Buying American

[Ken45101]

However until our own U.S. companies are made to pay a price for exporting American jobs over seas you can wish in one hand, and you know what in the other.

You are funny :laughing:

The problem is not the corporations, they are responding to consumer demand. Any company that ignores the reality of consumer demand will price themselves out of the market and the business will fail, as have many good American companies.

The real base of the problem is that consumers want to buy, buy, buy, but want it at low, low prices. (Sound familiar?) A corporation has two choices: manufacturer overseas, or lose their customers to low price competitors who do so.

Just recently I was reading about some major Interstate bridge work (billions of dollars) being done in the San Francisco area. All the steel is coming from Japan. Any contractor who bid with U.S. steel lost the bidding.

"We have met the enemy....and he is us." (Pogo)

 

[5030]

But it's a start. As they say. 100 people change their buying practice creates jobs in America.

Thats true. I'd like to mention the 'made in america website' that lists American companies that manufacture products right here from predominately domestic sourced materials.... "Made in USA".

Gaw'd I hope I don't get my PP slapped for this but my company is listed there.....

One problem is the disparity between the cost of domestic products and those coming from offshore. It's very hard to compete with sweatshop labor, low wage standards and non - existent tarriff's, especially when the very countries that are dumping goods here, have very restrictive tarrifs on goods imported to their countries.

That very thing (tarriffs) is what makes the trade gap so wide and only the Central Government can change that. You, as a voter can force that change but that's the only way.... short of a revolution......

The whole scenario would change in a matter of weeks if the legislators in this country would adopt a policy of protectionism and institute tarrifs on imported goods. Until that happens, the trade imbalance will keep growing, China will keep on getting larger and more powerful and we'll keep on sliding into the abyss of a third world economy, something we a getting close to tight now.... I'm not gonna get into that.

Sawyer's postulation is wonderful and makes good copy but the root problem lies elsewhere....

 

[woodlandfarms]

My tractor is made in america. At least it's chasis is and I guess a some of the parts (Anyone know where Danfoss pumps originate) The engine is German (Deutz), but the company is 100% US Owned. It is a small mom and pop (relatively speaking for a manufacturing company of mining equipment). but they weathered the economic crisis with little effect.

I don't think it is possible right now to run your life by the 100% rule. But in little ways we think about it, stop hitting up harbor freight or walmart for everything, and just look at these lists that are out there, those little bits will help immensely. It is about volume, not single purchases, but single purchases make volume.

As for the evil government and greedy corps and the right and the left. Money is the evil. Money corrupts, morals go out the window, and regulations get put in place to protect those who are negatively effected by greed. Vicious circle that can only be broken by a moral change in the how we Americans approach living our lives and look at material items.

Let me say (against my felllow left) that greed is good. It just needs the tempering of morality which for many different reasons seems to be forgotten for the moment.

 

[rd_macgregor]

I'm not a fan of tariffs, but if they exist I think any tariff activity should be reactionary. That is, the US should mirror the tariff structure of countries it trades with. If China puts up tariff barriers to US goods, then the US could reflect that trade distortion in equivalent trade barriers against Chinese goods.

Having said that, free trade is kind of like international aid or equalization. Money and jobs flow to where comparative advantage exists. Poor people are willing to work for a lower wage than rich people. So, when labor gets too costly in developed countries, labor-intensive activities go where folks will work for peanuts. This is still good for the guys and gals working for peanuts (that is, they are better off than they were), but not so good for those who priced themselves out of the market.

Note that post WWII it was Japan that flooded the market with cheap Asian knock-offs. Then, later, with high-quality, innovative stuff. Now, labor isn't cheap in Japan and, despite lots of mechanization, the Japanese economy isn't so robust. Korea (South) is headed down the same path and maybe even in China wages will eventually rise high enough to become less competitive, opening the door to the next rising star (India?, Africa?). As long as we in the West stay addicted to buying ever more "stuff", the cheapest producer will be on the rise, whoever it may be.
Also,eventually, even China will have to implement more rigorous environmental controls on its industries, or they'll all choke on their own effluent!

I worry more that we in the West don't seem to produce as much real stuff anymore. Too much of our economy is purely "service" (everything from hair dresser to banker to actor to burger-flipper, store clerk, lawyer, management consultant, pro-athlete, politician, etc., etc.), which I don't really consider to be producing real wealth...rather, it just moves money around; somebody has to produce the underlying wealth or there won't BE any to move around amongst all those service jobs! Adding value is all very good, but it has to be added TO something at the base. Real wealth isn't something they just print at the US mint!
BOB

BOB

 

[jonyyuma]

Bob, you might be right about China and its step down from grace and cheap materials and goods. WSj had a article saying we might be surprised at how high Chinese products will be in the near future? US jobs seem to be coming back at a dribble?

 

[Branchchipper]

Very good posts!

Buying something simply because it is the cheapest is usually not a long-term win for the "consumer." (I hate that word)

I am struck by how much of our economy and transportation infrastructure is committed to importing incredibly inferior goods from China, selling them in Walmart (and other places I won't enter), and then conveying them into landfills within a year.

In a sense, we are filling our dumps with money and petroleum, neither of which we have an excess of...

What a system!

 

[grsthegreat]

Well, until the USA does away with garbage like the EPA we will never have items made in America..cause the Steel will have to come from overseas, Any part that makes the slightest bit of pollution during its manufacture (plastics, etc) are increasingly being shut down or regulated to death.

****, farmers in Calif have had their water shut off to protect a smelt (or some such useless fish). Until we start to be able to produce products in USA again....well have to buy from overseas and thats the only way to look at this.

We have regulated the USA out of the supply line.

 

[Lloyd_E]

I was pleasantly surprised the other day...

I bought a really high end fine wood working square for about $35. It is made in Japan and is forged and has a tolerance of being within square by 0.1mm per 100mm. Made of forged stainless.

So I go to my usual haunt which sells a lot of imported stuff. I bring the new square with me and check it against a framing square... actually two different models. They are bang on!
And both are made in the USA and retail just above and just below the $10 mark up here.

So I guess you have to shop around and look at your country of manufacturing... ya never know!

 

[wawajake]

I realize many Americans may not like to hear this but if you don't want imports from other countries , does that include Canadian oil? electricity ? Wood?
Where does it stop , because as soon as you start becoming protectionist against Canadian products (or other country products) you would need to be prepared when those countries add a tax on oil or other items you need thus raising your costs to get reliable products. Or worse other countries will start to become protectionist also and soon you are only selling your products in the 50 states.
It is a fine line to walk, and I recognize the passion of trying to save USA jobs, but as much as all of Canada and USA hate seeing the import of substandard products and substandard working and environmental standards, from China and Indonesia etc....we need to make sure we don't effect the countries closer to you that do apply very similar standards to yours and deserve a more level "free trade approach". So those protectionist measures should be very focussed on just those countries that abuse the patent laws and enviro and work standards.

Sincerely
From a Canadian who drives an American Dodge truck and USA made Kubota and a Lincoln Welder , (but prefers his Canadian beer !)

 

[crazyal]

Very good posts!

Buying something simply because it is the cheapest is usually not a long-term win for the "consumer." (I hate that word)

You do understand that buying something because of where it's built also doesn't translate to what's best for the consumer.

The way I see it is I spend the money I work for on what I see as the best for me. Secondly I don't shop at places like Walmart because life is too short to stand in line.

Is it better to buy a car built in Mexico by a US based company or a car built in the US by an Asian based company?

But the way the things are going it's just a matter of time before most mfg jobs will be replaced with robots and the new jobs will be programmers and techs needed to service the equipment.