The Site > Old Forums > It Is The Economy, Stupid > ABC evening news: Made in America.

ABC evening news: Made in America.

This is why I thought the show would be interesting.
Rawlings makes all their bats in the USA. Not sure about their entire sports line.
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To All Real Dads. For All Real Moms Every Real
Service.

Again, I dunno. Hence why this show should be interesting. To see what still is American made.
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To All Real Dads. For All Real Moms Every Real
Service.

reply to Snakeoil

Maytag

Stabler

reply to Snakeoil
I don't think that we don't want to spend a single dime more buying in America. But I don't / can't justify a price that is more than double.

reply to dogma
For what it's worth, both of those machines look like they are archaic and primitive designs that AFAIK haven't been used in Europe for maybe 30 years. Top-loaders, fer chrissakes?

In other words, it's not just the price. 'Made in America' often means 'unimaginative design'.

Edit: I beg your pardon; the Stabler guys claim to have a top-load horizontal-axis washer. Which may account for the price differential. Though their sales pitch that their advantage is 'not having to bend over' sounds a little forced.

reply to dogma

Re: ABC evening news: Made in America.

reply to Snakeoil

reply to Snakeoil
Don't hold out hope for baseball bats, one of our biggest hockey stick makers in Canada shifted production to China. And apparently, the NHL is now dressing players with Chinese jerseys...

Looking forward to the $$$ total to furnish this house.
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STOP THE INTERNET TAX! UBB is a scam.

reply to TeatherWind

reply to Snakeoil
I used to work at a company that made the signal boards for remote/smart meters.

The boards were built locally in Cleveland, and then sent to us to be integrated into the final product.
Thanks to a very large contract, the company was required to open a remote manufacturing plant. That plant is located in Mexico.
They were having a lot of trouble with quality in the mexico plant, so much that one line of products was brought back to the US plant, and is only built there. The higher ups at the US plant said the goal was to improve/increase production so that the US plant builds the majority of the product.
It has been 2 years since I have worked, there, so I am unsure of how close they are to the goal of increased us production.
I do know that toward the end of my time there, the down turn finally hit the plant, plus the large contract expiring.
Add to that, I haven't seen smart meters pushed on TV as much as they used to be.

So I do know some types of circuit boards and metering products are built in the USA [Granted the meters the readers are attached to may be built in another country].

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To All Real Dads. For All Real Moms Every Real
Service.

The question here is not whats made offshore. Hell, we all know damn near everything we buy and use on a daily basis is made someplace else.

I think we also understand the primary reason for this is American consumers want as many goods as they can get for their dollar, therefore there is competitive price pressure on producers to find a way to deliver cheap goods .. or go bankrupt. It also is accepted that any attempt to modify our societies culture to consider purchasing American manufactured goods at higher cost, even for the long term good and security of the nation as a whole, is futile.

I suggest that we accept the fact that large scale, labor driven U.S. manufacturing is gone for good, and will never come back. Our horse and buggy moment.

However I'm going to toss a monkey in the wrench here.

I think we can all agree that certain jobs as we know them have mostly been lost to automation [technology], and to cheap offshore manual labor. I now think that within 25 years, there will be very little human manual labor performed anywhere on the planet. We have a customer that once manufactured electronics in 7 plants in the U.S. using 22,000 employees. They then moved almost all manufacturing to Taiwan 20 years ago, where they hired 27,000 employees. After 10 years, they moved manufacturing to Xipeng, Chongqing China, with over 60,000 workers. All of these moves were to reduce labor cost. They are now completing a new manufacturing facility where they plan to relocate all operations in Vietnam. But they are reducing their human work force by 10 fold, to 6,000 employees. Yet they plan to produce 4x the product that did in their Chinese plant. Their new plant will be almost entirely automated.

Nothings cheaper than a robot.

But robots may be coming to a desktop near you! I found this technology utterly amazing:

Back a few years ago, when I was working at McDs yet again, I was talking with the operations manager. He was telling me of a robot[s] that was being tested out. The goal was to be able to have the robot cook and build what ever burger was ordered faster and more accurate, then a human. They hadn't any success with it replacing the full line, but they did develop a robot that could grille the meat, toast the buns and apply dressing, as well as the meat patties. The main problem is size and cost. As well as having to train crew members how to clean sanitize and keep the machine running. But he said it could replace 2 to 3 people in the grille area. Instead of a cook, and 2 assemblers, you could just have an operator/feeder.

But like he said cost and size.

But don't be to shocked if even lowly jobs like fast food get some more automation then what they have.

I do agree, that automation has played a very large part in the death of large populations of people working in manufacturing plants.
Consider that 1 machine can run almost 24/7/365, needs no medical, no vacation/sick/holiday time. Also some of said robots can do 2 or more jobs, with fewer errors and less waste of materials, then a crew of people.
I remember discussing this with others. Sure the automation maybe bad for some people, but for others it could mean a pay raise after completing training on how to run and maintain the machine [not all the time, but sometimes].

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To All Real Dads. For All Real Moms Every Real
Service.

reply to Snakeoil
Would be wonderful if we would actually start with having our Flag made in America again.

reply to Snakeoil
I have a friend ... his wife is always talking about the need to buy American ... to preserve our downtown ... to buy local ... etc.

On each visit (which occurs once every week or so), I make it a point to note something she has purchased which is imported and could have been purchased either locally or which could have been made in America.

For each and every casual observation I make, the answer is ALWAYS the same, cost. She is all for buy American, and buy local, and support downtown, provided it costs the same or less, someone else pays for it, or in the case of downtown (a place she hasn't been in over a decade) that someone else shop there.

People often seem to disconnect themselves from their rhetoric.

Only spoon fed nonsense like reusable bags free or for $.99 seem to motivate people. If we had to spend an extra $5-$15 per light bulb, most would buy made in China any day.

The strange part for me, is I'm not a buy American person, and not hostile toward global commerce, but I own and buy more American and local products and services than my friends wife. I do this for quality, and to support our economy. I just don't spend a lot of time talking about it.
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

reply to TeatherWind
I kind of like it I found a few gems like this on the site

"Staber gives alternative energy users the most efficient washer available for handling their laundry needs. The Staber washer runs very efficiently, operating on only 110–150 watt-hours of electricity per wash load. It uses about 5-6 amps during the wash cycle, and surges to about 11 amps when the motor starts. We recommend a minimum of a 1,500 watt inverter to be used with our Staber washer, with adequately charged batteries and an output of between 115-120VAC and 60Hz. to operate correctly. Unlike other washing machine manufacturers, the warranty is not voided when used on a solar power source. This, while using an average of only 15 gallons of water per load make the Staber the most energy efficient washer available and the best choice for consumers living "off-grid."

They also say it is user friendly for repairs.