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Americans - Fight back - buy American

I've been amazed when people think $20 is too much for brake pads.

These are, you know...stopping your vehicle. Saving your life. And possibly your wife and children, and other people. (I know, Americans don't care about other people.)

Twenty bucks is too much!?! :rolleyes:
 
How do you feel about things made in Canada, or the U.K., or Germany, or Mexico, or Poland?
 
^^Mexico is a developing democracy and while their worker rights are still young I consider it a step in the right direction. Plus I confess that as neighbors I feel they and Canada both deserve more consideration. As for said Canadian products - beside Bill Shatner and Anne Murray, I'm drawing a blank.

Same for Poland.

Germany has such strict rules about labor and worker rights most of their products cost more than American made products. I genuinely enjoyed living there but I couldn't afford a lot of their stuff then and I choose American made products over German made now.

Wool sweaters - who would buy from anyone other than the Brit Isles or Australia/New Zedland!
 
A lot of cars are made in Canada, and of course, there's the Blackberry.

A lot of things like oil and air filters are made in Poland.
 
the VIN of my Chrysler Town & Country starts with a 2 so mine was made in Canada - and as a Chrysler/Daimler product it is also considered a German car - you are exactly right.

As for the air filters - I had no idea. Or that Poland was an OPEC member.
 
My Dodge pickup was built in Mexico, and amazingly, the Messican Dodges have better quality and reliability than the same model built in Ohio.

I once owned a Dodge Shadow convertible that was built in Messico. Pretty good little car.

Overall, everything made in China is shit. Little to no QA, substandard in design or materials, and from what I understand, most of whatever comes over on the ships either rusts or falls aparts during the voyage.

I find it hilarious that after the lead paint scares and every other issue, people still buy substandard shit like the lemmings they are.
 
Ok. Here is part of it:

We as a society demand the absolute lowest price we can get on any given item. We don't look for quality, we don't look for economic or environmental sustainability we look for LOW PRICE.

I have had people... people in their late 50s early sixties get into arguements with me in line at the cash register. I don't care if you don't think it's worth $5. That is the price. You can clearly see it's shoddy, it's made of poor quality material and the battery is nearly dead... and it's made in China. But you want me to lower the price even further?

Wal-Mart simply panders to this market. By doing so they have locked out our manufacturing sector and caused it to collapse in on itself.


Now as for buy american... Many american companies have had to resort to shit-in-a-box tactics to keep the lights on. Look at the molding quality of some of the Sterlite boxes and containers that are sold at the various '-marts. Thin walls, stress marks, molding defects, scratches. All manufactured on 60 year old presses by temp labor. I remember working for this company back in the early 1990s when quality mattered, slowly from 1993 to 1997 it went from "quality" to "volume" to "volume at lowest possible cost."


Now I realize there are members of that generation on this forum, so I refrain from including ALL members in my statement... but we need a generational dieoff before things will get better. The generation currently in power, the one afraid of losing their entitled retirement benefits, the ones who wrecked their health thinking that Medicaid/Medicare and Social Security would take care of them for 45+ years... those are the people that need to go.

We need people from my age group and younger to get off their asses and vote during midterm and off-year elections. It's not the President's fault we are in this situation, it's the Congresspeople both at the state government and federal government level the ones who have made 30+ year careers out of it... they need to go. Out with the incumbents who suckle at the tit of Special Interest Money and in with new blood.

Only then will we see a positive change in this country.
 
This is America - you can buy from anyone you wish. I'm "splaining why I try not to.
 
Ok. Here is part of it:

We as a society demand the absolute lowest price we can get on any given item. We don't look for quality, we don't look for economic or environmental sustainability we look for LOW PRICE.

I have had people... people in their late 50s early sixties get into arguements with me in line at the cash register. I don't care if you don't think it's worth $5. That is the price. You can clearly see it's shoddy, it's made of poor quality material and the battery is nearly dead... and it's made in China. But you want me to lower the price even further?

Wal-Mart simply panders to this market. By doing so they have locked out our manufacturing sector and caused it to collapse in on itself.


Now as for buy american... Many american companies have had to resort to shit-in-a-box tactics to keep the lights on. Look at the molding quality of some of the Sterlite boxes and containers that are sold at the various '-marts. Thin walls, stress marks, molding defects, scratches. All manufactured on 60 year old presses by temp labor. I remember working for this company back in the early 1990s when quality mattered, slowly from 1993 to 1997 it went from "quality" to "volume" to "volume at lowest possible cost."


Now I realize there are members of that generation on this forum, so I refrain from including ALL members in my statement... but we need a generational dieoff before things will get better. The generation currently in power, the one afraid of losing their entitled retirement benefits, the ones who wrecked their health thinking that Medicaid/Medicare and Social Security would take care of them for 45+ years... those are the people that need to go.

We need people from my age group and younger to get off their asses and vote during midterm and off-year elections. It's not the President's fault we are in this situation, it's the Congresspeople both at the state government and federal government level the ones who have made 30+ year careers out of it... they need to go. Out with the incumbents who suckle at the tit of Special Interest Money and in with new blood.

Only then will we see a positive change in this country.


Pretty much. Ever look at furniture built today versus 40, 50, or 80 years ago? Go find a bookcase that ISN'T made using particle board :scream:


I'm fully in favor of buying things from China. Why not?

For starters:
Preliminary reports link Chinese drywall, corrosion in U.S. homes
 
In the end the Chinese will do exactly what you tell them to do. You tell them to make this item for the lowest possible unit cost and use the absolute cheapest shipping service to get it here that's what you will get.

On the other hand, China is capable of making some really amazing high-quality products... it just in general Americans aren't willing to pay for those items. We want our disposable crap for $2 or less.
 

I think the net gain, for both countries, far exceeds the negatives.


:wtf::wtf: Say fuck---what? That's just one example of problem after problem after problem with the garbage the US is buying from China.

Only a small percentage of products have anything remotely wrong with them. By manufacturing in China you increase wealth in both countries while simultaneously growing a closer bond with China.
 
I'm fully in favor of buying things from China. Why not?

I don't get either.

Yes, China produces cheap, low quality goods. That's why they're cheap. It's an option. They aren't lying to you. You can buy the cheap option or the expensive option depending upon your needs and financial situation. And sometimes the cheaper stuff is just as good as the expensive stuff; those $2.99 component/HDMI cables are a godsend.

Also, let's not forget that by supporting the Chinese economy we are helping to improve the standard of living for over a billion people. That's a good thing.
 
I'm fully in favor of buying things from China. Why not?

I don't get either.

Yes, China produces cheap, low quality goods. That's why they're cheap. It's an option. They aren't lying to you. You can buy the cheap option or the expensive option depending upon your needs and financial situation. And sometimes the cheaper stuff is just as good as the expensive stuff; those $2.99 component/HDMI cables are a godsend.

Also, let's not forget that by supporting the Chinese economy we are helping to improve the standard of living for over a billion people. That's a good thing.
Yep! Speaking of HDMI cables, I was looking for a fairly long cable. The cheapest I could find through any store in town was about $200. I found longer ones on monoprice.com for $15... Crazy
 
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