We do a great job of producing disagreement among and between ourselves.

Serious? How about made in America with imported fabric from special cotton planted in special soil that flew here on a foreign based plane. Otherwise, who cares where the fabric is from. The product is made in the USA. Cant have everything

LMAO but so right

Macro economics. Money goes where it is most efficiently used . Consumers look at price first . Don't you buy the cheapest gasoline. Did you buy the most expensive home even though others were less? When you shop for food do you compare prices? Many consumer goods are not made in America, many industrial items are like tractors, but even those companies understand you need today to spread factories to their buyers . I could go on , but it then becomes a book

P.s. we make a huge quantity of entertainment here in USA ( movies and music) that is sold worldwide!!!!

Tell that to the Federal Trade Commission. It's their rule, and they can fine companies who violate it. But, some companies do try to make money using false USA advertising. I have seen some cloth masks online for $25 and labeled "Made in USA". I think that less than 3 percent of the clothing fabric sold is actually made in America.

Nice try, trying to blame the problem on Obama and Dems in general. Isn't going to fly, and hopefully most with a clear head and memory know that. The export of work to cheap labor has been going on for decades. Started by moving manufacturing from the north to the south. Then from the south to "elsewhere" not in the USA. This was called "smart business" and certainly NOT backed by most Dems and unions.
When we were living in California (great place btw, land where people are more important than low prices) we were looking to have a cabinet custom build for us. The woodworker we talked to informed us that we should get it build in North or South Caroline, where there were lite (or no) rules regulating what type of chemical finishes could be used. "They may be dead by the time they reach 60, but they use the best finishes you can find" Now that work has mostly shipped overseas. Is that bad? You decide, I know what I think.

We should certainly make sure that medical products are controlled by us so another country cannot hold us hostage. Remember the antibiotics made in china to the tune of 90 percent? What if they wanted to withhold it during covid? Certain chips and other manufacturing items should not all be under the control of other countries. I try to buy American whenever possible and reasonable to do so. Let’s get back to work.

but at least both sides think that

Too true. Add to that the COVID keeping people home and the torrent of money flowing out of Washington there is little incentive for Americans to go to work. The pressure to raise the minimum wage adds to the pressure to replace people with automation. America has morphed from a manufacturing country to a service one. Now that too is being automated. ATMs have long since replaced bank tellers. You place your restaurant order on your phone. I see a future where the "developed" countries only jobs are in the government, nobody else works but gets the dole, and everything is made by robots and computers or overseas.

Be glad you lived in the best years of America.

Good clarification. Just an aside I thought was interesting - Titlist Pro 1V balls are made here in the US. If you want to save a little and go for "last years" Pro1V, they are made in overseas.

Usa!
 

Absolutely true. WE, The People, have to LOOK for American products, perhaps do a bit of research, and ask retailers to display and sell "Made in America" products.

Cost more? Of course. So the question becomes "how important is it, TO YOU?"

Here, Made In America Store

A while back, I found myself in need of a new set of drill bits. Off to Home Depot, Lowes, Ace - all made in Chine. On to the internet. First hit was a company in Chicago that made the bits here in the US - but they were bought by a huge Chinese conglomerate, so scratch them off the list. Finally hit on Champion Cutting Tools. US owned company, work done in the US. I don't know where they get their steel, but I am betting they go for quality over price at least. The interesting thing is that they really were not much more than what I would have paid at Lowes or the other stores, if they stocked them - I ended up using Amazon.

Americans are hypocrites. They say they want to buy American but when it comes down to dollars and cents, they run to Walmart to buy the cheap jeans at $30 v/s the American jeans that sell for $75+. That’s why Walmart does so well, American hypocrites.

Sorry, Saudi Arabia exports more than double the oil compared to the US. Saying things does not make them true.

Didn't you stomp off in a huff a week or so ago because this place was a cesspool? I guess you felt the need to come back and do some more wallowing. :1rotfl:

Costly (for some) wars are still made in the USA. It's our bread & butter.

Have you checked your portfolio lately? Military equipment stocks have made a lot of us wealthy.

Just a quick note, recently bought Taylor Golf Clubs, a sticker was attached to one of the clubs which read,
Club head made in Vietnam
Shaft made in Taiwan
Assembled in Mexico
Can you believe this ?

Who made the grips?

Yes I did, and the administrators helped by making it a 2 week mandatory go stand in the corner.

So what is the point of this thread? American mfgrs have abandoned plants in the US because it is more profitable to make them overseas and sell them here. Seems like capitalism at work to me.

Buying something BECAUSE it was made in America as opposed to because it is the best price and quality seems dumb to me. Kind of like voting based on party instead of candidates qualifications. I am registered NPA and always vote for the person and not a party. The same goes for my purchases.

In the USA, nothing is more important than making money. Not family, not nation. Just keep making money. It's how score is kept. And we're #1.

Read the book Made in China. You’ll be appalled at the cost in human suffering to produce those cheap items. It’s a quandary. We want the least expensive items and often can’t find what we’re looking for that’s made in America. Still someone in China is paying a dear price producing said item.

Sadly I agree with you…

I agree with you. It used to be in factories here and people got fed up and demanded change. The same ids happening in China now.

In 1900
 

there were four factory workers for every government worker. 100 years later it's 1 to 1.

Interesting, I was not aware of that. Thank you

Most military spending is for made in America equipment. Other than that not very much. Not even our food staples are from the USA. Next time you grocery shop read the labels. Supporting the weekend farmers market is the best place to still find USA PRODUCE

I have the makings of a "MADE IN AMERICA FRUIT salad growing in my yard" bananas and pineapple, does that count??????

That is perfectly TRUE for many, many items. Quality tools are often worth their extra cost. Sometimes American-made tools are the best and reasonable. Craftsman tools control their design and provide some quality control over their products even while being made overseas. Same for other traditional brands. I wonder if all Harley Davidsons are made totally in the US?
IMO the Japanese brand automobiles and trucks are superior to the big US three - especially in reliability, resale value, and quality.
I would like the US government and US Chamber of Commerce to champion and reward US manufacturers more. The software and digital superiority of US businesses are GREAT. But, in the event of a war or other disaster, it would be better to be less dependant on China and other overseas countries. it would also help to control our US balance of trade and payments deficit. I know that we trade very much with Canada, but maybe EVEN MORE would be in order - because of low shipping cost and we can better depend on them.

How many touters of American Made on this thread are posting via an American Made device?

The more countries have middle classes, the fewer Dictatorships the world has - and therefore, a more stable world society.

That is pretty negative and hard to analyze logically - since 100% of Americans can't possibly be socialists or Marxists.

A.I. and robotics could easily cause 30 % unemployment by 2050. So, yes there will be robotic checkouts. They basically have that now. Life changes and it is changing more rapidly every year. And it is a BIG reason for social stress today.

And you brought back that lovely dog too.

I was Made In America. I outlasted the implied warranty by far.

True that! And WALL ST. and corporate managers tend to have a ONE quarter time-horizons on their decisions. Japan and some European countries have business leaders the have 5-year plans. Japan uses a "Circle of Management" philosophy that they got from a book written (probably 1950) in the US, but was ignored. It means that upper management MUST pay attention to the lowest line workers because they are close to the action and therefore, the most knowledgeable.
That RARELY happens in the US, which adopted a top-down approach like the US military after its success in WW2. Last time I checked Japanese CEOs were considered GREEDY if they made more than 10 to 15 times more than their average line workers. Compare that to US CEOs. And then, even realize that it is the reason why the average person does NOT even realize how and why the whole US wealth gap problem has developed. And why it may be impossible to reverse!

Example?

So here's what happens when the self-service cash registers came:

1. You need an entire manufacturer to make those machines, from the coder of the program, to the frame the machine sits in, the trucks that deliver the machines. So that's a lot of new employees. Global, yes. Some in America, some in other countries. It's a global project.

2. You need a sales force to convince stores to use them. That's definitely American employees, there.

3. You need people who are trained in repairing these machines, that never existed before. So you'll need to hire a contractor, which means more new employees. Definitely American, they won't be flying in from Japan to fix the register at the Winn Dixie.

4. You need AT LEAST one dedicated employee in the store, every shift that the store is open to the public, available to help Mrs. Smith who thought she was supposed to stuff all the coupons in the slot at the same time, and now she isn't getting her discounts and the machine won't let her leave til she deposits one coupon at a time so the machine can count the quantity of coupons and compare it to the quantity of coupons scanned. And to change the receipt tape when it runs low. And to show Mr. Jones how to turn up the volume of the fake machine lady who recites the price of what he just bought. And bag the groceries for Miss Hines, who always demands that people help her in the self-serve aisle and refuses to just go to the normal cashiers.

and so on, and so forth.

Yes, that store might need to not hire a couple of people once a couple existing employees retire. But the cash register industry has hired thousands of people who might otherwise have been unemployed. And again - this is a global effort, so yes there are new American employees, and new Chinese employees, new German employees, some in India, maybe the material for the rubber gaskets came from Thailand or Indonesia, thus requiring more rubber-tree-processors there.