My Kubota has a made in Japan metal plate, attached for all time. It's built to the same high standard as my Makita tools.
While I like and have several Craftsmen C3 series tools, the Makita version is much nicer, and yes, at a higher cost. But this is a case
where if you expect to keep the tool for twenty years or more, and take good care of it, I'm betting my Makita and Bosch power tools will
still be humming. With an overall lower cost of ownership and high satisfaction. That's the plan...
Some of these Japanese companies are awfully good at what they do. Shift a manual transmission Honda car and you'll think
you're a famous European sports driver, you're that good, and it's that slick. I'm not a real camera guy at all, but my cameras usually come from Japan, with German Zeiss lens. From Panasonic Lumix, made in Japan. I'm on my third one, I'm hard on cameras and truthfully one went into the drink off the boat. Not a good day. But for a 300 dollar camera, it works amazingly well. Combines the best of Japanese electronics with German optics. I've just found them to be great relatively cheap cameras.
There are so many products, many electronics of course, that just aren't made in the US anymore. Seems mighty shortsighted to let all those
industries move offshore, avoid a lot of US tax, and the resulting offshore products are then welcomed back with open arms, and wallets of course. Early on in my life I built an all American made product, layer at a time. Three summers working the graveyard shift at the Union Camp Multiwall paper bag plant in our small river town. There were two plants, and both shut down. I worked in the last one, at the end of the assembly line, the "strapper" running heavy duty plastic around a thirty pound pile of empty Portland cement bags coming down the line, relentlessly. Had to keep up even when it was 90 degrees at 2am in the morning under those steel roofs. Fire company would pump water up on the roofs to try to cool the place off. Now that was an experience, but working in that plant, I got to know the crews, and they all wanted me to get my degree and not come back, in the nicest way possible. And while I knew how to work hard on the farm, I worked my behind off on that hot mill assembly line, sending it on down the proverbial line.
Many of us have worked in manufacturing or have family that do. So it's more than just a debating point or philosophical idea to many of us, it's been part of our life. And one that has clearly changed. As always, we need to find out what we can do better or more efficiently than others, backed up with a premium quality assurance. That seems to work for Germany and Japan...
With so much foreign investment in the US, we also need to protect our economic flanks that way. But we still
take the Chinese money hand over train load. We really are interconnected globally that if China sneezes, we watch very, very
carefully.
I don't lose much sleep over them however when they moan and groan that their economy is only surging ahead 5% instead of 10%, or more. They probably should take their entire economic output for one year and clean up the mess they've made, and start anew. They would be a powerhouse, lots of eco-green connections, the new marketing darling. Not far off. And they want their sheetrock on all our houses...
Economic protectionism can be a huge issue. What if our marvelous government in its search for revenue decides to put a 25% larger tariff on imported tractors? I bet JD would bring a lot of manufacturing back home, but remember they have built those plants over there to provide for the huge Indian and European markets also. I don't know the right answer here. We have a reasonably open market, not like we are deprived of plenty of choices.
sorry to ramble. Just wanted to add what it felt like to make something with Made In USA on it.
But I also read the HF circular too and find my bargain goodies there too. Just not my "keepers" usually.
