Just how do you BUY AMERICAN?

[Builder]

So, I get an email from a catalog store in South Dakota offering some Westinghouse brand solar powered landscaping lights. Great close out price so I bought a bunch. The order came in yesterday and today I opened it up. The boxes have the old recognizable "W" logo and the decades old catch phrase, "You can be sure...if it's Westinghouse." The instructions and warranty paperwork is printed in China. The plastic bags in which each diffuser is wrapped is marked made in China. Reading the paperwork I find the product is by Westinghouse International Development Corp.

Got me again! Thought I was buying American (WESTINGHOUSE NAME, SLOGAN, AND LOGO) but nope it is CHINESE GOODS. We've come a long way baby, since Westinghouse sponsored "Mr. Wizard."

I think the feeling of helplessness, not being able to trust the brands of your childhood and decades after, and a certain chagrin at being fooled yet again tends to breed a backlash of resentment.

We are not necessarily powerless as a nation and the Chinese are not omnipotent just apparently smarter than we are in aggregate. They can only do to us what we let them do. Divide and conquer is a time tested tactic. Appeal to individual greed and sway a nation to do what is clearly in aggregate not in its best interests. I get the feeling we regret, en mass, the relative positioning of the US and China in the macroscopic view but as individuals want to get the good cheap deal more bang for our buck and hope someone else will fix the problem that we participate in producing.

ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pat

Ahh, yes, good old Westinghouse. My grandfather worked in the Lester, PA plant when they built turbines for nuclear powered submarines. They closed the plant for good back in the early 80's. They decided years ago to sell off lots of their manufacturing to Siemens & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and decided to get into radio & TV broadcasting. I believe they own CBS. Trust that Westinghouse makes almost nothing anymore.
Interesting quick read right here: Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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[IslandTractor]

This is just one way that China gets away with labeling.

You guys so know that China can legally put Made in USA. on some of their products. Yep, sure can, it seem like China has a town called USA, and they label all the products . Made in USA.

Sorry, that is an old wives tale and the country was Japan not China.

 

[IslandTractor]

I don't understand this bias about what China is doing to us. China produces a huge array of factory made goods using cheap labor. They don't stuff the goods into boxes and float them ashore in California and Newark. They sell their goods to whomever wants to buy them. There are Chinese made goods exported all around the world. It is American marketers and businessmen who give Chinese factories the specifications and quality standards they want at a certain price point. American marketers order the chinese stuff and then sell it in the USA. I think the anger is aimed at the wrong side of the Pacific here. We have met the enemy and it is us.

 

[J_J]

Sorry, that is an old wives tale and the country was Japan not China.

But , of course it is.

 

[Builder]

I don't understand this bias about what China is doing to us. China produces a huge array of factory made goods using cheap labor. They don't stuff the goods into boxes and float them ashore in California and Newark. They sell their goods to whomever wants to buy them. There are Chinese made goods exported all around the world. It is American marketers and businessmen who give Chinese factories the specifications and quality standards they want at a certain price point. American marketers order the chinese stuff and then sell it in the USA. I think the anger is aimed at the wrong side of the Pacific here. We have met the enemy and it is us.

So are you saying when the Chinese made the dog food and the kids toys the American companies told them to add the melamine & lead paint?

I don't think so.

And believe me, the Chinese do the patent infringements all on their own, too.

I woould agree that US gov't policies have done everything in their power to drive manufacturing out of the US and overseas.

 

[patrick_g]

This is just one way that China gets away with labeling.

You guys so know that China can legally put Made in USA. on some of their products. Yep, sure can, it seem like China has a town called USA, and they label all the products . Made in USA.

Cute material for a comedian but just not real. The story started with Japan supposedly having a town named Usa.

Check it out ---> snopes.com: Made in USA

I can remember hearing the Japanese version when I was a kid. I also recall friends of mine claiming the "Made in Japan" labels were phony, jut trying to impress you that the product was fancy and exotic. I think they were off the mark about as far as the town of Usa, China.


When Google and other good search engines can't find it I begin to seriously doubt its existence.

Pat

 

[Philscbx]

The only thing left not made in China is milk.

You can't even find the sought after Japanese tools and electronics.

Luckily, my Canon pro lenses are still made in Japan.
If they ever start to be made in China, I would not own them.

I actually found and shipped in a special battery charger for the Apple Laptop that is made in the USA. I felt I won the lottery.

I searched for days to find an American made battery charger for the equipment. They don't exist.

Then you have internet equipment companies calling themselves American tool, and 100% of their stuff is proudly marked made in China.

Then one thing that is seriously going unnoticed is the chemical that out gasses from all china foam, rubber, and plastics.
It slams me in the face the moment I open the door to the store.

I spent all winter in Sweden, and the only car polisher I could find had to sit outside for a week. It would stink up the house in minutes.
It was returned.

No one knows or will admit what this chemical is. But I swear, one day it will be the most cancer causing products known to man.
Only recently has some toys been recalled.

We obviously are outsourcing, but China owns our butt.

 

[patrick_g]

We obviously are outsourcing, but China owns our butt.

I hope they love their possessions so much they will kiss them.

Pat

 

[KubotainNH]

I had to go to Home Depot the other day for a house outlet. I was amazed they had one "made in the usa" or so it claims. It was the pro version from Leviton. I paid the extra 40 cents to buy that one. The Chinese product I dislike the most is tools. It's getting harder and harder to find US made ones. Clothes bug me too but you can still find them from other non-US countries.

 

[IslandTractor]

So are you saying when the Chinese made the dog food and the kids toys the American companies told them to add the melamine & lead paint?

I don't think so.

And believe me, the Chinese do the patent infringements all on their own, too.

I woould agree that US gov't policies have done everything in their power to drive manufacturing out of the US and overseas.

I agree that the American marketers obviously did not specify toxic goods. On the other hand, they know or should have known that there is pretty ineffectual policing of manufacturing in China as a developing nation and that better quality control testing is necessary. If a US company is putting it's brand on a product made in China then that company should be held responsible for the quality control. No developing nation has sufficiently developed governmental infrastructure to insure US quality control standards are always met. Frankly the EU has trouble with some goods made in the USA because they don't meet EU standards. Velveta "cheese food" for example (actually that example is my guess but you get the idea).