U.S. Furniture Makers to Seek Protection From China Imports

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7/15/03 | Dan Morse

[Texas_Dawg]

A group of American makers of wood bedroom furniture is preparing to seek protection from the U.S. government to stem a surge of imports from China that the companies say has ravaged their industry.

John Bassett, president and chief executive of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., Galax, Va., and a spokesman for the group of 14 furniture makers, said the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade intends to file an antidumping petition this fall with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

[Texas_Dawg]

A spoiled few seeking to have the government forcibly remove the money of the rest of all Americans.

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[MEG33]

You must have missed all the threads on the manufacturing jobs lost by moves to China.Will be shifting all military manufacturing to China ?

[Texas_Dawg]

What does that have to do with making me pay more for my furniture?

[MEG33]

Not a thing and the point was made that we always go for cheaper but the thread was concerning the big picture of how our economy can survive with such a huge trade deficit and the rest of the world holding so many dollars.There are no answers and the unemmployment rates make one concerned about turmoil and a move toward socialism/Marxism.We used to sell to the world..Now we are buyers.

[Rodney King]

You are not supposed to use phony headlines.

[Texas_Dawg]

How is that phony?

[bmwcyle]

Post the headline so more than one post can be avoided. You can add you comments in the post.

[Texas_Dawg]

How long are people going to fret about trade deficits until they realize they are not a big deal? Pat Buchanan has been crying about these for years, and all our economy and personal income levels have done are grow.

[Rodney King]

Uh, because it is not the headline of the article. We have a rule here of posting proper headlines to avoid duplication.

[Texas_Dawg]

I see. OK. My bad.

[warchild9]

Justice defined in this situation: whether the bribes, er, campaign contributions, from the Communist Chinese are greater than those from the furniture manufacturers. And, sir, you are supporting buying from a Communist dictatorship here. If it were the Soviet Union, would you be as sanguine?

[Texas_Dawg]

If it were the Soviet Union, would you be as sanguine?

If they're selling product X to me for $10, whereas some Democrat American union wants $20 for it, I'm paying $10. Don't really care who it is or what they choose to go do with it (we can defend ourselves just fine, anyway, with the money we save).

[afz400]

"If they're selling product X to me for $10, whereas some Democrat American union wants $20 for it, I'm paying $10. Don't really care who it is or what they choose to go do with it (we can defend ourselves just fine, anyway, with the money we save)".
The Chinese are using our money to build weapons that will surely be used to try to destroy us, much like the Japanese did before WW2. Your complacent, naive attitude will condemn the next generation of Americans to fight a horrible war with China that we may in fact lose. But what do you care, you're getting your cheap living room set now and that's all that matters to you. What a selfish, foolish attitude IMHO.

[warchild9]

The unions are defunct, sir. What's killing us economically now is globalism. We're being deindustrialized with our own tax money (which supports the move of jobs overseas). A deindustrializing country is a dying country. Jefferson had it right, and the suits running this country at present are traitors.

[Texas_Dawg]

The Chinese are using our money to build weapons that will surely be used to try to destroy us, much like the Japanese did before WW2. Your complacent, naive attitude will condemn the next generation of Americans to fight a horrible war with China that we may in fact lose.

Tin foil alert.

You using the federal government to take my money for your cause... the Left using the federal government to take my money for welfare... what's the difference? You both rant and rave, but you're totalitarians just the same.

[Texas_Dawg]

1) The unions are defunct, sir.

2) What's killing us economically now is globalism.

1) The unions are defunct? Have you been to the Northeast recently or seen how much money American unions give to the Democratic Party?

2) Since when are we dying economically?

[AngryJawa]

These manufacturing associations could spend their money more wisely by banding together to buy advertising that shows the reasons why we need to buy American. Joe Sixpack doesn't tend to think about the broader ramifications of buying cheap slave-built crap at Wal-Mart, but a good, nasty, pointed ad campaign may wake him up.

Throwing lobbyist money at politicians just isn't the answer.

[Capriole]

I absolutely disagree. If the Gustav Stickley company goes out of business, that is little less than a tragedy. These are skilled American craftsmen, sustaining a long and important tradition of furniture making that preserves a cultural heritage going back over 300 years. Americans are throwing their money away on this bastard Chinese garbage that is executed with no understanding of traditional American/English forms. We are losing our heritage here.

American workers are losing their jobs and pensions, and American families are losing their homes, too, with no replacement jobs in many of these Southern communities. Is it being "spoiled" to protest that? If you lose your job and your home, are you spoiled?

If, in the name of saving money for yourself, you want to buy Chinese crap and feed the vast Chinese economic machine that has explicitly threatened to nuke Los Angeles, that's your prerogative. But in years past we had a name for people who traded with the enemy, and it's not an attractive one. Please reconsider your purchase. Buy the few American-made products we have left.

[warchild9]

Over 60% of union members now work for government. That means the police back up whatever they want. Their numbers in the private sector are comparatively miniscule. You, sir, are more upset where their bribes go. You should be more concerned that their wishes can't be opposed by the taxpayers.
Second, I'll restate myself: a country living on debt, which produces nothing but weapons and commodities, is a dying country. Deindustrialization equals destruction of the middle class. No middle class equals national death.
Sir, read your history. We're not the first who've gone down this road.