[cherry]

come on now...no one thinks Uncle Phil Knight would be unAmerican now would they?...afterall, doesn’t he own a professional American football team, lock, stock and barrel?

[tgusa]

I need to go out and buy another pair of NB crosstrainers ....

[tgusa]

I need to go out and buy another pair of NB crosstrainers ....

[puppypusher]

The only athletic footwear I use is New Balance.I sure hope they continue to stay in business.

[Natural Law]

The question you have to ask yourself is does the government have a greater obligation to interfere in commerce to benefit the consumer or manufacturer. As long as Joe Sixpack price shops at Walmart American companies have to outsource to survive.

[ken21]

if they voted for comrade obama,

what do they expect?

[KC_Lion]

I am wearing a Pair of New Balance Shoes right now, I Love them, Because they are Made in the USA and they are the Most Comfortable.

To me the answer isn't tariffs but MUCH lower taxes, Corporate, sales, ect ect, and FAR LESS regulation. To me it's like attracting more flies with Honey than with Vinegar, sort of like what Canada is doing, you don't increase the Tariffs on Imports but you lower your Domestic taxes to where it is behenfical for businesses to operate factories there.

[de.rm]

Exactly how does one go about surviving on $10/hr., seriously, I'm curious.

[econjack]

Tough issue here. If we assume the shoes are the same quality (probably not, but let’s assume so) and the US shoe sells for $70 and the import sells for $50, the consumer saves $20. Let’s also assume NB employs 2000 people and they sell 500,000 pairs of shoes each year. Consumers would spend $10 million more for the US shoes, or about a $5000/employee subsidy to the workers. I guess the question is: Do consumers want to subsidize the NB employees?

[smokingfrog]

That would be really bad news for Skowhegan.

[Olog-hai]

Liberal social policies and free-trade deals with communist countries drove off the manufacturing from this country, who used to produce half the world's goods. The seduction of super-low labor rates and executive pay that is over 300 times the average employee salary was just too much for the unpatriotic "businessmen", on top of having to subsidize the poor that the liberals pushed onto "welfare". Result? Dollars leaving the country never to return, and instead going to fund the leftist global "revolution" that is still very much an imperative in Red China's constitution and the constitutions of other communist countries.

BTW, back in 1950, the average hourly wage for manufacturing work in the USA was $1.44; in 2011 dollars, that's $13.49. How could we ever afford to have been on top, eh . . . ? I think some people need to re-read Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures to see how all these "free trade" agreements that the liberals love so much really undermine national security.

[Sherman Logan]

I’m always amazed at how many people claim to believe in the free market until it crosses a border.

I am an American consumer. I wish to purchase something made in Mexico or China.

On what free market basis does anyone have a right to tell me I can’t spend my money as I see fit?

BTW, back in the 80s I had a job where I had to wear black “work shoes,” but due to the chemicals I worked around they didn’t last long. I bought Red Wings for about $75, if I remember right, quite a large sum at the time for me. They fit great but only lasted about 8 months.

Then Walmart started importing shoes that were under $20. They were less comfortable and lasted a little less than six months. This was the equivalent of a fairly substantial pay increase for me at the time.

Why should I have been required to pay 3x the price for shoes so Red Wing guys making more than me could keep their jobs?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

We do not need “free trade” agreements.

We need import tariffs.