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[AP/GfK] Poll: Americans prefer low prices to items 'Made in the USA'
Associated Press ^ | Apr 14, 2016 12:39 PM EDT | Josh Boak and Emily Swanson

Posted on 04/14/2016 10:23:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai

The vast majority of Americans say they prefer lower prices instead of paying a premium for items labeled “Made in the U.S.A.,” even if it means those cheaper items are made abroad, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.

While presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are vowing to bring back millions of American jobs lost to China and other foreign competitors, public sentiment reflects core challenges confronting the U.S. economy. Incomes have barely improved, forcing many households to look for the most convenient bargains instead of goods made in America. Employers now seek workers with college degrees, leaving those with only a high school degree who once would have held assembly lines jobs in the lurch. And some Americans who work at companies with clients worldwide see themselves as part of a global market.

Nearly three in four say they would like to buy goods manufactured inside the United States, but those items are often too costly or difficult to find, according to the survey released Thursday. A mere 9 percent say they only buy American. …

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: apgfkpoll; china; freemarket; geenokidding; madeintheusa; redchina; regulations; usjobs
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To: captain_dave

The price would be lower if not for the taxation and regulatory costs. And the dollar’s value would not be as junky as it is.


21 posted on 04/14/2016 10:34:05 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Don Corleone

Me too. AND I refuse to drive a Jap or German car.


22 posted on 04/14/2016 10:34:41 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: loucon

Assembly line work is, for the most part, obsolete in America and around the world. Even China is buying and developing robots by the factory-full.


23 posted on 04/14/2016 10:34:49 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction. - Mark Twain)
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To: wtd

“Americans have been conditioned to prefer lower cost items...however, that conditioning can and will be reversed if/when the manufacture of those goods returns to the USA.”

By all means, let’s have the government initiate a behavior modification program to ensure that Americans are conditioned to paying higher prices for items.


24 posted on 04/14/2016 10:36:16 AM PDT by DugwayDuke
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To: Olog-hai

Just ask China, Korea, India and Taiwan to raise their minimum wage to $15/hour........................


25 posted on 04/14/2016 10:37:13 AM PDT by Red Badger (WE DON'T NEED NO STEENKING TAGLINES!...........................)
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To: Mears

This is a problem with modern society’s disposable goods mentality. Used to be that clothes were mended, vehicles fixed, toys made by hand. Nowadays, clothes are thrown out at the sight of a loose thread or a lost button, vehicles are scrapped after a check engine light comes on, and toys are made with cheap plastic that breaks in less than a year of regular use.

I’m 36, and my wife, who is older than me, “hates” that I fix everything. I grew up with a single mother who worked three jobs to keep a head over my brother’s and my head. We mended our own clothes, wore shoes until they fell apart, and fixed our toys when they broke. If we went back to the mentality of resilience and self-sustenance, we might realize savings over the long haul, but Americans are so conditioned to just throw away things that aren’t like new, I doubt we’ll ever see the old days again excepting maybe a severe depression.


26 posted on 04/14/2016 10:38:18 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Olog-hai

Not those of us who remember a time when most items were of higher quality and things with moving parts were built in a way they could be repaired instead of tossed into the trash.


27 posted on 04/14/2016 10:38:48 AM PDT by Iron Munro (Noah: 'When the animals began to pair up by specie and stand in line, I really took notice.')
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To: Olog-hai

wrong question.

would you rather have a job? or have slightly cheaper items available to purchase?

Is the correct question.


28 posted on 04/14/2016 10:39:36 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, R)
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To: Olog-hai

According to the American MEDIA and the DEMOCRAT party American companies are those who are polluting the earth, sickening their customers, mistreating their poor downtrodden employees, cheating the government, ripping off the consumer, endangering people’s health for EVIL profits, corrupting the culture, and mistreating third world countries.
When an American consumer reaches for a product, the evil American name jumps out and he/she remembers yesterday’s rant by a Democrat politician about the company’s evil deeds.
Result..buy something from a third world tyranny, where nothing is openly said about anything.


29 posted on 04/14/2016 10:39:41 AM PDT by CaptainAmiigaf (New York Times: "We print the news as it fits our views.")
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To: michelala

“Believe me folks would much prefer to purchase better quality products produced here even if they have to pay slightly more. Over the long run you end up saving money since the product will last much longer.”

Great idea. Let’s completely eliminate all 12,000 tariffs on imported items and give the consumer the freedom to choose between high quality/price items and the imported items.

“The key is to bring back good jobs so the folks can afford to buy quality products.”

Why not just raise the minimum wage to $50/hour? Then we would all have good jobs and could afford to buy each other’s over priced products.


30 posted on 04/14/2016 10:40:20 AM PDT by DugwayDuke
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To: DugwayDuke

Quality is the key.
Cheap foreign stuff does not last.
Remember when American Made was a status of quality? Washing machines, refrigerators, power tools, machine tools, etc. would outlast everything from overseas. Now, it’s all crap that breaks even the first time you use it.
I bought a Chinese made jigsaw at one of those travelling tool shows once and it broke the first time I tried to use it........................


31 posted on 04/14/2016 10:40:44 AM PDT by Red Badger (WE DON'T NEED NO STEENKING TAGLINES!...........................)
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To: CaptainAmiigaf

Well, for the record, China is a second-world tyranny. The second world didn’t go away with the fall of the USSR, and with the replacement “Eurasian Union”, the USSR came back.


32 posted on 04/14/2016 10:43:13 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: loucon

Many factory jobs today involve working with highly sophisticated equipment requiring very specialized , technical knowledge. Smart high-school grads can be trained to do this work, but most of them go off to college. The semi-skilled assembly-line jobs of the past have largely disappeared.


33 posted on 04/14/2016 10:43:16 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: rarestia

[I’m 36, and my wife, who is older than me, “hates” that I fix everything. I grew up with a single mother who worked three jobs to keep a head over my brother’s and my head. We mended our own clothes, wore shoes until they fell apart, and fixed our toys when they broke. If we went back to the mentality of resilience and self-sustenance, we might realize savings over the long haul, but Americans are so conditioned to just throw away things that aren’t like new, I doubt we’ll ever see the old days again excepting maybe a severe depression.]

Depression Part 2 is coming. I, too, hate seeing everything thrown out. I’ve already been hit hard by this “economy” which is a whole lot of outsourcing and H1’B stuff. “Hard” is an understatement. People are so used to things going “as normal” that they’re not as prepared for when the music stops.

I wasn’t prepared enough. And when things changed, it changes quickly and you’ve got a lot less power to do something about it. As an aside, you find out real quick, who are your real friends (including family) and who are not.


34 posted on 04/14/2016 10:44:46 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: Moleman
It won't be a premium for the country as a whole. If we stop subsidizing illegal aliens, it will save hundreds of trillions a year. If we start making our own products, it will put money in the pockets of Americans who will pay taxes and use fewer public services. We will all be better off in the long run. Allowing illegal aliens and bad trade deals is a very inefficient way of running an economy. It puts a lot of money in a few pockets, but costs society way more in the long run.

Poor people will not have cheap goods at Walmart for a while; but if they are working at good jobs, they will be able to afford to buy American goods and they will have more dignity.

35 posted on 04/14/2016 10:45:32 AM PDT by Defiant (The Shills are alive, with the sound of Cruz-ick....)
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To: Mears
Not me,I’d pay much more for USA quality.

Well the article said 67% preferred the lower-priced product, which meant that you fall into the 1/3 that doesn't.

For some goods "American-made" is a positive. For others, it's not. For a long time, Japanese cars were better made than many of their American counterparts. Even now, there are still an awful lot of goods -- particularly electronics -- where certain foreign goods are simply a much better value for the price.

36 posted on 04/14/2016 10:46:42 AM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: Olog-hai
"Proudly made in the USA!"*




*By Mexicans

37 posted on 04/14/2016 10:46:45 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte ('''Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small''~ Theodore Dalrymple)
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To: loucon

Depends on the Assembly Line. Except, more and more, assembly line people will be engineers and technician, managing and maintaining the robots.

Of course, if you just want mindless assembly-line drones, you can always hit up the social sciences departments. . . (grin)


38 posted on 04/14/2016 10:46:52 AM PDT by Salgak (Peace Through Superior Firepower. . . .)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Most people don’t care - until their job disappears.

As long as it’s the other guy, it’s not much of a problem.


39 posted on 04/14/2016 10:47:17 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: stephenjohnbanker; Olog-hai
Let us put this all in context--something the AP can seldom be trusted to do.

American attitudes have been hopelessly manipulated by those promoting the cult of "Diversity," which treats people & peoples, as basically interchangeable. Immediate material advantage increases in importance--vastly increases in importance--when ties of common history, kinship & community, are deliberately undermined and trivialized by an Academic/Media complex, who has very little concern or understanding of how normal human societies function.

40 posted on 04/14/2016 10:47:30 AM PDT by Ohioan
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