"USENET READER" wrote in message
ink.net...



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.

Wrong. Greedy consumers think they have to have every device and every
luxury available nowadays. Even the poor have cadillacs, cell phones, game
boys, ipods, and $250 tennis shoes. ****ing stupid people with no self
control and no brains are to blame for this mess.



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.

Stupid ****. We aren't talking about illegal aliens. We are talking about
damn hard working immigrants doing jobs that fat lazy americans who are used
to living on the dole won't do.




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.


Yeah, because no-skilled union american workers think they have to be paid
$25 an hour to manufacture these 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.



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.

And don't forget all the fat lazy and corrupt union workers who strangle
productivity because of stupid labor rules that require 5 shovel-leaners for
every one worker.






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.

American consumers are too stupid, lazy, and looking for instant
gratification that they think they are owed by the government. They won't
work hard and save and take care of what they have. They want more more
more disposable shit and they want the government or the corporation or "the
man" to give it to them because they think they "deserve it".