C G wrote:

USENET READER wrote:



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.


Still stuck in the '80s. The ownership has been changing for quite a
while now, but I would not have expected you to be informed enough to
know this.

No actually - your head is up your ass. Can you tell me who owns the
private companies if not the party elite? They just privatized these
factories and now they split the profits not with the workers, but with
their American investors. So you tell me how while it has changed in
shape, the end result isn't really different?




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.


The problem didn't start with wages, it started with American consumers
wanting the cheapest possible price, with little regard for quality.
Look at shop tools. When companies like Grizzly came on the scene,
people endorsed their products because they were a few bucks cheaper
than someone like Delta.

Part of American workers wanting cheaper goods is them not getting paid
enough to afford higher quality goods. Remember that fascist Henry
Ford? Instead of lowering wages, he gave his workers more, realizing
that if he paid them more they could afford to buy the cars he was
making. Today a Wal Mart worker - if they pay rent, make care payments
on a cheap car, pay for their own medica insurance, etc - they can't
afford to shop in Wal Mart to buy all their family's needs. They can do
that if they go on the dole - food stamps (which some of them qualify
for even if they work fulll time) and if they put off regular health
care and use the emergency room for chronic health care needs.


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.


Yes, you do.

WHy not get the government to come and haul the illegals away and bust
the contractor breaking the law? Thay way he won't be competing
illegally with you.

A conttractor who is breaking the law like that is the equivalent of
someone who cuts costs by stealing stuff to sell, or buying stolen
property.. Should you compete with someone who steals or buys stolen
goods by doing the same thing? Or shouldn't you insist that other
employers not have an unfair advantage by obeying the laws?

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.


No disagreement here. For the past 4 years I've been working to help
someone from another country come here legally. It ****es me off that
the government makes all kinds of exceptions for illegals, and that so
many people look the other way so they can take advantage of the cheap
labor that illegals represent.




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.


It's all the stores sell because years ago people voted, with their
money, for cheap imports. It also happened because in many cases, the
American products were overpriced junk.

Why was the American stuff overpriced junk - was it the rank and file
worker who decided to come to work and make crap regardless of what the
bosses told them to make, or was it management who had them build the
crap because there wasn't anything else available?

Sure - when the Japanese made better stuff for the same money, you
bought the better stuff. You didn't want to throw your money away - you
got more value for your money. Then when American goods caught up in
quality, the Japanese moved there factories to Thailand or other cheaper
countries, and then eventually Amerfcan companies couldn't compete on
the price of the goods and also on the return on investments. So don't
go blaming the consumers only - greedy investors who want 40% return on
investments are to blame too!




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.


That is most likely the fault of the contractor, for failing to have the
said line marked, than the workers.

You ever try to call those guys to come out and mark the lines? I had
to call three or four times and had to wait weeks when I wanted them
marked. So if you are a contractor and you have to wait for weeks to
start a project - you work without.

On the other hand, the American crews I have seen usually know where the
lines will be buried and can dig around them carefully and not break the
lines - it takes longer and you have to work smarter and more carefully,
and few of the illegal crews can do that - or want to. They just don't
give a crap if the family in the nice big house has cable or not.

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.


Yup, and unless we all do something about it, the problem will continue.




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.

I'd say most American consumers shop by price, with quality factored in
to some extent, rather than by country of origin.

Most Americans can't afford to do otherwise these days. But then again
- some middle class peope will go buy food at Wal Mart and not at a
regular grocery store even though by doing so, they are cutting off
their noses to spite their faces - Wal Mart won't carry all the variety
of foods that you get in a regular grocery store.