Re: Sold American!
 

stupid corporate tax

Re: Sold American!
 

My uncle was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed it. His hard feelings died with him.

Re: Sold American!
 

I was at Menards today looking at the Masterforce wrenches.

The smaller sets and individual wrenches were Made in the USA, but the larger sets were made in China.

I was at the local True Value hardware this week looking at Johnson Levels. The long ones were Made in the USA, but the shorter ones were made in China.

Re: Sold American!
 

Is anybody ready for American made antibiotics?

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It's too late for me to be thinking about how the government could screw it up if they brought that manufacturing back the these shores. The pharma companies have so many politicians in their pocket.

Re: Sold American!
 

I have one, complete 3/8" drive SK socket/ratchet set that I managed to put together from all my father's tools after he passed away. I straightened out the metal box, powder coated it hammer tone green/silver and those are now just a decoration piece in my tool box.

I try to buy American at every turn. Carry an American made Kershaw knife most every day, just last year bought my son his first set of Craftsman tools just like my dad did for me at the same age. That was 31 years ago and I still use the wrenches to this day. Do own a few guns that were made in Belgium and the Czech Republic though.

As for cars, well, my signature says it all. As to the labor hours to build very often on the "American" vehicles those labor hours are paid to a Canadian or Mexican, not an American. My last three GMC's wracked up more maintenance dollars than most of the Toyota's I have owned combined.

I am a chemical engineer by degree and did process design and control for decades. I now do sales of engineered products and spend a lot of time in power plants, paper mills, etc. Totally American made products in the electronics and anything requiring foundry work is almost impossible. Sad, but true.

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Once regulations are brought down enough along with taxes, making production in USA actually competitive with foreign outsourcing.....combined with domestic demand and demand for items produced here instead of in countries that seek our destruction...that will happen.

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I have a Gretsch. Also made in Corona. I have a Fender acoustic as well. I want to get an electric/acoustic But I've got a bunch of guitars already, and a bunch of Fender amps. (and a bunch of others) Too many. At least that's what my wife tells me.

I read an article about a couple that tried to buy only American products for one year. They almost made it. But when Christmas came around. Their child just had to have some toy. And they caved. They couldn't say no. And I don't blame them. Making a point is one thing. But disappointing a kid? I would have folded on that one too.

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I am American labor, so I have always been a buy American guy. But that doesn't mean I only buy American. I am also a buy quality guy and quality can be found all around the world. I'm ok with one country helping the other and vise-versa, as well. Countries around the world are known for certain products. Some things we never made here or never made as well. It's their product, not ours. I think of these things as what they made for themselves that I would like to have... beer, chocolate, watches, cookoo clock, Shetland wool sweater...

It's American products made overseas that I don't like. By American owners or foreign. I don't like our market so targeted to the point of taking it over. I watched Americans sell us out by jumping feet first for each foreign made product passed before them giving nary a thought to what that was doing to the state of our nation. And usually to only save a little. All I know is I didn't and I never had a hard time affording what I needed.

I remember the "Buy American" bumper stickers, I guess, around 1970 give or take. That was pretty much about cars at that time. Am I right? That's how I saw it. Well, I was driving a '56 VW and liked American and imports. In the '50s and '60s it didn't seem imports were such a threat. They were another, usually lesser, option in a time when Americans were becoming 2-car families. They built what they built and we built what we built. They were different.

By the time the bumper stickers came out the import market was really coming on. Through the '70s and '80s, you know the story. I saw it and I resisted, looked at the bigger picture. A large sentiment got to be, American products inferior to Japanese... and Euro too I guess. American vehicles were forced to change direction more toward those designs/engineering (cough! fwd)<example. First it was add-on but became engineered-in better vehicles and people were stuck on foreign, not looking. I wanted to get bumper stickers made that said "Try American". People did eventually see and buy.

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I don't have a problem buying from other countries. I just have a problem with some countries overwhelming the market and putting American business's out of business because they don't have to deal with the regulations or pay their people jack squat. It's not a level playing field.

We have a lot of regulations in this country. Some work and some are in my opinion are kind of dumb.

But. I have to say. As much as I hate to admit it. The smog/pollution laws seem to work. I remember walking home from school when I was a kid with my eyes burning because of the smog. And I just don't see that anymore. At least not like when I was a kid. You could see it. A thick layer of crud hanging in the air. It would sting your eyes and you could feel it in your throat. It was nasty.

Okay... I just complimented smog laws. (Unbelievable) I'll go wash my mouth out with soap now. I must be hallucinating. :uhmk:

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I own a:
Taylor CE-14 (USA)
Antonio Aparicio AA-50 (Spain)
Goya 1979ish (Korea)
Triple Aught design jackets (San Francisco)
TAD sweater (China)
Kifaru ZXR berry compliant (Wheatridge Colorado)
Military Modular Sleep System (USA)
P-38 and a P-51 (USA)
All the carpet and pad I install is made in the US.
Most of the LVP is made in China.
Some of the vinyls Canada.

I’m with Tim, I tend to be quality minded for the most part. Especially in my work.

All my carpet tools are made in the US.
Roberts knee kickers are made in Taiwan. I never used another brand of knee kicker until a few years back I broke a couple of them and thought wth. I got to looking at the kicker and it had a sticker that said made in Taiwan. I use Crain kickers now, same with power stretcher.

The land I live on south of Ottawa Ks made by God

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I have a friend* who got into the reclaimed/recycled wood business early on. Very successful worldwide, Vintage Lumber. They produce laminated flooring. They used to send container loads of their wood to Kansas where they made the flooring, then sent it back. Then they ship to where ever their orders might come from, such as Kansas :lol:. But now he sends it to China and back!

* Ok, he's my friend's brother. Known him for years. Not really a friend :lol:

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Same here. But it seems to get tougher and tougher to do.

For example, I changed the license plates on my Cadillac. When I took the old ones off. The little plastic things in the bumper that hold on the plate just disintegrated. I tried to find OEM GM replacements. No dice. I had to buy some from China because I was in a hurry. I had no plates on my car and that was all I could find.

4 bucks and a week later the plates were back on the car. Sometime's you've got to do what you've got to do.

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That's my bottom line, too. The American worker.

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We solved the auto pollution problem back around 1990, but the EPA still has to microregulate 99.1% clean to 99.2% clean just to justify its continued existence :(

(sorry if that's too political)

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My Uncle's ship was hit by a Kamikaze....the crew had to abandon ship and were in the water for several hours before they were picked up....
Till his dying day, he refused to buy anything Japanese

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I was born eight years after the war ended and I still cringe when I hear about stuff made by Mitsubishi.

My biological father would have been parachuting into Japan but instead he just ended up in the occupation forces. But I didn't even learn about that until the 1990s. At least two of my now deceased rural neighbors fought on Iwo Jima.

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It seems the Germans were easier to forgive than the Japanese, because of Pearl Harbor

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Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are millions more people of German descent in this country than of Japanese descent. In both WW1 and WW2, a lot of people didn't think that the US should get involved because of their German roots.

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Yeah, I know. But without bringing race or nationality into it, just the fact that we were not at war with Japan and they made such a concise planned sneak attack was so underhanded it remains reason enough to hold a grudge today for many, to
some degree.

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Chrysler

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Sorry , but I dont know anyone that will work for 2.50 a day . Its not the taxes it's the pay

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Around 1990 I would not swim in the Hudson river. Let alone eat fish from it. Much cleaner now you can eat one fish a month and be safe

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The problem comes from when the US industries took the jobs overseas to further increase their profit margins by serious multiples. They sold us out to better pad and deepen their pockets. It was an easy all downhill trip and to return is now an impossible uphill climb for less money.