American made tractor?

   / American made tractor? #32  
Long ago, Henry Ford realized if he paid his workers well, they could afford to buy his products. So he started paying them an unprecedented $5. per day. Model T's were selling for about $250 which all other things aside (taxes etc...)would take 50 days of work to buy the product. Today if someone makes $20/ hour or $160/day, and they bought an vehicle for $25,000 , it would take 156 days of work to pay for it.

I pretty much concur with the economic theories by Doctors' Robert Reich and Lester Thoreau. Former Deans of economic departments at Harvard and MIT respectively. They are proponents of a manufacturing based economies.

I can't type fast enough to get into an extensive macro-economic discussion here but I can conclude with you guys.

What about the "American Dream" of driving an American assembled BMW on your own "King Ranch"???
 
   / American made tractor? #33  
<font color="blue">What about the "American Dream" of driving an American assembled BMW on your own "King Ranch"??? </font>

Hey I'm all for it, but unfortunately while we are making the big bucks here in the USA someone else, in another part of the world, is just as happy, making a lot, lot less.

Manufacturing recognizes that and steadily moves where the labor costs are less. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I live in Ohio. We used to be referred to as the "Rubber Capital of the World." Now the only major player left here is Goodyear and even they are fighting to stay alive and well.

What's the answer? I don't know if there is one. I'm no different then anyone else, if I see what I perceive to be a bargain then I pick up on it. That's human nature and you really can't fault people for it.
 
   / American made tractor? #34  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Model T's were selling for about $250 which all other things aside (taxes etc...)would take 50 days of work to buy the product. Today if someone makes $20/ hour or $160/day, and they bought an vehicle for $25,000 , it would take 156 days of work to pay for it. )</font>

That's true, but for that 50 days worth of pay, you weren't getting 4 wheel drive, power windows or a Hemi engine. Even though you are now working three times harder to get an automobile, you are getting more than three times MORE automobile for that money.

Compare a Ford F150 from 1974 and one from 2004. 3 on the tree, metal dashboard, 1 barrel carb. Now we have standard CD players, storage pockets and map lights and center consoles everywhere! Much more VALUE for the money than before (and probably selling for less profit to compete with the imports!).
 
   / American made tractor? #35  
I too am guilty of buying cheaper products. I do try to find American products but it is getting harder and harder.
Simply put, when you buy something produced in a foreign country, your money goes to their economy.
America's manufacturing prowess was one of the major factors we are where we are. If we send all these jobs overseas, We are selling out our children's opportunities. The blue collar workforce is "graying" with tremendous amounts of knowledge retiring without being passed on to the younger generations.

What if another big world situation breaks out? Can we even develop the capacity to manufacture the goods America needs. Most of the modern machine tools are not made here so we couldn't even get parts for the machines that make parts.
And yes, Ohio is one of the hardest hit states. Some politicians are fine with this because it shifts the pollution to the 3rd world. Its hard to compete when our government makes us play by the rules whereas the 3rd world can pollute at will and get away with working children for long hours each day.
BTW, Levi Strauss shut down it's last 2 American facilities in San Antonio weeks ago. Average worker's seniority was 17 years. Said it was due to Walmart etc... selling cheaper jeans.
 
   / American made tractor? #36  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( BTW, Levi Strauss shut down it's last 2 American facilities in San Antonio weeks ago. Average worker's seniority was 17 years. Said it was due to Walmart etc... selling cheaper jeans. )</font>

Until this past year, I don't believe Levi's were sold at Walmart. I was perfectly content going to JCPenney's and paying $30 for my American made Levi's jeans.

Walmart wanted them for cheaper, so something had to give. In this case it was the American worker.

The company I work for has had everything dictated to them by Walmart, but we can't just forget about them because they make up so much of our business. It's a shame that we get pushed around that way.
 
   / American made tractor? #37  
Well, there goes my future! I'll probably have to move to India to get a job.
 
   / American made tractor? #38  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( We make surgical instruments and we can't flush the soapy solution water we use to clean with down the drain. They are worried about the metals. We told them they are all medical grade inert stainless metals that can be put into a body. How can soapy water with trace amounts of these metals be harmful?)</font>

Well I think I can answer that one. It's probably the chromium. chromium has interesting chemistry - it is a vital nutrient when it is in its "III" oxidation state but in its "VI" oxidation state (called hexavalent chromium) it is toxic - a real bad chemical. Hexavalent chromium is pretty scarce naturally, but it is used in industrial processes such as welding stainless steel. It is soluble, so it could be in the water used to wash newly manufactured stainless steel parts.

You really, really, really, _don't_ want hexavalent chromium in the water supply.

Now the chromium in the surface of stainless steel which makes it stainless, is trivalent; it is chromium (III). This is why it's OK to put it in people, etc.

It's not at all unusual for elements in different oxidation states to have completely different properties, including different toxicities to humans. For example the treatment of leishmaniasis depends on using compounds of antimony(V) which are not so toxic to humans, but which the leishmaniasis parasite changes into antimony(III) which is deadly to the parasite. Antimony (III) is toxic to the human, too, so people no longer give antimony (III) compounds to leishmaniasis patients! So the interesting thing here is that the change in toxicity to humans due to the change in oxidation state is the key to this successful treatment.
 
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