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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. |
#2
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C G wrote:
USENET READER wrote: C G wrote: 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. [ just a quickie observation: ] Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. |
#3
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Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote:
C G wrote: USENET READER wrote: C G wrote: 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. [ just a quickie observation: ] Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. It started way before the "past few years". If we, the consumers, had not started down the cheap tool path the businesses such as Harbor Freight, Grizzly, etc would not have survived. Since we did start down that path, other businesses decided they needed to follow that model. |
#4
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Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote:
Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. Could you name a few products that people *need* where only an inferior Chinese model is available? -- Susan Hogarth "We dissent, secondly, because the powers vested in Congress by this constitution, must necessarily annihilate and absorb the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the several states, and produce from their ruins one consolidated government, which from the nature of things will be an iron handed despotism, as nothing short of the supremacy of despotic sway could connect and govern these United States under one government." - Minority opinion on the ratification of US Constitution |
#5
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On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 18:40:39 +0000, Susan Hogarth wrote:
Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote: Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. Could you name a few products that people *need* where only an inferior Chinese model is available? In fear of agreeing with the Dweezil, there are no longer any options in the bicycle tire market. I have a friend that worked at a bike shop and he states that there are no longer any manufactures of bicycle tires in the us, and all the manufacturing equiptment was sold. The US no longer have the ablity to manufacture bicycle tires and we exported the technology to do so. -- Yard Works Gardening Co. http://www.ywgc.com |
#6
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On 1/15/2005 1:40 PM US(ET), Susan Hogarth took fingers to keys, and
typed the following: Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote: Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. Could you name a few products that people *need* where only an inferior Chinese model is available? Thanks for nothing! I was going to write down some items from my Chinese restaurant menu and all of a sudden, I wanted Chinese food. So did everyone else in the family. It cost me a trip to the restaurant in below freezing weather and $51. -- Bill |
#7
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TVs, VCRs, any sort of stereo stuff other than the very high end techie
stuff. You need a phone - they are only made in China. They suck, they have poor sound quality, the plastic is cheap, the batteries don't hold a charge that long - you want me to go on? I am sure that if it wasn't for the fact that all these greedy MBAs wanting to get big compensation packages if they can get 40% return for their stockholders (when they aren't stealing from their stockholders), and that the Chinese are artificially holding down the value of the yuan and engaging in all sorts of unfair trade practices (dumping, intellectual property crimes, etc.), American companies could invest in employee training, and in machinery and computers to increase productivity. Then we could have a variety of products that are higher quality that are made in America that Americans could purchase with pride and also know that they are helping to keep their economy going. Last month - there was a $60 billion trade deficit - that is money that isn't coming back to this country to create jobs. It's being invested over in China to build more plants to take more jobs away. It's being used to buy technology to send chinese rockets into space (and eventually with nuclear warheads), and to buy arms to eventually invade Taiwan. It's like investing in Germany before WWII - eventually they are gonna come after us and we are gonna have to fight them - especially with their excess male population! Susan Hogarth wrote: Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote: Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. Could you name a few products that people *need* where only an inferior Chinese model is available? |
#8
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Susan Hogarth wrote:
Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote: Nope. From everything I've seen in the past few years, it was the idiot, strip-mining MBAs demanding more profits this quarter, pressuring buyers and store managers to replace the stuff on the shelves with something containing a higher profit margin. So they dropped the el cheapo model, the mid-range, and the high end - replacing them with only one offering: an inferior Chinese model bought for a song, but selling at 80% of the excellent-quality high-end version price. Since it is the only widget available, those who *need* a widget buy it. Could you name a few products that people *need* where only an inferior Chinese model is available? Here's one: a wheel or gear puller. Try buying one in a Triangle retail business that isn't made in China. A non-Chinese anvil, or heavy vise. Want some more? Trot on down to a local computer store and try to buy a PC with an American-made motherboard. Even IBM's are made in China... Same deal for a VCR or TV set. (Probably DVD players, too...) |
#9
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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. |
#10
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USENET READER wrote:
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? Seems it's your head up your own ass. China's got a thriving stock market and ownership is shifting to individuals. I wouldn't have expected you to know this, it bursts your bubble of ignorance. 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. I'm not arguing against many not getting paid enough. However, for many, it's just wanting (not necessarily needing) as much stuff as possible. Even people who could afford better often choose cheap import over better quality. 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? No argument from me. 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? Some of it was the workers, some was the management. 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! I didn't blame consumers only, but I think they are more to blame than business and investors. You seem to be trying to blame investors and business only. 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. I guess they don't like you. I've always had good response from them. And if you're a contractor, don't wait till the last minute before calling them. If it takes weeks to get them to come out then call weeks ahead. A good contractor understands these things and schedules appropriately. 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. It's probably not the crew that's insisting that the job be done sloppy, it's most likely the American supervisor. I've found that the crews will work in the manner that makes their boss happy. If they're told to be careful, they will. However, the bosses who hire illegals are most likely looking for fast, not careful. 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. Neither will Sams Club, BJs, Costco, etc. |
#11
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C G wrote: USENET READER wrote: 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? Seems it's your head up your own ass. China's got a thriving stock market and ownership is shifting to individuals. I wouldn't have expected you to know this, it bursts your bubble of ignorance. Bullshit - you can say that there is a stockmarket and that is supposed to mean that your average rank and file Chinese citizen can own stock? that is such bullshit - that whole thing is set up to attract foreign investment capital and to also make it easier to reward the party bigwigs. Their system is more fascist than free-market capitalism. They could still take it all back and leave their overseas investors hanging - what you gonna do when they do that? Sue them? 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. I'm not arguing against many not getting paid enough. However, for many, it's just wanting (not necessarily needing) as much stuff as possible. Even people who could afford better often choose cheap import over better quality. 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? No argument from me. 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? Some of it was the workers, some was the management. Sorry - most of it was management trying to do stuff on the cheap and then cutting their own throats. American workers are some of the most productive workers in the world, if their managerment gets their heads out of their asses! 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! I didn't blame consumers only, but I think they are more to blame than business and investors. You seem to be trying to blame investors and business only. Nope - sorry - in the USA the consumers have been getting the shaft for years. How do you blame someone who has lost their job, or who has not gotten a pay raise for years, or in fact has had to take less money, from having to make the difficult choice to buy some cheaper goods in order to pay for medicine, a visit to the docs, etc. After all - the cheaper goods wouldn't have been there for the consumer to buy had the business owners not made them first. 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. I guess they don't like you. I've always had good response from them. And if you're a contractor, don't wait till the last minute before calling them. If it takes weeks to get them to come out then call weeks ahead. A good contractor understands these things and schedules appropriately. You don't know the situation and it is nothing like you say it is. 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. It's probably not the crew that's insisting that the job be done sloppy, it's most likely the American supervisor. I've found that the crews will work in the manner that makes their boss happy. If they're told to be careful, they will. However, the bosses who hire illegals are most likely looking for fast, not careful. That is the whole problem with hiring illegals and buying foreign crap - everyone up and down the chain doesn't seem to understand that it's all a race to the bottom! 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. Neither will Sams Club, BJs, Costco, etc. I don't buy my food there either. Wal Mart already controls too much of the retail business as it is, and I won't give them one more dime! |
#12
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USENET READER wrote:
C G wrote: USENET READER wrote: 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? Seems it's your head up your own ass. China's got a thriving stock market and ownership is shifting to individuals. I wouldn't have expected you to know this, it bursts your bubble of ignorance. Bullshit - you can say that there is a stockmarket and that is supposed to mean that your average rank and file Chinese citizen can own stock? that is such bullshit - that whole thing is set up to attract foreign investment capital and to also make it easier to reward the party bigwigs. Their system is more fascist than free-market capitalism. They could still take it all back and leave their overseas investors hanging - what you gonna do when they do that? Sue them? You've just proven you do not know what the hell you are talking about. The average citizen DOES OWN STOCK. Give up, you obviously are clueless about this subject. 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. I'm not arguing against many not getting paid enough. However, for many, it's just wanting (not necessarily needing) as much stuff as possible. Even people who could afford better often choose cheap import over better quality. 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? No argument from me. 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? Some of it was the workers, some was the management. Sorry - most of it was management trying to do stuff on the cheap and then cutting their own throats. American workers are some of the most productive workers in the world, if their managerment gets their heads out of their asses! Some American workers are productive, others will do as little as possible to get by. Same with management. You continue to try to place the blame on one group, but that's just not the case. 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! I didn't blame consumers only, but I think they are more to blame than business and investors. You seem to be trying to blame investors and business only. Nope - sorry - in the USA the consumers have been getting the shaft for years. How do you blame someone who has lost their job, or who has not gotten a pay raise for years, or in fact has had to take less money, from having to make the difficult choice to buy some cheaper goods in order to pay for medicine, a visit to the docs, etc. After all - the cheaper goods wouldn't have been there for the consumer to buy had the business owners not made them first. Again, you are trying to blame the business instead of the individual. There are many factors at work, not just the business trying to sell cheap products. Many people have chosen cheap, low quality, not for the reasons you state, but just because it's cheaper and they can have more toys than if they had bought a better quality item. 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. I guess they don't like you. I've always had good response from them. And if you're a contractor, don't wait till the last minute before calling them. If it takes weeks to get them to come out then call weeks ahead. A good contractor understands these things and schedules appropriately. You don't know the situation and it is nothing like you say it is. I know the difference between a good contractor and a bad one. I also know the locating company has always responded to my requests. 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. It's probably not the crew that's insisting that the job be done sloppy, it's most likely the American supervisor. I've found that the crews will work in the manner that makes their boss happy. If they're told to be careful, they will. However, the bosses who hire illegals are most likely looking for fast, not careful. That is the whole problem with hiring illegals and buying foreign crap - everyone up and down the chain doesn't seem to understand that it's all a race to the bottom! 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. Neither will Sams Club, BJs, Costco, etc. I don't buy my food there either. Wal Mart already controls too much of the retail business as it is, and I won't give them one more dime! |
#13
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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? Seems it's your head up your own ass. China's got a thriving stock market and ownership is shifting to individuals. I wouldn't have expected you to know this, it bursts your bubble of ignorance. Bullshit - you can say that there is a stockmarket and that is supposed to mean that your average rank and file Chinese citizen can own stock? that is such bullshit - that whole thing is set up to attract foreign investment capital and to also make it easier to reward the party bigwigs. Their system is more fascist than free-market capitalism. They could still take it all back and leave their overseas investors hanging - what you gonna do when they do that? Sue them? You've just proven you do not know what the hell you are talking about. The average citizen DOES OWN STOCK. Give up, you obviously are clueless about this subject. The average citizen in China doesn't own stock. Do you know what the per capita or average income level is in China? There are like 1.5 billion people over there. Can you show a cite where you an prove that the average chinese citizen owns stock?? According to the news sources I have, even though the companies are being privatized, the new owners are still the party elite and their overseas business partners. Employee or other non-management stock ownership is being held to 20% or less. So how the **** can you say that the average Chinese citizen owns stock? Prove it - show me a cite! 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. I'm not arguing against many not getting paid enough. However, for many, it's just wanting (not necessarily needing) as much stuff as possible. Even people who could afford better often choose cheap import over better quality. 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? No argument from me. 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? Some of it was the workers, some was the management. Sorry - most of it was management trying to do stuff on the cheap and then cutting their own throats. American workers are some of the most productive workers in the world, if their managerment gets their heads out of their asses! Some American workers are productive, others will do as little as possible to get by. Same with management. You continue to try to place the blame on one group, but that's just not the case. Sorry - labor doesn't decide what to produce and how to produce it - that is management's job. I place the blame on the crap on the market with management. 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! I didn't blame consumers only, but I think they are more to blame than business and investors. You seem to be trying to blame investors and business only. Nope - sorry - in the USA the consumers have been getting the shaft for years. How do you blame someone who has lost their job, or who has not gotten a pay raise for years, or in fact has had to take less money, from having to make the difficult choice to buy some cheaper goods in order to pay for medicine, a visit to the docs, etc. After all - the cheaper goods wouldn't have been there for the consumer to buy had the business owners not made them first. Again, you are trying to blame the business instead of the individual. There are many factors at work, not just the business trying to sell cheap products. Many people have chosen cheap, low quality, not for the reasons you state, but just because it's cheaper and they can have more toys than if they had bought a better quality item. Many didn't have a choice. 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. I guess they don't like you. I've always had good response from them. And if you're a contractor, don't wait till the last minute before calling them. If it takes weeks to get them to come out then call weeks ahead. A good contractor understands these things and schedules appropriately. You don't know the situation and it is nothing like you say it is. I know the difference between a good contractor and a bad one. I also know the locating company has always responded to my requests. 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. It's probably not the crew that's insisting that the job be done sloppy, it's most likely the American supervisor. I've found that the crews will work in the manner that makes their boss happy. If they're told to be careful, they will. However, the bosses who hire illegals are most likely looking for fast, not careful. That is the whole problem with hiring illegals and buying foreign crap - everyone up and down the chain doesn't seem to understand that it's all a race to the bottom! 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. Neither will Sams Club, BJs, Costco, etc. I don't buy my food there either. Wal Mart already controls too much of the retail business as it is, and I won't give them one more dime! |
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USENET READER wrote:
C G wrote: Some American workers are productive, others will do as little as possible to get by. Same with management. You continue to try to place the blame on one group, but that's just not the case. Sorry - labor doesn't decide what to produce and how to produce it - that is management's job. I place the blame on the crap on the market with management. It isn't management's fault when labor stages a slowdown or sabotages products. My cousin had a rattle in his American car that turned out to be a wrench left inside the door during production. Gregor |
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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? Seems it's your head up your own ass. China's got a thriving stock market and ownership is shifting to individuals. I wouldn't have expected you to know this, it bursts your bubble of ignorance. Bullshit - you can say that there is a stockmarket and that is supposed to mean that your average rank and file Chinese citizen can own stock? that is such bullshit - that whole thing is set up to attract foreign investment capital and to also make it easier to reward the party bigwigs. Their system is more fascist than free-market capitalism. They could still take it all back and leave their overseas investors hanging - what you gonna do when they do that? Sue them? You've just proven you do not know what the hell you are talking about. The average citizen DOES OWN STOCK. Give up, you obviously are clueless about this subject. The average citizen in China doesn't own stock. Do you know what the per capita or average income level is in China? There are like 1.5 billion people over there. Can you show a cite where you an prove that the average chinese citizen owns stock?? You don't know what the **** you are talking about, why don't you just shut up idiot. I know many average chinese citizens. They own stock. The ability of the average Chinese person to live cheap and save would put most Americans to shame. According to the news sources I have, even though the companies are being privatized, the new owners are still the party elite and their overseas business partners. Employee or other non-management stock ownership is being held to 20% or less. So how the **** can you say that the average Chinese citizen owns stock? Prove it - show me a cite! Because I have many friends in China. I've done better than read a few news articles, I've lived there. 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. I'm not arguing against many not getting paid enough. However, for many, it's just wanting (not necessarily needing) as much stuff as possible. Even people who could afford better often choose cheap import over better quality. 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? No argument from me. 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? Some of it was the workers, some was the management. Sorry - most of it was management trying to do stuff on the cheap and then cutting their own throats. American workers are some of the most productive workers in the world, if their managerment gets their heads out of their asses! Some American workers are productive, others will do as little as possible to get by. Same with management. You continue to try to place the blame on one group, but that's just not the case. Sorry - labor doesn't decide what to produce and how to produce it - that is management's job. I place the blame on the crap on the market with management. Management decides what to build, labor decides whether they will do it well or not. Some choose to be sloppy. 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! I didn't blame consumers only, but I think they are more to blame than business and investors. You seem to be trying to blame investors and business only. Nope - sorry - in the USA the consumers have been getting the shaft for years. How do you blame someone who has lost their job, or who has not gotten a pay raise for years, or in fact has had to take less money, from having to make the difficult choice to buy some cheaper goods in order to pay for medicine, a visit to the docs, etc. After all - the cheaper goods wouldn't have been there for the consumer to buy had the business owners not made them first. Again, you are trying to blame the business instead of the individual. There are many factors at work, not just the business trying to sell cheap products. Many people have chosen cheap, low quality, not for the reasons you state, but just because it's cheaper and they can have more toys than if they had bought a better quality item. Many didn't have a choice. And MANY, MANY, MANY more DO HAVE A CHOICE, and choose cheap. |
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