Posted on 08/23/2004 10:11:25 AM PDT by Willie Green
Such a sad trend in America's economy!
Free trade is starting to get quite costly for many Americans.
Yes it is, but it's not unilateral. Europe outsources jobs to the US.
I think the thing to worry about is a bunch of clowns who think that they can keep business here by raising the costs of the employers.
"Nearly all major U.S.-based furniture manufacturers have operations in China to take advantage of lower-cost production,..."
The greedy US workers could have saved their jobs by taking a 75% pay cut and forgone any health care or other benefits. They were just to lazy and greedy to stop the wave of 'free trade' with all of the attendant benefits to the US consumer - it's all for the better good.
'Willie Green' alert.
I couldn't believe it, I bought a masonry tool the other day that was actually "made in America". There were three other same type tools to choose from and all had different pricing and quality. The price I paid for the "made in America tool" was higher but so was the quality.
Can anyone come up with any ideas of to whom this mythical award should be given?
you would have been a hit in england in the 1800's when the united states was carting away english industry!
Federal regulatory policies impose costs on our domestic industries that render them noncompetitive in the global market. To level the playing field, we should shift our tax policy to fund our Treasury with a relatively low, flat-rate revenue tariff placed on all imported goods, offset by a corresponding reduction in the corporate income tax.
If this inconveniences the transnational corporate taliban, I have no sympathy. They merely seek to profit by undermining our domestic industries. I see no reason why my tax dollars should be used to militarily defend their global lust for resources.
Then stop producing mass market stuff and start producing high quality, individualistic "artisan" stuff!
I have a feeling a these companies had a lot of deadwood middle management.
America pioneered the mass production revolution and we will pioneer the move to customized semi-massed production via internet marketing.
I think a lot of Americans would be glad to eliminate preferential treatment (including corporate welfare) to big corporations.
Never happened.
Trade of industrial goods was negligible.
Both nations were engaged in developing and expanding their own industrial infrastructure.
The Chinese are good at carving and woodworking, but the higher end furniture makers like Henredon and Hooker are finding problems with finishes - beware of buying Chinese made furniture if you want quality. Also, they are using ocean going saw mills that also put Americans out of work. Joke is about to be on the Chinese however - they work for 35 cents and hour and the Vietnamese will work for 10 cents -look for a transfer of furniture making from slave state China to slave state Vietnam in the next five years.
To be clear, India and China practice no such thing as "free trade". Protections are profitable and good strategies, borne out by their successes.
Exactly.
"The price I paid for the "made in America tool" was higher but so was the quality."
But it gets to the point where you can't even afford to buy an American-made product, so you have to buy the cheaper overseas product or go without it. Such is the case I think with much of American-made furniture. Much higher quality and better materials, but not within everyone's budget.
That's just what we need...
an industrial infrastructure based on the philosophy of a 1960s hippie commune...
I can see it now...
high-quality, handcrafted tie-die T-shirts, leather sandals, belt buckles, candles, pipes & bongs...
Kumbaya! It's a small, small world!
"This is like deja vu all over again."
~ Yogi Berra
The same thing is happening in the Hardwood flooring industry. Chinese imports are drastically cheaper than are North American (both US and Canadian) made products, and the Chinese are dumping product into this country by the shipload.
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