germany washer, or you might buy a made in US one, to support local economy and to prevent the outflow of money, even thou it is of lower quality (I'm not saying that it really is).
Yes, that was normal in Italy too during fascism. Protectionism has always been a great popularistic argument and that's why I am surprised to see it on a geeky product like that. One would think that the user of battery powered cufflinks wouldn't care about that.
I'm not sure why you think geeks unilaterally oppose protectionism (or that we'd even call it protectionism). Seems like a broad, inaccurate generalization.
Personally, I like keeping money in the local economy when it makes sense to.
Because hackers are usually curious people, with many interests; chances are they study some economics and found that this kind of 'protectionism' doesn't make much sense.
But yes, you're right, it's quite an assumption. On a parallel (OT) note, I have no idea whether there is a political bias amongst geeks. I've read some pool from NSF a few years ago and it was quite impressive how scientists tend to be left wing/liberal, why engineers tend to be right wing/conservative. So politically speaking there's probably two kinds of geeks but how about two kind of hackers?
A lot of products state that they're "Made in [Europe or UK]", but they are actually manufactured in some Eastern country (most frequently China, Taiwan or Malaysia). Still, the mark is not a lie, as the product was engineered/designed in named country (but manufactured in another).
http://www.adafruit.com/icufflinks
Quite appealing if you ask me, if a bit bulky for cufflinks :)