Tractor Shortages

[Paystar]

Is anything actually fully made in USA anymore?

Know what's really sad? If you look under the Cat M series loaders I run there are all kinds of parts stamped "China". ALL the hydraulic fittings for instance. And the build tag "Made in Brazil with foreign and domestic parts."
And the brand new 330GC excavator "made in Japan"

Remember when Caterpillar used to be a proud American company?

 

[finn1]

You guys watch too much Faux

 

[Jchonline]

We are all looking at tougher times ahead. I think the economy has been changed forever and is only going to get worse.
Just look at all the things these new governments and the people that voted for them are trying to do.

No more combustion engines, no more fuels, no more cattle or real meat, more taxes, higher food costs. Heck they are so awesome they are even going to change the climate cycle by charging you more tax! LOL

One that really makes me laugh is every time I hear on the news about the supply change shortages being partly caused by the shortage of truckers.
There is no shortage of truckers, just a shortage becuase of truckers that have got out of the industry (like I have after being a driver and an owner for 37 years) because nobody wants to pay, over regulation to the point you are treated like a criminal, and all the "new" drivers they are importing that are making a trip down the highway a suicide mission now.

Saw a WSJ article today saying that the governments super idea of stepping to get the port of LA and Long Beach to move to 24/7 has done absolutely nothing. No trucks are there to pick up cargo after normal business hours, so the dock workers just stare at each other. They require so many confirmed pickups by truckers before they will stay open past 8-5p,and that has only happened for 1 day in the past month….so it has done nothing.

 

[jmc]

You guys watch too much Faux

While I think that the propaganda/industrial complex has become toxic for our country, I'm not seeing it on this thread yet. I do see a healthy skepticism about current industrial "wisdom" here.

We have international consulting outfits that come up with these concepts, anywhere from inventory management, human resource issues, and shady corporate tax strategies. They peddle these to corporations everywhere for big bucks. Managements who buy their advice get bonuses if they work and can blame the consultants if they blow up.

Seems like a basic component of "just in time" inventory management should be the cost of the components. You don't want a month's worth of engines on the books at $2000 each but chips might be different. Once you pay for the tooling, a month's worth of chips may only cost a few dollars each. But lacking a $2 chip is as bad as a lacking a $2000 engine at the end of an assembly line. "Too many chips" seem like cheap insurance. Do consultants parse that?

 

[Jchonline]

THIS! ! ! It absolutely amazes me how we got to this point. So few factories left in this country. It astounds me that the Virus came from China, and the vast percentage of PPE has Chinese writing on it. Why the hey didn’t the US step up and say, we will not support China in the is virus response. We needed to step up and handle it. We have lost our self-sufficiency as a nation and could not exist if our borders were cut off by a foreign power.
It is a shame, this once GREAT Nation is now so dependent on Other nations for our goods. I totally understand businesses going to China to have products made for cents on the dollar, but we are Killing our nations future.
OK. . . I’m off my soapbox, but I really do not see the future any brighter when the world is so small now.

Jez where are you in Eustace? My parents place is just West of town on 175. They grew up there, moved to the city, then retired in the same house 20 years ago.

To answer the question….we have no one to blame but ourselves. Most of us wont buy USA made due to the costs. Businesses in a capitalist market compete on margin, not quality of product (at least not any longer). Somehow we have gotten ok with disposing of things we purchase 2 years later…creating more trash……
So if you can get it from China for 1/5th the cost…..we continue to buy it.

 

[Midniteoyl]

You guys watch too much Faux

What do you mean? I dont watch that MSNBC or CNN faux news stuff at all.. Or Fox news either, for that matter.

 

[Paystar]

All we need to know is this is way too complicated to fix now that the world has become so overly complex.
We all know how to fix one problem, but then it would just have a chain reaction.

The other big problem causers in this world is the fear mongering media. Instead of censoring us on forums and you tube they should be censoring all the brain washing the media keeps feeding people daily.

 

[Paystar]

We don't need to worry about any of this. According to the media we are all going to die from climate change with covid by next year anyway.

 

[Hay Dude]

You guys watch too much Faux

I’ll just convince myself all the closed rust belt industrial companies in my area, tore up rail road tracks, schools no longer offering vocational educations and all the stuff in my house stamped “made in China” is just an illusion….

 

[Hay Dude]

Jez where are you in Eustace? My parents place is just West of town on 175. They grew up there, moved to the city, then retired in the same house 20 years ago.

To answer the question….we have no one to blame but ourselves. Most of us wont buy USA made due to the costs. Businesses in a capitalist market compete on margin, not quality of product (at least not any longer). Somehow we have gotten ok with disposing of things we purchase 2 years later…creating more trash……
So if you can get it from China for 1/5th the cost…..we continue to buy it.

I agree we must blame ourselves with a slight twist. I believe we must blame our leaders, not the average citizen. When I say leaders, it’s not just government either.

As long as the value is there, I would pay slightly more for US made. I would like to see a return to some form of independence from complete dependency on China.
It’s funny how when that is suggested, you get labeled an “isolationist”. It’s not isolationism, it’s self preservation. Lighten up.
Theres nothing isolationist about having the ability to produce some of everything you need.

Lookit the Covid crisis. No PPE. We had to ask companies here to make PPE and ventilators.
What’s wrong with being able to make a decent amount of these critical products here? PPE, microchips, electronics, medications? How about some critical minerals and metals? Whats so bad about that?

 

[5030]

I wonder how much those 200 or so cargo ships off the CA coast warm the globe and effect climate with their exhausts spewing diesel fumes for months on end? You could probably drive 1000 Toyota Camrys across the USA a billion times and make less pollution…

Most of them today are T4 compliant. Lot of DEF in there..........

 

[jezreel]

Jez where are you in Eustace? My parents place is just West of town on 175. They grew up there, moved to the city, then retired in the same house 20 years ago.

Wow! ! ! That’s crazy. Eustace is TINY. I have 38 acres about 5 minutes East of Purtis Creek State Park. 15mins East of town. Great place to retire.

 

[jyoutz]

I’ll just convince myself all the closed rust belt industrial companies in my area, tore up rail road tracks, schools no longer offering vocational educations and all the stuff in my house stamped “made in China” is just an illusion….

Those situations were created by the stock market and industry bean counters, not government.

 

[Williy]

I just learned that the reason the freight is not coming
in or leaving California very quickly is the stupid CA
laws. Example: the dock people can't hire contract
trucking and were told to cancel the stupid CA laws
and get the freight moving. CA banned all small gas
engines so what are the people suppose to do when
CA shuts down the power for some stupid reason?
People in the country need generators to run their
wells and refrigerators etc. Just a way to control
the people and get them depending on the gov

willy

 

[Torvy]

Those situations were created by the stock market and industry bean counters, not government.

Unfortunately, the rules here preclude the opportunity to refute and debunk this statement.

 

[rScotty]

Well, in the west quick profit is the short game, no other matter is given any thought, no social responsibility, no wish to be an positive member of society and we let them do it. China and other countries plays the long game, a game we don't understand or even sense, I do think some of the problems we now facing might be a move in this long game. Hopefully we will respond with understanding that deindustrialization is one very dangerous strategy, we looses jobs and fare more important is that we looses knowledge which make us weak and easy to control by others.

OK.... THE LONG GAME..... I have to admit that is something that had not occurred to me. Thank you for a brand new thought.

I'm not sure I believe in the Long Game, but I can see how it might work. Let's see if I have it right.....

A manufacturing country - say China for the sake of example - could identify some kind of a shortage like tractor parts. So playing the LONG GAME means they make the parts and get paid for them, but send so many cargo ships all at once that they overload a whole harbor and associated distribution network

Not only did the Long Game players get paid for the parts in advance, but they created a whole social crisis and division in the country buying the parts....AND... at the same time prevented that country from tooling up to make their own parts.

I guess it could be so, but frankly it sounds unlikely.
It requires too many unlikely things happening all at the same time.
When reality is stretched that far it begins to smell like conspiracy theory to me.

rScotty

 

[Hay Dude]

Most of them today are T4 compliant. Lot of DEF in there..........

So THATS where all the Wal Mart DEF went!!!!!!
To the CARGO SHIPS!!!!

 

[Agvg]

China has plans to become a superpower, when you have those plans you think in decades, and it's difficult to really know where the commercial business ends and the party begins. China has forced western industry in to joint venture agreements to access the Chinese market, no reason for this execept get knowledge in to China. To look at China with a pure capitalist view is a gift for China. China is not to blame, blame those that just see short time profit.

 

[Torvy]

China has plans to become a superpower, when you have those plans you think in decades, and it's difficult to really know where the commercial business ends and the party begins. China has forced western industry in to joint venture agreements to access the Chinese market, no reason for this execept get knowledge in to China. To look at China with a pure capitalist view is a gift for China. China is not to blame, blame those that just see short time profit.

Hard for most westerners to grasp the fact that there is no appreciable difference between a Chinese company and the Chinese government.

 

[IndyJay]

Those situations were created by the stock market and industry bean counters, not government.

What is a "Lobbyist"?