"Americans are consumers - it's what we do best" is a stupid,
head-in-the-sand comment. You have been sold a bill of goods by the
corporate elite who want to move all the production overseas to lower
their production costs due to lower wages, taxes and other bothersome
issues (workplace health & safety and environmental protection laws).
They make money and you get screwed by losing jobs or making less money
than you did in your last job. Sure - you can buy a TV now for less
money than you did before, but it dies on you sooner and you have to go
back and spend money on a new TV every couple of years. The TVs are so
cheap that it isn't worth fixing them.

There are few TV repairmen around - hell, few people who can repair
anything electric anymore. Verizon got rid of their Marconi diagnostic
machines - they diagnose problems with cell phones these days by calling
your phone right there in the store and asking "can you hear me now"
good!" and if you can hear them, your phone is working and there is
nothing they can or will do about it, except swap out phones if your
phone is under warranty - usually with a refurbished unit. If your
phone has intermittent problems, you are screwed unless the phone acts
up while you are in the store.

It might be cheaper for the consumer and better for the global economy -
but not for our nation as a whole!

If we only consume and don't produce, how will we earn the income needed
to buy the things that are made overseas?

And if we don't produce anything here, what will people from overseas
buy from us with the money that we send over there for the junk they make?

Eventually we will all work either in Wal-Mart or McDonalds, or as temp
contractors for software companies (as testers only - because all the
actual programming will be done in India, Vietnam, China and Russia, and
all the CS work will be done in India or wherever else they can speak
English in the developing world). Of course, that will all change when
the standard of living over there starts to really grow, and ours
declines severely. Then we can go back to manufacturing stuff for the
western Pacific rim countries. By that time, America will have become a
thirld-world economic if not a political power.

God help us, because the dingleberries in Washington can't or won't -
they are too busy giving a "reach-around" to their corporate masters.



C. Browder wrote:
I have no idea what in the hell this has to do with things for sale in
the RDU area ... but you may as well get used to the fact that less and
less is made in your home land. It's like that everywhere in the world,
with of course the excetpions of Mexico, China and Taiwan. My german
car has a "Assembled in Mexico" sticker on it's doorjam, my American
computer has "Design in california, assembled in Taiwan" on it's
backside, and my Brother printer even have a warning that some parts
are foreign. Americans are consumers, it's what we do best. There are
no televisions made in the USA anymore. Before long there won't be
hardly any real electronics produced on our soil, just imported over
and rebranded to be an american name. It's sad, but, we aren't the only
country facing this: England, France, Spain, hell even Germany are all
outsouring. It's cheaper, better for the global economy, and cheaper
for the consumer. Does it mean it's better... not really. Does it mean
I got my car for $5000 less than it would have cost if it was made in
Germany? Yes. Does that mean I am more lilkely to deal with the minor
electrical problems? no. C'est la vie.