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It is very hard to find American products. I looked high and low for flat screen tv made in USA and found partially made in USA.
I enjoy fishing and even many lures made in USA are now made over-seas though you can still get made in USA and I stick with made in USA it's becoming less and less.
i marvel; at some of the prices I see in walmart. This is the supposed to be the one major benefits of free trade and globalization why wouldnt you take advantage. A pair of childrens shoes cost just a little bit more than when I was a kid and im 47 years old. I dont get nervous about going to buy school clothes and supplies because its so darn cheap. Christmas no problem.
I used to spend over$75 for a dozen roses on my wifes birthday or valentines day, now ten bux. You can live in the past with all this buy American crap but as a Machine operator from Michigan whose job was sent overseas many years ago you'll get know sympathy from me. Free trade and open markets are a done deal, get used to it
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That's the problem it is not truly free trade and FAIR open markets.
"Our" politicians have brokered deals where we get the short end of the stick.
And i agree that most foreign countries subsidize their industries, dont have any of the safety and environmental regulations or the excessive corporate tax that business in America has. It makes it hard to compete in a free market when biz in other counties are being propped up. Going forward I'd like to see something done about these trade issues and also illegal immigration, outsourcing and the H1B/L1 visa caps. Initially I was backing Duncan Hunter who understood all of these issues and had a platform to deal with them in an aggressive manner. In spite of these advantages it is our exports that sutain the economic growth that keeps us out of a recession. And while the de valuation of the dollar is bad for some americans as it erodes their wealth in countries we export to it puts more dollars in their hands to buy our goods.
for instance, the only dress shoes and loafers i will buy are aldens (the only shoe/bootmaker that makes all their shoes in the US). however i am willing to spend 400 dollars a pop for quality shoes..
I'm not being argumentative, just asking (I like to know things, so I don't make stupid statements in the future.) I've never even known anybody before who could even afford $1,000 shoes, much less actually buy them.
I buy $40 Herman walking shoes. (China). You buy $1,000 shoes. Does it cost 25 times as much to make your shoes? Is there 25-times as much quality and workmanship in the shoe? Or are you getting a better-than-average shoe worth about a hundred bucks, and paying 900 for the prestige of the label, and maybe the patriotic satisfaction of an American shoe?
Comfy and durable shoes, I can understand, but how much better is a Louis Vuitton handbag, than a knockoff at 1/20 of the price? Nothing falls through the bottom of the knockoff, either.
*I don't care what couintry it is made in, I will buy the best value for the money.
Also, you did not consider this possibility:
*I will buy a Mercury made in Mexico, rather than a Toyota made in Tennessee, because Mercuries are American.
Nor did you consider the choice that would actually apply to me:
*I never buy anything new. Only used cars, and clothing, furniture and household articles from thrift shops and yard sales.
I'm with you on that last sentence!!!! Just about everything in my house came from antique stores, auctions, flea markets, g-sales.
I can't believe the things like crappy, flimsy furniture people will buy for unbelievable prices when you can find good solid furniture MADE IN AMERICA at very reasonable prices at the above mentioned places. Last auction I was at a three piece solid maple bedroom set went for $15.00...!!!
The only things I buy new are dress clothes and underwear(and I can't find any made in America)
a yer ago I set out to buy a pair of american made dress socks.
Fist place was Wal Mart. COuldnt find American but imports were $2.50 for two pair.
Then to Target again no luck but imports were $ 2.75 for two pair.
Then to Sears and bingo American made socks for $3.10 a pair. a 60. cost difference.
Objective lesson, if you want it it's probably there but yes you will pay more for it........
You mean your poll only gave people the options that you liked. You didn't forget to include it, you refused to because that would not be one of your own options. So you didn't want to know what we thought, you wanted us toknow what you thought. Some poll!
J, the first option in my poll was "I'd buy the Chinese-made product because it's cheaper". If I were only including options I liked, that wouldn't have been one of 'em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
That's funny. When we had slaves here in America, instead of Chinese over there, to do all our cheap labor for us, that didn't seem to cut into the wealth and buying power of the white plantation owners. We must be doing something wrong now.
Slaves didn't do "all" of our cheap labor. They worked on plantations. If they worked in any capacity other than on plantations, I never learned about that in history class. That being said, I'm sure it's a possibility... but I highly doubt that there were ever actual factories staffed entirely by slaves and overseers. And, of course it didn't cut into the wealth and buying power of the plantation owners... we never had to worry about the devaluation of our gold-backed currency due to competition from other countries! Have you ever wondered why it is that the inflation rate in this country was extremely low (averaging around one percent per year) until we went off of the last precious metal standard (silver) in 1965?
The problem is not whether or not this is cutting into our wealth and buying power. The problem is that the American economy is an illusion. We buy everything that's made in China... much of our money is going over there... how many dollars do those Chinese really want before they say "hey, this worthless paper is useless in our country- take your dollars and stuff 'em"? Do you really want Chinese yuan notes? NO... because they're of no use in America... and are you really going to travel to China? That's probably not happening unless you're native Chinese and going back to visit family. Oh... and as far as how much interest China earns by holding our Treasury notes, our dollars, and our debt and whatever... we're talking that it's on the order of maybe 2-4%... not counting whatever it takes to convert those dollars back to their own yuan. Our Federal interest rate is 2% and last I heard, the yield on Treasury notes was around 3.6%... news flash for ya: that doesn't even beat China's inflation rate. They're better off spending their money now than they are stashing it into US debt notes which will be worth less in one year than their money is worth now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Here's how you fix it. You send all those USA workers home, and pay them $200 a week to do nothing.
J, amusingly enough, America does this all over the place. Where I used to live, there were plenty of otherwise able-bodied people being paid that much and more per week to sit on their butts and do nothing. It's called welfare (ahem- socialism).
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
That is enough money for them to buy all that cheap Chinese stuff, and now everybody is happy. Doing it your way, nobody is happy. Americans are the first people who ever had cheap labor to do all their work for them, and still worked their knuckles to the bone, and then lived in poverty themselves.
The thing is... America collectively realized, at least in a "majority" sense, back in the mid-1800s, that slavery was wrong. However, for almost 100 years after the abolition of slavery, just about everything Americans bought was made in America. Apparently, we made it work. These days, few if any American people would agree that slavery, or cheap labor in squalid conditions, is "right". Yet, we support it every day by buying crap from China. This is called HYPOCRISY.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mraaron
Although you may not AGREE w/ buying "best value for the money" it's certainly a valid option. If you want an accurate polling to find the truth, I don't see how having this as an option harms the results.
One never knows what's the best value for the money. This goes back to the question about quality. Do you really know the quality of a product, or how long it will last, until you open the box and use it for a while? My wife and I recently looked at treadmills. They all looked nearly identical with the only difference being the bells and whistles... and what the brochures said. Both of us weigh well over 200 pounds... any treadmill we buy is going to take one heck of a beating under our use. How can we tell just by looking at them at the sporting goods store which one is of best quality... or which is the best value for the money? I mean, MAYBE we could read Consumer Reports... they'd probably have done a report on treadmills at one point in time... but they probably don't waste time doing reports on little things like toilet paper holders and shirts.
So, not only is it nearly impossible to determine what is the "best value for the money" quantitatively, but it's also nearly impossible to determine "best value for the money" qualitatively because everyone's opinion differs. Maybe you want to buy a toilet paper holder that only lasts one year because you're renting your house, you broke the toilet paper holder, and you'll be out in less than a year. In that case, you'd buy the cheapie and it'd be the best value for the money. However, maybe you're building your dream house and you expect to live out the rest of your days there. Then, you'll buy the really nice one that isn't likely to, pardon the pun, crap out on you within a year or so. In that case, the expensive one which looks much more durable will be the best value for the money. It's a subjective thing.
Ultimately, the best approximation I can give is to say that our assumption about the compared hypothetical Chinese and American products in this poll is that they appear to be functionally identical and at least, before you open the box and test 'em out, they appear to be of the same quality and workmanship. (In the end, YOU NEVER KNOW.)
Good point about American cars being made in Mexico and Japanese cars being made in America. No wonder why Japanese cars seem to work better. Most Toyota's are built here.
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