C G wrote:

USENET READER wrote:

I am starting a DYI home-improvement project and I notice that few
power or hand tools are made in the USA. Even most of the Craftsman
brand tools are made in the USA. Some are made in Taiwan (a democracy
I have no problem doing business with) and Red China (perhaps I should
call them Fascist China, a country where the factories are owned by
the state and staffed with slave labor).


Are you stuck in the '80s? Most Chinese companies have been privatized.

And who owns these private companies? Mostly it is well-connected
members of the ChiCom party - so for all intents and purposes, it is
still owned by those who run the government.


Almost everything in Harbor Freight (except for the reconditioned
DeWalt tools) is from China. The stuff is garbage and usually dies
after a short period of time. Grinders and drills come with extra
electric motor brushes which almost always get lost by the time you
need them - and you will. HF always tries to sell you an extended
warranty program, and most people I know don't buy them - even though
for all intents and purposes, if you buy the EW, you can bring back
the tool and swap it for a new one anytime the older one doesn't
work. So other than the time you lose always gong to HF to exchange
tools, that does seem like a good deal. How can American companies
compete with that?


They can't as long as American consumers puy the cheapest product they
can find. IMO, Harbor Freight should not even be in business, but as
long as people keep buying the junk, they'll survive.

It's a vicious cycle - people's wages don't keep up with inflation, so
they either look for cheaper stuff or they have no other choice. And
when a store finds it is stocked with goods no one can afford to buy,
they go with cheaper stuff to stay in business. It's everyone's fault,
but mostly with big business for going overseas in the first place.

And when you are trying to compete with some other contractor who hires
Mexican illegals, you gotta try and cut your costs as much as you can.
If the government enforced it's immigration laws, fined or arrested
employers for hiring illegals, shipped the illegals back over the
border, and sealed the border up with higher walls that couldn't be cut
through or climbed over.


But I was talking to two buddies of mine and then mentioned something
about the construction trades which made me wonder if any more tools
are going to be made in the USA?


There are some, but do you and your friends try to find them? Are you
willing to pay a higher price to buy them?

Actually - yes I am - but it is a lot of work trying to find American
made tools.



One guy works as a stone mason and he is finding it harder and harder
to find American made tools of his trade in the stores. The
Chinese-made crap (his words) are cheaply made, don't hold up to
continued professional work, rivets pop, everything rusts unless you
soak it in oil (which is not good for the mortar or cement, mason's
hoes break after one use, etc.


That's what happens when you buy the lowest cost tool.

If that's all the stores sell, you either buy it or you don't work.


The other guy runs a catering truck that runs around to construction
sites. He says that, except for the licensed trades (electricians and
who are mostly younger white guys), the plumber (who are mostly older
white guys) and the bricklayers (who are mostly African American) -
everybody else is Mexican and they almost only speak Spanish and need
a bi-lingual supervisor on the job. This supervisor - who is not
dressed out for work - usually stands around talking on his cell
phone, looking at his steel and gold Rolex watch - is a white guy.


That's different than the crews I've seen. And the Mexican laborers
I've seen are usually working their asses off. Can't say the same about
some of the "American" crews I've seen.

They work their asses off - not neccesarilly getting anything done, or
working smarter either. Can't tell you how many cut phone and cable
lines, water pipes and ther stuff that gets done by this hard workers.
Also - they seem to die or get injured in the workplace either because
the bosses don't want them to work with safety equipment or use safe
workplace practices (because it costs too much) or because they didn't
work that way back in Mexico. My friends work hard, work smart, work
careful, and do good quality work. They pay there self-employment FICA,
state and federal taxes, they pay their insurance, and they buy good
quality american-made tools when they can. They just keep getting
underbid by companies that hire illegals.


Well - the real question is - are any of the largely illegal immigrant
construction workers buying quality American-made tools, or are they
spending as little money as possible on tools as they might either get
them stolen from a job site, or because they might get deported at any
time and don't want to have any more money invested in tools than
absolutely necessary?


They probably represent a small total of the tool buyers. Don't try
turn this into someone else's fault. The American consumer is choosing
the cheapest product, which is not going to be made in the US.


The American consumer isn't always choosing the cheapest product -
sometimes it's all the consumer can find. When a company like Lowe's
can buy cheap chinese made crap for 10% of what they pay Marshalltown,
and can sell it for half of what an American made product sells for,
they will not want to have so much money tied up in inventory and they
realize that they can make more money selling crap that falls apart and
needs to be repurchased more often.