Made in the USA?

[BangkokDean]

Look to see unemployment @ 20% for decades. Big money and lawyers will make sure that it stays that way.:crap:

 

[big2bird]

I just bought two new oil cooler lines from a Chevy dealer for my 3500 Silverado. The tags are standard GM with the GM parts numbers, BUT, at the bottom of the tag, it says "Made in China (Mainland)". The parts are cheaper looking, flimsy, and of a thinner material. I think I'm going to puke.

Pappy

Seems I heard on talk radio the other day that GM was planning on moving their entire operation to China.

I that ever happened, I am done with them, and would sell the car.:3rd:

 

[MYBAD79]

I don't shop at walmart....but does it make a difference

Yes every little bit makes a difference. What difference does one penny make? One hundred pennys only make one dollar. Times a thousand people only makes a thousand dollars. But 60 million people saving 10 dollars each going to Wal-Mart each week makes a difference.
You can't make anyone else do anything they don't want to do but you CAN do your little bit and if enough people do their little bit it adds up and can make a difference. You have to do it because YOU believe it's the right thing to do.

well said..... problem is that too many people don't do anything and instead just sit on their a$$ and complain....

 

[denpo]

this country runs on two things, oil and money. the oil comes from offshore thanks to the liberals, the money comes from China.... tariffs? really? try to imagine what would happen to this country if we pissed off China (like placing a tariff on their **** or any other imported stuff) and they (or the Japanese) stopped buying our debt? :suicide:

USA IS exporting more that debts, those things are just immaterial.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are not freaking rich for nothing.
Think about IBM who sold it's hardware branch to Lenovo.
They're making much more money selling the software than the computers themselves.

Wait, did I say something positive about the Evil Empire? damn!

 

[SmokinBBC]

I don't shop at walmart....but does it make a difference

Yes every little bit makes a difference. What difference does one penny make? One hundred pennys only make one dollar. Times a thousand people only makes a thousand dollars. But 60 million people saving 10 dollars each going to Wal-Mart each week makes a difference.
You can't make anyone else do anything they don't want to do but you CAN do your little bit and if enough people do their little bit it adds up and can make a difference. You have to do it because YOU believe it's the right thing to do.

well said..... problem is that too many people don't do anything and instead just sit on their a$$ and complain....

Do what??????? I try to find made in American stuff every time I shop. I also look for Canadian made stuff, EU made stuff, etc........I needed a replacement battery for my laptop yesterday....only one available is made in China.......drank some coffee out of my favorite chicago bears cup today.....turned it over(after it was empty and guess what....made in China.

Who can afford a 47grand Ford F150 these days? Better watch out, the Chinese are going to build a cheeeeeeeep truck one of these days......wait until Geely Motors sucks all the technology out of Volvo Car (yes, the chinese company owns Volvo cars) ....they will catch up on autotech advancement in no time....add that to cheap labor, no EPA and bingo, cars imported to the US at 50% of the cost of ANY western manufacturer......

 

[68/70Vette]

.....wait until Geely Motors sucks all the technology out of Volvo Car (yes, the chinese company owns Volvo cars) ....they will catch up on autotech advancement in no time....add that to cheap labor, no EPA and bingo, cars imported to the US at 50% of the cost of ANY western manufacturer......

They'll suck the technology out of Volvo. It cost a little money for sure. Then start manufacturing in China. What's a factory assembly job wage today in China. Maybe $10 a day would be a high salary.
....................

An anecdote about their predatory merchandising: Snap-On sells a engine hoist that I wanted. It costs $1070 (five years ago). The look alike Harbor Freight hoist cost $179.00! I bought the Harbor Freight hoist and used it to lift the engine out of my 68. A few years later, I used it to lift the engine out of my 70. In the meanwhile the hoist chrome plated ram had corroded (cheap), I bought a new ram for $69.00. So very cheap, but it did my minimal jobs.
......THE POINT. HOW WAS THE CHINESE MANUFACTURER ABLE TO SELL THIS THING IN THE US FOR $179? IF YOU OR I WERE IN CHINA, WE COULDN'T SHIP THIS HEAVY THING BACK TO THE US FOR $179. This thing was manufactured in China, shipped to the US, went through customs, when to a Harbor Freight local store, was sold for $179, and a profit was made!!!
Oh!, I'll bet it was shipped to the US on COSCO, China Overseas Shipping Company. COSCO's majority share owner, as I understand it, is the Chinese Army. In Long Beach, you can see seemingly endless acres covered by stacks of COSCO shipping containers.

We should protect our country against these predatory imports. (OK, I was guilty for the engine hoist, but I do buy US when possible. I'm the only one in my SoCal neighborhood with all north american cars.)

 

[MYBAD79]

I don't shop at walmart....but does it make a difference

Yes every little bit makes a difference. What difference does one penny make? One hundred pennys only make one dollar. Times a thousand people only makes a thousand dollars. But 60 million people saving 10 dollars each going to Wal-Mart each week makes a difference.
You can't make anyone else do anything they don't want to do but you CAN do your little bit and if enough people do their little bit it adds up and can make a difference. You have to do it because YOU believe it's the right thing to do.

well said..... problem is that too many people don't do anything and instead just sit on their a$$ and complain....

Do what??????? I try to find made in American stuff every time I shop. I also look for Canadian made stuff, EU made stuff, etc........I needed a replacement battery for my laptop yesterday....only one available is made in China.......drank some coffee out of my favorite chicago bears cup today.....turned it over(after it was empty and guess what....made in China.

I avoid "made in China" stuff whenever I can but as you say sometimes it's the only option ... just saying there are too many people who bitch and complain about all that junk coming from China but once a week they push a shopping cart filled with that same junk to the WalMart checkout. It actually got a lot better now that they offer the so called "self checkout". Now people can purchase low quality garbage, support China's economy and help eliminate jobs (cashiers) at the same time. :banghead:

 

[mrvette]

I went to the Winn-Dixie grocery store the other day, some beer and some bread and something else....and of course no one to help with some key card on age restricted item....them self check lines take more time than the worth....I walked out and left the **** on the counter, management sux....no clue WTF they are doing....hot button issue for me.....
then they wonder why they went broke...

As for the China crap, everyone blames Wally World, trick is, you buy your China crap from WW at a buck, or go to Target/wherever and pay buck and a half......your choice....

As for the engine hoist, I always borrowed a buddy's up north, here, I found a rental store that sold out, and so I bought a 5' boom HEAVY weight USA made engine hoist that can pull a freeking bus diesel.....easy reach over any car....150 bux....still have it....

Harbor freight, 18 volt drill/flashlight and 2 batteries with charger on sale up the street 30 bux......go to HD/Lowes.....same thing is over 100 bux....now I LIKE the Ryobi drill much better, but you know, Ryobi wants 70 bux for two replacement batteries.....new batteries at HF are like ten bux each....about all they worth, it's a freeking battery for christsakes not a gold bar......so which China tool you like more?? sorry, got me, I take the cheep one, the thing that pisses me off is, the HF 18 volt battery is the same as the Ryobi....but of course the connection is different.....

:bonkers::bonkers::goodnight:

 

[DeeVeeEight]

Wow, these have been some great responses. I also look for items made in the USA but am hard put to find them. I also agree that it is mind boggling that the Chinese can manufacture and export goods to America cheaper than we can do for ourselves. I am sure that in the minds of some politicians "Free trade, capitalism and competition" are supposed to provide the American consumer with the highest quality goods at the lowest price. The reality is that the Chinese products are cheap, substandard crap that should not be sold here or anywhere else. Their products are loaded with toxins (lead paint etc.) and can cause injury when they fail, as stated earlier.

The electric floor lamp I bought at Lowe's was so flimsy and poorly made that I had to repair it several times as I was assembling it.

The problem is that there are no American made products to compete with it in that price range. A comparable styled American made floor lamp would cost me 5 to 10 times more than the Chinese product. Would you spend $600.00 on an American made floor lamp compared to one that Lowe's sells for $60.00 that is made in China?
:rain:

 

[mrvette]

MOVE to FLORIDA, whole state covered in Flea Markets and yard sales.....

and 'antique malls'.....and hock shops.....

:smash:

 

[big_G]

Wow, these have been some great responses. I also look for items made in the USA but am hard put to find them. I also agree that it is mind boggling that the Chinese can manufacture and export goods to America cheaper than we can do for ourselves. I am sure that in the minds of some politicians "Free trade, capitalism and competition" are supposed to provide the American consumer with the highest quality goods at the lowest price. The reality is that the Chinese products are cheap, substandard crap that should not be sold here or anywhere else. Their products are loaded with toxins (lead paint etc.) and can cause injury when they fail, as stated earlier.

The electric floor lamp I bought at Lowe's was so flimsy and poorly made that I had to repair it several times as I was assembling it.

The problem is that there are no American made products to compete with it in that price range. A comparable styled American made floor lamp would cost me 5 to 10 times more than the Chinese product. Would you spend $600.00 on an American made floor lamp compared to one that Lowe's sells for $60.00 that is made in China?
:rain:

The bottom line is really pretty simple to see:

1: Make sure that the dollar isn't being devalued by the Chinese (primarily) through subsidies, making their products costs less to make. Fair trade.
2: The American consumer needs to be willing to spend a little more for quality.
3: Both the unions AND businesses need to cut costs and stop being so damn greedy!

 

[big2bird]

Go back in time and kill Nixon. Watergate was the least damage he did.

 

[big_G]

Go back in time and kill Nixon. Watergate was the least damage he did.

Well, then throw Clinton in there too. He gave the Chinese military secrets along with the keys to the Lincoln bedroom.

 

[big2bird]

Go back in time and kill Nixon. Watergate was the least damage he did.

Well, then throw Clinton in there too. He gave the Chinese military secrets along with the keys to the Lincoln bedroom.

No Cigar.:rofl:

 

[big2bird]

Wow, these have been some great responses. I also look for items made in the USA but am hard put to find them. I also agree that it is mind boggling that the Chinese can manufacture and export goods to America cheaper than we can do for ourselves. I am sure that in the minds of some politicians "Free trade, capitalism and competition" are supposed to provide the American consumer with the highest quality goods at the lowest price. The reality is that the Chinese products are cheap, substandard crap that should not be sold here or anywhere else. Their products are loaded with toxins (lead paint etc.) and can cause injury when they fail, as stated earlier.

The electric floor lamp I bought at Lowe's was so flimsy and poorly made that I had to repair it several times as I was assembling it.

The problem is that there are no American made products to compete with it in that price range. A comparable styled American made floor lamp would cost me 5 to 10 times more than the Chinese product. Would you spend $600.00 on an American made floor lamp compared to one that Lowe's sells for $60.00 that is made in China?
:rain:

The bottom line is really pretty simple to see:

1: Make sure that the dollar isn't being devalued by the Chinese (primarily) through subsidies, making their products costs less to make. Fair trade.
2: The American consumer needs to be willing to spend a little more for quality.
3: Both the unions AND businesses need to cut costs and stop being so damn GREEDy!

And that there is the answer. The root of all that is evil.

 

[mrvette]

Wow, these have been some great responses. I also look for items made in the USA but am hard put to find them. I also agree that it is mind boggling that the Chinese can manufacture and export goods to America cheaper than we can do for ourselves. I am sure that in the minds of some politicians "Free trade, capitalism and competition" are supposed to provide the American consumer with the highest quality goods at the lowest price. The reality is that the Chinese products are cheap, substandard crap that should not be sold here or anywhere else. Their products are loaded with toxins (lead paint etc.) and can cause injury when they fail, as stated earlier.

The electric floor lamp I bought at Lowe's was so flimsy and poorly made that I had to repair it several times as I was assembling it.

The problem is that there are no American made products to compete with it in that price range. A comparable styled American made floor lamp would cost me 5 to 10 times more than the Chinese product. Would you spend $600.00 on an American made floor lamp compared to one that Lowe's sells for $60.00 that is made in China?
:rain:

The bottom line is really pretty simple to see:

1: Make sure that the dollar isn't being devalued by the Chinese (primarily) through subsidies, making their products costs less to make. Fair trade.
2: The American consumer needs to be willing to spend a little more for quality.
3: Both the unions AND businesses need to cut costs and stop being so damn greedy!

BUT not even the above is enough man, we need kill the entire EPA and related .gov functions, and quit making it impossible to build a ******* FACTORY!!......much less taxing them outta existence.....

:crap::banghead:

 

[mrvette]

Go back in time and kill Nixon. Watergate was the least damage he did.

Yeh, I know, he was forced to hire all those bureaucraps/hippie types to run the 'grate society' **** that Johnson rammed through....and the pubs never had enough power to repeal......

so he did, NOW, 40 years later we owe that group about a average of 100k EACH annual retirement......I sat there for 40 cognitive years and watched that crap, lived it.....on the outside....

but ragardless of my likes or not, it's going to be just the tip of the iceberg that sinks this Titanic.....we got all those state/local.gov types also....

much less the teachers that never taught skool even once for decades.....note the graduate rate in this country for HARD courses, science/engineering/business/finance/econ......

no they rather major in flower picking, and basket weaving, 'liberal arts'....


:ill::ill:

all those billions of bux wasted, while our kids are totally and completely UNprepared to make a damn living even after graduate degrees in said 'liberal arts'......

:crap:

 

[DeeVeeEight]

I Googled "Made in the USA" today, up popped a list of about half a dozen or more websites. Some spout a bunch of political opinion, most provide lists of products made in America. I looked over the lists of products made in America and found that even though there are still many products made in the USA, most of them are intermixed with Chinese products bearing the same brands' badge. You would have to be a really diligent consumer to tell if you were buying a dishwasher (or other item) made here or overseas. :confused2:

How much homework is the average American consumer willing to do in order to "Buy American"? Even if you do look in to the origin of the product, how sure can you be that it is 100% of what it claims to be? It seems that the majority of our trouble stems from political deals that send our manufacturing jobs and national debt overseas, mainly to China.

:crap:

 

[mrvette]

I Googled "Made in the USA" today, up popped a list of about half a dozen or more websites. Some spout a bunch of political opinion, most provide lists of products made in America. I looked over the lists of products made in America and found that even though there are still many products made in the USA, most of them are intermixed with Chinese products bearing the same brands' badge. You would have to be a really diligent consumer to tell if you were buying a dishwasher (or other item) made here or overseas. :confused2:

How much homework is the average American consumer willing to do in order to "Buy American"? Even if you do look in to the origin of the product, how sure can you be that it is 100% of what it claims to be? It seems that the majority of our trouble stems from political deals that send our manufacturing jobs and national debt overseas, mainly to China.

:crap:

You know, this is no ****, I could tell a Jap TV coming into the shop from anything American.....from across the shop about 30'+ away, on the service carts.....

the tooling was different today, it's seriously hard to tell.....so either we sent our factories.....or they duplicated the tooling....

or is it just ME, getting used to seeing so much metric tooling/die marks???

:clobbered:

 

[Belgian1979vette]

What is made in the USA anymore? We went shopping at Lowe's and Home Depot for some home furnishings this last weekend. EVERYTHING including the GE light bulbs is made in CHINA. From the light fixtures right down to a good deal of the lumber, it is all from CHINA. What is made in the USA? What do we sell world wide any more? I watch the big ships come up the Delaware River to Philadelphia riding low in the water and they leave riding high in the water, obviously empty. How long can we keep this up? Apparently it is already too late....

Same thing here. We had a discussion about this on one of our local forums.

Basics is that whatever they produce in China they need to sell. They don't have any more commodities than we do, so they have to import them just as well. The only difference is they are slaves working for practically nothing. BUT this means that they can't allow their people to earn more money since the manufacturers will then leave for another even more cheap country. This in turn means they have to sell their production elsewhere.

Now that's where their problem is. You can only sell, if you have buyers. As soon as the Western world (that means you and me) run out of money, they are out of export and everything goes bad, for China as well.

Not a funny thing to look forward to, but is the cold hard truth to it all.

At the moment they own a lot of US $. My guess is that your government will start printing more money to devaluate the dollars in the hands of the Chinese, in an effort to reduce the power this will give them over the US. It's going to be effective, but at a cost...

 

[mrvette]

I dunno man, China doing pretty damn good these daze, look at the news reports off some disaster or other....and they seem decently fed, dressed, and a somewhat decent infrastructure to support them....

and they ARE the largest automobile market....why?? planning,.....they built the roads using Allis/Chalmers and other gear that passed my sister's house outta Shippensburg Pa.....every morning at 6 AM.....

export to CHINA.....what they doing with all that gear?? building roads.....
THAT's what.....

so now 20 years later, we watch the news.....

:clap::clap::crutches:

 

[010752]

Look at what has happened in China in the last few years.
The "new" communists are all about profit, not like Mao.
Shanghai now has the tallest hotel in the world, will soon have the tallest building in the world, just to out class the middle east. 20 years ago, the land was swamp, now it rivals New York's skyline. Their new communist mindset is to become the leading nation in the world. And it looks like they are going to accomplish that, other than possibly military might.
At one time we considered Japenese and Taiwanese products junk, no more. In time the Chinese products will also change.
IBM changed to Lenovo ONLY because the Chinese prefer to buy Chinese (sound familiar) and that opened up a zillion new customers for IBM. The IBM ceo and upper management stayed the same running the puppet company. Another reason why GM and others are there, not just the cheap labor.
Watch out for the next 20 years. China itself is an up and coming market.
They are very close to the stage where they don't need us at all.

It's about time we get some genuine business and economic leaders in this country, not just some ******** politicians "talkin ****".

 

[Belgian1979vette]

Look at what has happened in China in the last few years.
The "new" communists are all about profit, not like Mao.
Shanghai now has the tallest hotel in the world, will soon have the tallest building in the world, just to out class the middle east. 20 years ago, the land was swamp, now it rivals New York's skyline. Their new communist mindset is to become the leading nation in the world. And it looks like they are going to accomplish that, other than possibly military might.
At one time we considered Japenese and Taiwanese products junk, no more. In time the Chinese products will also change.
IBM changed to Lenovo ONLY because the Chinese prefer to buy Chinese (sound familiar) and that opened up a zillion new customers for IBM. The IBM ceo and upper management stayed the same running the puppet company. Another reason why GM and others are there, not just the cheap labor.
Watch out for the next 20 years. China itself is an up and coming market.
They are very close to the stage where they don't need us at all.

It's about time we get some genuine business and economic leaders in this country, not just some ******** politicians "talkin ****".

If it is about consuming, then you're not earning money, but exporting your money elsewhere, where they have the commodities.

They thought Japan was going to do the same in the eighties. Look were they are now.

You're right in so far that we need to do something.

Untill now, I haven't seen anything coming from China worth my while. If i buy quality, i go for something made here.

 

[mrvette]

You know the comic was I want sock shopping at Walmart about a week ago, and found they have a sock display about the size of my living room, jambed up with shelves....so I spent some 20 minits reviewing the display, finally locating a pack of TEN pair, in a large size that even when shrinking will not hurt my feet.....less then ten bux.....

and when getting home, I noted......

MADE IN USA...HERE, I about ****.....

less than a buck a PAIR, made here for SOCKS.....go figger,

some engineer built a super duper sock knitter/scooper.....

:bounce:

 

[Belgian1979vette]

You know the comic was I want sock shopping at Walmart about a week ago, and found they have a sock display about the size of my living room, jambed up with shelves....so I spent some 20 minits reviewing the display, finally locating a pack of TEN pair, in a large size that even when shrinking will not hurt my feet.....less then ten bux.....

and when getting home, I noted......

MADE IN USA...HERE, I about ****.....

less than a buck a PAIR, made here for SOCKS.....go figger,

some engineer built a super duper sock knitter/scooper.....

:bounce:

sure, why not ?

 

[saudivette]

You can still only get these bad boys from the USA:




Every so often a copy pops up and Rickenbacker go after them like rabid dogs. Wisely, they patented the shapes etc so no one can make knock-offs (or even decent copies) like they can with Fender guitars.

They're expensive, but if looked after, it'll last far longer than me...

 

[damoroso]

You can still only get these bad boys from the USA:




Every so often a copy pops up and Rickenbacker go after them like rabid dogs. Wisely, they patented the shapes etc so no one can make knock-offs (or even decent copies) like they can with Fender guitars.

They're expensive, but if looked after, it'll last far longer than me...

Rickenbacker makes some great gear, the guys I play with use Les Pauls (the real ones, I think all of Don's (he's got 13 now) are from the custom shop) and PRS's, (again the real ones made here). Even though alot of companies have operations in Mexico (like Fender), it's good their higher end stuff is made here! My Zildjian cymbals and sticks are made here too!

 

[mold99]

new jobs

if our pres. and elected law makers were really serious about putting people back to work, there would be a much higher duty on imports along with aid and incentives to allow american manufactures compete with "favored nations". we have lost our manufacturing might over the last 30-40 years and it is the middle class and down that have suffered. factory and manufacturing jobs have always paid above average wages. back in 70s -80s, it would take me months to hire a tool and die maker, now guys in the trade around here can't find a job and are taking what ever they can get. hourly pay has also fallen off as the supply has exceeded demand. i know men that i paid $22-$25 an hour 10 years ago are working for $15-$18 and glad to get it. i knew this would bite us in the ass 25 years ago, and i am not happy that i was right.
this recession is not going to really end until everyone that wants to work has a decent job.

 

[damoroso]

if our pres. and elected law makers were really serious about putting people back to work, there would be a much higher duty on imports along with aid and incentives to allow american manufactures compete with "favored nations". we have lost our manufacturing might over the last 30-40 years and it is the middle class and down that have suffered. factory and manufacturing jobs have always paid above average wages. back in 70s -80s, it would take me months to hire a tool and die maker, now guys in the trade around here can't find a job and are taking what ever they can get. hourly pay has also fallen off as the supply has exceeded demand. i know men that i paid $22-$25 an hour 10 years ago are working for $15-$18 and glad to get it. i knew this would bite us in the ass 25 years ago, and i am not happy that i was right.
this recession is not going to really end until everyone that wants to work has a decent job.

Agreed. Most people think manufacturing jobs have gone offshore because of cheap labor. That's kinda true, but not the whole story by a long shot. Most of the labor savings is offset by logistics costs of moving raw material and finished goods. The real story is in regulation, taxes and trade laws. It's much easier and cheaper to import to the US than it is to export tfrom the US to nearly any other country. Look at what tariffs guys on this site have to pay to get parts for their cars, new or used parts. But we can get stuff from them for really just shipping. When you add it all up, it's no wonder our jobs have gone offshore. Until the trade tariffs are balanced, (Free or Fair trade) our jobs will be more and more in the service sector which sucks. Crazy regulation (some is certainly necessary) and our corporate tax rates (second only to Japan currently) and you can see why a corporation might find offshoring so attractive.

Add to that the BS of "Green Jobs" and we're screwed hard and dry, till those Chuckleheads in DC get it....