Posted on 11/27/2008 6:51:36 PM PST by kellynla
Charlotte, N.C. - One thing the financial crisis shows is that the United States is in trouble because Americans have stopped making stuff.
It used to be that we made a lot of stuff: televisions, clothes, washing machines, radios, typewriters, shoes, telephones, and furniture. And we also used to make the stuff out of which stuff was made: steel, aluminum, plastic, rubber, glass, and electrical components. Today that's largely made overseas. They send us their stuff and we send them our money.
It also used to be that Americans liked to make stuff. Think of all the things Thomas Edison invented. Or consider Henry Ford, who made the car affordable, perfected the assembly line, and paid workers a decent wage. Countless others, such as my grandfather, worked as toolmakers and machinists because they liked to work with their hands. Today we rely on people around the world to do that innovation for us.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
bump
I’ll buy American if the price is good and not union made.
Nowadays the government relies on taxes. But once upon a time, tariffs played an important role in funding government expenditures and in directing agricultural and industrial growth in this country. It might not be so bad to get back to the wider use of tariffs — some might see it as “protectionist” but maybe we need a little protecting. And it certainly doesn’t go against the vision of our Founding Fathers.
Agreed. Sadly, purchasing Chinese-made products is more pro-USA than buying anything made by a unionized US company.
Agree with his article with the addition of getting rid of unions, lawyers, some OSHA regs, welfare to make it work.
Although Japan has it’s problems, the work ethic there is so loyal and ordered (from what I’ve seen) which makes for good support.
I’d like to do that kind of stuff for myself and other hard-working Americans.
Americans want American made goods but the reality for many is cost prohibitive. I’m fotunate in the fact that I can afford to be picky.
The America of today wouldn’t survive WWII because we would be outsourcing bomber production to nazi Germany.
Yup, it’s the unions that caused the demise of domestic buying.
What percentage of men in their late teens have dirt under their fingernails these days? Is the neighbor’s kid cutting the grass, shoveling the snow, cooking the short orders?
Chinese made goods are sh*t and their ability to supply their own needs will be derived from their ability to supply us.
When they can't supply us and themselves, then the jobs will return here.
Unions take note. You cost too damn much. Why else would an Americam business man go offshore?
And more dangerous. Sadly we have been funding our own destruction
the United States is in trouble because Americans have stopped making stuff.
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So now we’ve got a Great Democrat Congress and President to raise tax rates and Americans will start making all kinds of stuff /sarcasm on full blast
Financing a union is no different. All that money goes into organized crime as well as the Democrat party.
>> I’ll buy American if the price is good and not union made.
Union labor can and do provide word class products and services. And that’s not an excuse for the adverse effects of LU bureaucracy.
Not as often as non-union workers, though. It is much easier to replace poor-quality non-union workers than it is to replace poor-quality union workers.
That redundant :)
My first car was a Ford Pinto(went on strike for 6 months 1976). My last (and only other) American car was a Geo Prism(a Toyoda Corolla.) There must be a better way of successful american products than being at the mercy of a few companies and UAW. WE cannot compete if we cant get to work like in 1970s, like East Germany till Japanese saved us. Lasty, Japan is our BEST ally.
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