RANT...My Turn

I walked him outside, had him pop the hood on his new patriotic machine and pointed out the Mazda parts therein.

He shut up until a year later he was back, drunk, bragging about his , yup, American made John Deere lawn tractor. A quick visit under the hood though revealed a Kawasaki engine. Haven't heard much from that dork since.

Its a global economy gents, like it or not. I hate the Chineses crap tools, lead painted toys and poison foodstuffs too. I yearn for the older days when we all made our own stuff and traded primarily amongst aourselves, but those days are gone.

Adjust, be vigilant and find a way to thrive. We still have the best place in the world to live. God bless America.

Walt

A truly ecumenical assembly.

You think a China Man worker has workers comp insurance and can take off 6 months at full pay if he "hurts his back" Heck no!!

Gene

There still is US manufacturing going on. My wife's an independent sales rep, carries 10-15 companies. She specializes in US produced women's apparel and accessories. None sold to big box stores. Does not (and cannot) compete with Chinese products.

Has your community already closed down Main Street, in favor of big box shopping? Hasn't happened everywhere. I can still go to more than one hardware/tool supplier and speak with the owner. Who is always a US goods promoter.

Needed some grade 70 chain recently. 2 choices for US made. I was happy.

I'll gladly make the effort to beat the 4:30 closing time of our best local place. Just to ensure that they stay in business. Owner knows and appreciates that, one of the reasons he gave up his previous job to take over when his father died. A really good hardware store is worth supporting. We have 3.

And Toyotas are the only models racing that are made in the U.S. Chevys and Dodges are made in Canada and Fords in Mexico.

Well let's see, if memory serves me right the big CaseIH tractors as well as the 88 and 77 series combines are still assembled at least here in the US. One thing that I know is built in the good old US of A...Japanese cars and trucks...ha ha. Pretty good ain't it? God bless.

--old fashioned farmer

Studebaker actually did set aside money to cover future pensions, but did not set the plan up as a vested retirement plan. The New York moneymen decided that looting the pension fund was more profitable than building cars, so they shut down Studebaker, which was turning a profit at the time.

My 2 pesos worth.

Today, however, those job skills are no longer premium grade high dollar job skills---although the Unions that had these jobs so designated, 80 years ago, still cling to the idea that Their workers are so highly skilled that they DESERVE $81.00/hr!

Today, there are NO jobs of this type requiring a wage of that much, and if the high school dropouts in Detroit who are getting that wage were to suddenly get what they are really worth, based upon the actual VALUE of their services, they'd ALL go on permenant strike!

It isn't ALL their fault, however1 You will notice that housing prices in cities where super-high wage factory jobs are the "Norm" are also Sky-high and getting worse! Housing prices in those cities are just as insane as the "prevailing wages".

What will be interesting is to see what happens when the High $$$$ housing collapses when the High $$$ Manufacturing jobs are finally ALL GONE and there are no longer any High $$$$ wage earners to pay those high $$$$$$$$$ prices for housing!