Buying American, is it important?

[Builder]

I wouldn't be so hard on us "dreamers" who still wish some things were American made. We only want to see our kids grow up in a world where Americans once ruled supreme, so they could have the hope of doing the same.

Once we become the pretty much has-been paper tiger who makes nothing more than cheeseburgers and lawsuits, you can send the wolves in to finish us dreamers off.

 

[riptides]

We only want to see our kids grow up in a world where Americans once ruled supreme, so they could have the hope of doing the same.

wow!

I just want my kids to compete and enjoy life.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I wouldn't be so hard on us "dreamers" who still wish some things were American made. We only want to see our kids grow up in a world where Americans once ruled supreme, so they could have the hope of doing the same.

Once we become the pretty much has-been paper tiger who makes nothing more than cheeseburgers and lawsuits, you can send the wolves in to finish us dreamers off. [/QUOTE]

Keep Buying Chinese guys. You are supporting a communist gov't. Over 1 billion of them and less than 4 hundred million of us. Better start learning how to speak Chinese. Historically, the countries that manufactured goods have been the superpowers. We're on our way to becoming a third world country.

 

[mjncad]

Unfortunately we are all witnessing the beginning of the decline and fall of the United States of America.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Unfortunately we are all witnessing the beginning of the decline and fall of the United States of America.

I agree... small political turn here... but why we do keep voting for politicians that have no intention of doing anything about it and/or returning us to a point where our government is not so huge and corrupt that it requires companies to go abroad to be competitive. Given the options that we have for this next election I only see things getting worse, not better.

 

[VAChesterfield]

If you want your children and grandchildren to compete and win, to enjoy life, to help our country grow and prosper then help ensure they become educated and skilled in tomorrow's knowledge and skills, not yesterdays. Our world is undergoing a tremendous transformation, and we either transform along with it, or we fail.

It saddens me to see my employer, one of the largest private employers in the US, struggle to hire native born US citizens who possess the skills and education we as a company need to compete and win ... here in the US. That's right, right here in the US. Most of the revenue our US employees generate comes from customers right here at home ... only a small portion of the product and services we produce in the US is exported. Which is not to say we aren't a global company ... we are very much so, with well over 100,000 employees outside the US -- producing for the global economy to include customers in the US.

From time to time I have the opportunity to participate in the hiring of young people for my company and I am amazed at the number of "kids" whose parents have paid good money for little Johnny or little Susie to get a college degree in a "soft skill" with little marketability outside of the education industry. As a nation, we need good teachers (and firefighters, and police, and Soldiers, and fill in the blank), and a great many more of them, but we also need millions of young people educated in information technology, the medical arts, the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering. Those are the growth areas in tomorrow's economy.

Manufacturing, like agriculture before it, is headed towards relegation as a niche player in our economy ... and eventually, in the economies of China and India. Robots and other forms of automated manufacturing, more than cheap human labor, will be the big drivers in that shift.

Once upon a time, agriculture was the dominant force in any country's economy, then great superpowers arose because they controlled international trade, then, based on the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing took center stage and powered our nation's rise to superpower status.

Now, another significant transformation is underway .... we either get aboard or we get left behind.

 

[Builder]

If you want your children and grandchildren to compete and win, to enjoy life, to help our country grow and prosper then help ensure they become educated and skilled in tomorrow's knowledge and skills, not yesterdays. Our world is undergoing a tremendous transformation, and we either transform along with it, or we fail.

It saddens me to see my employer, one of the largest private employers in the US, struggle to hire native born US citizens who possess the skills and education we as a company need to compete and win ... here in the US. That's right, right here in the US. Most of the revenue our US employees generate comes from customers right here at home ... only a small portion of the product and services we produce in the US is exported. Which is not to say we aren't a global company ... we are very much so, with well over 100,000 employees outside the US -- producing for the global economy to include customers in the US.

From time to time I have the opportunity to participate in the hiring of young people for my company and I am amazed at the number of "kids" whose parents have paid good money for little Johnny or little Susie to get a college degree in a "soft skill" with little marketability outside of the education industry. As a nation, we need good teachers (and firefighters, and police, and Soldiers, and fill in the blank), and a great many more of them, but we also need millions of young people educated in information technology, the medical arts, the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering. Those are the growth areas in tomorrow's economy.

Manufacturing, like agriculture before it, is headed towards relegation as a niche player in our economy ... and eventually, in the economies of China and India. Robots and other forms of automated manufacturing, more than cheap human labor, will be the big drivers in that shift.

Once upon a time, agriculture was the dominant force in any country's economy, then great superpowers arose because they controlled international trade, then, based on the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing took center stage and powered our nation's rise to superpower status.

Now, another significant transformation is underway .... we either get aboard or we get left behind.

Pretty, poetic & philosophic, but the fact remains that we're a paper tiger if we can't even make the steel for a Navy vessel anymore.

Industry may be a thing of the past to us, but to our national security, it's as important as anything.

Our next war will be with China. Even an idiot knows that. Might not be an actual battle, but more of a cold war/trade war thing. In fact, I believe it's already started.

What will we do when everything we need to survive is made in China and we're at war with them?

 

[Builder]

I agree... small political turn here... but why we do keep voting for politicians that have no intention of doing anything about it and/or returning us to a point where our government is not so huge and corrupt that it requires companies to go abroad to be competitive. Given the options that we have for this next election I only see things getting worse, not better.

I totally agree. Unfortunately, we're going to have to go through a period of immense failure to finally kill off the 2 party system which is ruining the US and hope a new way emerges from the wreckage. The reason we'll have to fail is there's too many fat, complacent, uneducated people that just don't care about anything more than their next smoke break or Mc'D's drivethru meal experience.

Until then, the best you can do is register yourself as an independent and follow the uprise of some new independent candidates.

 

[Ductape]

Couldn't agree more Builder !!

 

[unreconstructed]

I think the answer to your question, Messick Farm, is quite simple. With a fiat currency our central government in Washington has been able to create both a welfare and warfare state. Most of our politicians are not statesmen like Patrick Henry and John c Calhoun but are charlatans and redistributionists who promise us not freedom but freedom from want if I may quote FDR--how the pie gets divided. There are as many voters who get money from Washington as not. Even us 18th century liberals in the vein of Thomas Jefferson are beneficiaries of Washington--farm subsidies/military retirement/social security and so on. So we vote for whom we think will take from the other guy and give to us.

We are a nation that is fat and heading for a diet. China et al are emerging
nations with people hungry for what we have had. They will have the competitive edge until we slim up and get hungry again. Our PC education system will not prepare the upcoming generation to go out and kick @#$. I do not know how we will regain our strength.