'Made in America' must make a comeback

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | November 28, 2008 | Paul Sedan

[reagan_fanatic]

There's still a hell of a lot of us who will only buy $39 DVD players and $300 TV's. As long as the majority of people clamor for the absolute cheapest price they can find, we'll be stuck with the chinese-made junk.

I, for one, would be more than willing to pay a few bucks more for the products I buy if I knew they were made in America. I'm tired of sending my hard-earned money over to China.

[Right Wing Assault]

As long as the majority of people clamor for the absolute cheapest price they can find, we'll be stuck with the chinese-made junk.

Amen to that. I once wasted a large amount of time trying to buy a worklight at Home Depot. They were chinese junk and the first two I bought were broken. In different ways. One of the employees accused me of breaking one of them. I would have payed double to walk out with an American one that worked.

I wish some of the stores would set up a "Made in USA" corner to sell American-made items. Or label them prominently on the shelves.

[JasonC]

I personally need services, I already have shelter and clothing and means of transportation. I need a pittance of energy goods, a tiny fraction of my income. I like books, I like travel, I occasionally find useful software that helps me do things. I don't need forty eight more metal objects banged together in a 50 year old factory.

The US economy makes $14.3 trillion in value every year. Who cares how much that value weighs?

As for who I am enriching, union workers voting for Democrats determined to surrender to enemies and raise taxes are more my enemies than most of our trading partners, who are mostly rich industrial countries incidentally.

[mo]

simple. A manufacturer is a walking bullseye...for lawyers, for unions, for municipalities, for the IRS, and for 50 other federal alphabet agencies.....no wonder “nobody likes to make things in the USA.”

[CORedneck]

Seems like the attitude today is of, for and by the executive. One thing we can do besides return manufacturing back to the USA is when goods are made, do a good job, do the right.

Take example a car. How many corners are cut ? I have a Jeep and they used 18 gauge wire for the headlamps which can barely even handle the 65 watt lamps. I wanted to run Hella H4 with the high beams using 100 watts. In order not to melt the wiring, I had to build a relay harness. Now the question, how much would it cost to put in the heavier wiring in the first place ? Probably several dollars. I am also willing to pay the money to have it done right versus half-@$$ which is prevalent in society today. I see that same attitude in places I worked at.

We use to build the best cars before the 1973/74 energy crisis and the end of the muscle car era, part I. We should build cars and other things that should be the envy of the world like what Japan does with their products. We need to return to that view once again.

I am not too fond of buying things made in China since it is giving them some rope they will hang us with. I ride motorcycle and refuse to buy the Chinese made M/C's. I will buy either American or Japanese made bikes. I also bought a MacBook a year ago and the d@mn thing was made in China. In fact I got the tracking information and it showed it was shipped from Shanghi. We should be making our own computers including laptops.

Get this, I use to work for Lockheed Martin and right before I got laid off, there was an article in the company newspaper about them opening a computer and software development center in India. My concern is are we exporting classified work over there now ? You might have separate different groups working on pieces but if they crossed paths, there could be problems. Here is why - one thing working in the classified world. You can have two different pieces of information which is non-classified. Combine it and it becomes classified.

Why ? It is all about the executives and everyone else be d@mned. These executives are not accountable to no one, not even the shareholders ! The attitude needs to change.

[wku man]

"As for who I am enriching, union workers voting for Democrats determined to surrender to enemies and raise taxes are more my enemies than most of our trading partners, who are mostly rich industrial countries incidentally."

So it's better to enrich the Chicoms, who are using the money they make off us to advance their military and space programs, buying weapons and ordnance to kill our troops in the upcoming war?

Or maybe the Indians, who are using our money to buy Russian weapons, jets and helicopters?

Sorry...I'd rather enrich Americans, and figure out a way to wrestle our manufacturing base out of the hands of the unions and 'Rats. But that would require slugging it out and getting a few bloody noses...and our side has no stomach for a fight. So we're outsourcing production of the ropes we'll hang by.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[villagerjoel]

“All that money goes into organized crime as well as the Democrat party.

That redundant :)”

Not exactly. Organized crime isn´t on the public payroll.

[RightWhale]

“We need to make stuff, not turn out more English literature majors.”

OTOH, if we have no factories then we would have no factory layoffs in a downturn, all the layoffs happening in other countries.

[Chickensoup]

We cant make a comeback, we have no capital equipment, no tool and die makers. That sort of stuff takes years to develop. And not at the killer wages that the US requires.

[mysterio]

Free trade worked so awesome. Export all jobs, import all goods, blame the unions, and print more money. We're left scrambling around playing the grabbass blame game while the remaining cash is split up by executives.

Hear that "sucking sound" yet?

[Gabz]

Organized crime isn´t on the public payroll.

When one is speaking of unions such as AFScME and NEA, yes it is. Those lobbyists are on the public payroll and they are primarily Democrats.

[dfwgator]

Yup, it’s the unions that caused the demise of domestic buying.

That and "planned obsolescence."

[AmericanVictory]

Forgive us for noting that the CSM has been a big contributor to the problem and has done very little to speak out against those who have caused it.

[kellynla]

“I..., I..., I...”

hey, genius there is more to America than You!

You self-absorbant, selfish moron!

Like 330 MILLION Americans!

and as far as blaming “union workers”
“union workers” are Americans
and unlike the Muzzies & Chicoms;
American “union workers” haven’t & don’t kill Americans!

Go check out a book, read it, get an education and
QUIT BOTHERING ME!

[GirlNextDoor]

Marked to read later. Thanks for the post.

[fightinJAG]

Conservatives have been the staunchest proponents of “Buy American,” thereby keeping, to whatever extent possible, the Big 3 automakers in business.

So conservatives “bought American.” The UAW took our money and used to to buy the presidency for a declared Socialist.

No thanks. I’ll buy an American-made Honda or Toyota next time. I’m through with that crappola.

[kellynla]

In my 30 years in business, the Japanese, Germans, French, Swedish and Koreans NEVER bought a dime of my merchandise.

Hence, when we purchased vehicles, we purchased American, thank you.

It ain’t rocket science;
Americans work when you buy American made products.