a1gutterman wrote:
Some of you retired people will say something like, "I live on a fixed income, and Chinese products are cheap, whereas American products cost too much." To those of you I say this: When there are no American workers contributing to the retirement system (Read that as Social Security) because there are no American jobs to be had, your retirement income will cease to be.
I am not retired and I too live on a fixed income. The one that I earn. The one that helps to pay your retirement income. I still find a way to support the American worker EVERY time that I can. I have NEVER owned a "foriegn" car, whether it was built overseas or right here in our own country. I ALWAYS look at a product to see it's origin.
We, the American public, are buying Chinese goods as fast as they can ship them here. Our government makes it way too easy for those products to be sold here. The Chinese government makes it nearly impossible for their citizens to buy product that is made here. There are many, many reasons to NOT buy Chinese. I will not even go into them here.
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Wow! I've tried real hard to stay out of this discussion. There is another side to this Chinese conundrum. Maybe 5 or 6 sides!
Let's first try to remember the good ol' days, when everything we had in our markets was made in the U.S.A. We made it out of a recession and the troops came back from WWII. They all needed jobs! This was the time when Unions strove to get their members What they called a living wage.
After several decades, when the contracts were signed with manufacturers, we found the Union members were making more than the average college grad that had been on the job for multiple years. The wages weren't the only thing. There were the fringe benefits. An added cost to the employer of
at least 25%. (In the timber industry in Montana in the 90s, workers compensation alone was over 50%) Complicated with the increased cost of medical insurance, worker's Compensation. The manufacturers called "ENOUGH!!. They started looking for new ways to keep the companies going! Parts made in foreign countries was one of the favored solutions. If those parts weren't made by cheaper labor, we would have lost the manufacturers!!!!
This was a multiple faceted problem. Not only was the manufacturing cost too high to maintain, but the same thing was happening in the raw materials companies. As we strove for more automation, for more production, the costs also skyrocketed. For example, standing timber that used to cost around $10/MBF in the 50s and 60s reached over $300 in the 90s. Same thing happened with steel and aluminum.
Well, that syndrome was followed by more demands by local employees to compensate for their losses. The issues grew and grew like Topsy! Pretty soon most parts are foreign made - then whole products!
On the sorry side of this is the thought this syndrome will not stop until World wages stabilize so all manufacturing countries have equal (at least proportional) wages.
Can we blame our Govt? Yes, but because of the election costs that required the use of lobbyist $. Lobbyists, representing many corporations, although not elected, have a lot of power. (How did NAFTA get drafted and approved?) Can we now ban goods from foreign countries? No way! Because foreign interests OWN too many things, including land in the U.S.A. - There is too much power here to overcome without a complete overhaul! Don't think that will happen very soon! And I really can't say the import/export tariffs/laws/changes have in total, been a bad thing. The World economies are changing and so are we. It really had become a World economy. We are only starting to see the migration of manufacturing from place to place. There is a lot more to come! Have we lost jobs? No!! actually the number of jobs in the U.S. has increased during the past years. There is just different folks doing different things.
About automobiles: The quality of American autos, from Detroit, got so poor that in order to compete, they began buying parts made in Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, etc. And it is a good thing they did! Otherwise there would be NO American cars on the road. How many 1970 American cars do you see on the road today - as opposed to 1970 German, Swedish, Japanese? Yes, we own a VW 'New Beetle' that will go down the road at over 100 MPH. However an American brand Family car has been our major source of transportation since the 90s. Each one of the 4 of these has had parts made in a foreign country. Our Dodge vans are assembled in Canada, from parts from the World.
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
Delta Benchtop planer, Makita LS1016L 10" sliding compound miter saw, Trojan manf. (US Made)Miter saw work center, MiniMax MM16 bandsaw.
