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I hve a Volvo which I love and its own by a chinese company. I will never own an American brad car. They re still crappy in my book. My stuff are either Japanese, German or Chinese. I hardly have anything specifically American made except my food and my dogs food. The fish food for my ornamental fish are made in Canada.
Title says "people are buying US made items". We are talking about manufacturing of consumer products. US labor is still no longer competitive in that sector. We export Food, Oil, Aircraft, parts, industrial machines and pharma.
Typical family household relies on a lot of products that are no longer made in the US and as many already stated in this thread, no US made alternatives. Automobiles is one of the products that still are widely available to the American consumer.. other than that there isn't much... for which all of my vehicles are for the most part US made.
There are many examples of cities that are now derelict because manufacturing was outsourced. One prime example was textiles. Why outsourced? Because again... US labor isn't competitive (due to a variety of reasons not all are in control of the laborer)
Until very recently, nearly every Trump Org retail product was made anywhere but the US. This includes clothing, leather goods, jewelry, commercial furniture, bedding etc..
Legacy human rights violations in foreign factories that produced Trump org products are legendary.
It was precious when Kellyanne urged Fox News viewers to buy Ivanka’s made anywhere but the US products.
Trump Org recently closed most of these businesses due to lousy optics and ongoing questions about the sources of capital.
It is kind of odd how capitalists speak out of both sides of their mouths.
They tout the benevolence of capitalism where no force is used and all parties have free choice and then hop in bed with countries where force is used on workers and human rights violations are common.
Then there is the military used to strongarm countries into playing the game our way rather than through free choice of their own.
China bull dozed millions of their citizens homes and said, head to the cities to make widgets. That is a violation of capitalism.
I actively avoid buying Chinese consumer goods if I can. Sometimes I can't, though. In those cases, I try to buy from an American retailer.
BTW, US brand cars are not necessarily made in the US, and I know of NO US brand cars that don't include parts from Japan, Germany, Mexico, etc., and, no doubt, from China.
For me, it's not a tariff/price issue.
While I'm sure that Chinese high-end manufacturing is world-class, their consumer goods often suck. It's also an issue of human rights, many (most?) Chinese factories producing consumer goods are essentially slave operations.
I've been making these choices for a good 20 years. I didn't require Trump to become aware of these issues. I learned about them in places like Mother Jones.
A true blood capitalist where everyone has free choice would not agree with our trade policies with many countries where free will is absent and force is used on the workers.
I don't see how Autos are widely available unless you include Japanese, Korean, European and Chinese factories which are here....
Ford stopped making sedans...and Ford has went overseas for parts, engineering, entire vehicles and a lot of other stuff.
There are so many definitions here....are the raw materials from here? Is the corporation owned by Americans?
The Camry is the "most American car"...which sorta makes that whole thing a joke.
The Textile thing....well, that's my family business. It had zero to do with workers, who weren't making anything above a lower-middle class (if that!) living. I'd say NONE of the reasons were the labor....
The reasons were the same that caused every industry to move - bean-counters at the top in all the major corporations. They (Sears, Walmart, Etc.) all insisted that small business (vendors) move overseas...
IMHO, if we look at this as "bad" (and that is questionable given the success of Boston, NYC, Silicon Valley, LA, etc. in economic terms), then there is no one responsible directly other than the top dogs and Wall Street.
The stock became more important than the product in about 1970 and that was that. Why worry about the hard work of making something if a hostile buyout can create more "wealth" in a day than working for years?
Today most Americans still worship the almighty buck....the people were conned into it. They took it and swallowed it whole.
The silliest part of all of this is that anyone thinks they can change what already is LONG over. There is zero hope of that - and, it really doesn't matter anyway since future factories (and even present ones) use massive automation and so will not have the need for vast numbers of employees.
Besides, Reagan and other busted all the Unions so any line jobs are going to pay as little as possible and force people to work harder and harder. That's the way our system works.
I go to some trouble, but it's difficult sometimes. Shoes are pretty hard outside of higher end leather boots (there is New Balance and a few European brands of athletic shoes). Clothes are practically impossible. Hand tools are easy, cordless are impossible outside of Snap-on. I doubt I'll ever buy a late-model car again, so no worries. Anything that uses electricity, pretty darned hard to avoid China.
You gotta wonder what sort of public policy sent the US down the road where we can't make our own shoes or washing machines anymore. It's a national security issue at this point.
Most companies are concerned about one thing: Their bottom line. $$$$$$. The name of the game is cheap labor. It isn't that we can't manufacture goods in the USA. It is that many companies don't want to. They don't want to pay American labor American wages.
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