</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My thoughts , just buy something that has the company at least based in the U.S.A.. keep as much money here as we can...I know it sounds hypocritical since I own a Mahindra 2015, but it was a gift...JohnJ )</font>
Which tractor do you know of which fits his budget, is in the same class and is 100% made in the US with 100% US parts.
I can understand the thought here; 1. to save American jobs and 2. to keep money in the country.
With Japanese tractors,
It is also interesting to note that with the weak dollar to Yen, Kubota is making alot less money then say JD on each tractor. Last time I checked, in Japan the cost of living in Japan was at least as high if not higher then in the US. I don't think any company in right mind would start making tractors in Japan vs US to save money on labor and to make more money. They are actually making a lot less for a tractor sold for the same price as a US made JD model.
So this begs the question, just where is all the extra money going? To hire more US workers? Or into executive's and shareholder's pockets? I don't think JD management would pick the first one. They could certainly achieve the goal of putting more money into worker's pockets, however that WONT happen. Here is why.
If JD executives really wanted to save American jobs they would increase production through demand. This would cause them to hire more people. They can do this by dropping the price to eat into their huge profit margin (comparied to say Kubota). I will let you decide how to stimulate demand at this point. Decreasing the price while maintaining quality, will certainly increase the appeal of the tractor (as JD is quite a bit more expensive then Kubota). This cause them to hire more workers, hopeful in the US. ;-) However, this will cut into their profit on a short term basis and shareholder's wont be happy. Executive bonuses won't be paid out, they will have to invest more money into factory capital expenditures, etc. I don't beleave this is very attractive to them. Just like Harley Davidson, they would rather continue to make large profits margins on each unit with less US labor on the basis that it is made in the US and it is good for American jobs and keeps money in the US. I will let you be the judge as if this statement is completely, true or not. Building an low production American product, which is more expensive then a high production quality Japanese product does very little to benefit the common US citizen.
In fact, I can prove the buying a high quality high production product from a Japanese company can actually help the common US citizen. To give more weight to my US dollar to Yen comparision and cost of living.
You will be interested to know that Japanese companies, like Honda and Toyotoa, are now building cars in the US and EXPORTING them back to Japan (as well as other places on the globe) to resale.. Sounds crazy? Why?? They making more money building a car in the US and shipping it back to Japan then to build it local in Japen. Think about it. So is it a bad idea to build a US made Camary, Accord, Civic, Subaru Legacy, etc?
Same thing happens with BMW X3/X5 and Mercedes Benz SUVs. These are made here and sold all around the world including Germany.
So is buying a foreign product not all that bad? No!!! That is not what I am saying. I do think the goal to save American jobs would be better served by NOT buying POORLY made tractors made in China. China up till recently, tracked the US dollar and so the weak US dollar did not affect profit margins for these companies. The POOR quaility comes from a high usage of cheap Chinese labor vs. the use of high quaility manufacturing equipment (which don't care what soil you put them on). In China there would rather throw people at the problem then expensive technology, equipment and high quaility material. Quality is always second to cost. People will tolerate poor quaility if the price is dramatically less.
So what does all this mean?? I completely agree with you that you should avoid buying poorly made foreign tractors from countries with a relatively low cost of living comparies to the US. China, India, Russia, Mexico. However, I don't think buying from Japan, South Korea and Europe is a bad thing when you consider how much to costs to build the product, including labor costs, vs the selling price and where the money actually goes. If most of the selling price goes to labor, not executives and shareholders, I don't care about the origin of the Company. If not sure, how much of the selling price goes to labor. Buy the one with the HIGHEST quality and reliability. Remember, corporation have no loyality to the workforce. They will do whatever will generate the most profit and return to their shareholders.
just my 2 cents. maybe 2 1/2 cents.
-Alex
