Made in China

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Bill N

Bill N

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Joined
Jan 4, 2014
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Ozark, Missouri
I realize I am like a minnow swimming upstream in the Mississippi River but recently I was walking past a rack of baseball type hats in Walmart and looked at a nice one with the Air Force insignia actually embroidered on the front and the words U.S. Air Force printed on the bill.  Looking at it closer on the inside there was an official looking emblem that when one read the fine print stated:  Officially Approved by Department of the Air Force.  Just below that was the tag that read Made in China.  That blew me away.  I know, I know, no use in getting worked up in Walmart about Chinese stuff but that emblem that said it was approved by the Air Force just tripped my trigger to the point where I even wrote an email to the Air Force Association to see if they could bring it to the attention of somebody who might care to put a stop to having Chinese products made for US military forces.  To be totally honest I even wrote a email to the White House with my concern.  Surprisingly I received a reply to that one but it was a pretty well canned reply that did not give any specifics.  Oh well, thanks for tolerating my vent.

Bill
 
Bill, In my travels, I have bought numerous USAF hats, some were made in the USA and some are made in China. I agree with you on the rant as I have been given some very thin cheap hats from China that are junk. I do have some very nice ones that are nicely made from China and many made in the USA. It is a shame we have allowed our manufacturing go overseas of which a lot left because of emissions. No wonder we have a lot of people on welfare.
 
It's a reality that anything for anybody can be made anywhere.

It's all about the lowest bid.

The person that got the contract to make the caps may be a US citizen, with a US company. But he found a source that could make them cheaper in China.
 
I remember when WalMart stood for: Made in the USA, it was there premise for getting into small cities
I remember when Cable TV was: Commercial Free
Greed, Greed, Greed

Meanwhile 1/2 the country still argues that it's okay to buy from China, Communist, child labor, work for near nothing, and the other 1/2 selectively buys the less expensive goods and smiles.

God Bless America  :)
 
I used to watch a TV show called "Shark Tank". 5 millionaire investors would hear pitches from everyday people and sometimes would make deals with the presenter to invest in their product for a percentage of the company. In fact I have a cousin that went on the show and made a deal.  After I watched the show for a while it started to bug me that many times in order to invest in a product the millionaire would insist on moving production to China.

Several times the small aspiring business person would decline to make a deal with the "Shark" because they made their product in the US, employed a handful of people here, and refused to move production to China for any amount of money.  I quickly burned out on the show and don't watch it anymore. It's a sign of the times.
 
You're worried abut imported hats?  The Sig Sauer P320 (Swiss-German) is the designated official sidearm, replacing the previous Beretta (Italian) M9.  Several automatic weapons are foreign bought as well, e.g. Belgian, Swedish, British, etc.  Some made here under license, others imported.  Plus more than a few components in weapons system are either originally sourced in China or get replacement parts from there.
 
You complaining about things made in China..
You probably would pay quite a bit more for
Items including tires.
What cracks me up is the complaint on quality when specifications are followed to make them less costly.
 
it could be that it was a blank hat made in china, with the embroidery done here in the states.... not likely, but just sayin'

I'd guess it near impossible to find any hat not made there.....well at least somewhere else if not China.
 
Willandgiselarv said:
You complaining about things made in China..
You probably would pay quite a bit more for
Items including tires.
What cracks me up is the complaint on quality when specifications are followed to make them less costly.
Click to expand...
Complaint was not on quality but just on the general fact that our industries, particularly steel and fabric industries, have gone out of country and so have the jobs.  The Carolinas used to be home to many linen mills - not any more. While I find that the pillows made by the guy in Minnesota are somewhat high priced, I really like the idea that he makes them in Minnesota and brags about it.  Should we go to war with China, they would already have us by the short spots because they control so much of our industry.
By the way, specifications are not the reason for low price.  Starvation wages are as well as child labor.

Bill
 
This is trending political, cause worker and job safety rules as well as taxes at all levels are largely responsible for the loss of jobs overseas.  Further, not all those overseas jobs are sweat shops filled with 12 year old almost-slaves.  Yeah, they work harder and maybe longer hours than US workers, but they often feel they have good jobs and support their families well by local standards.  Are they overworked or just more willing and productive employees?  And how often do you complain about the high cost of seemingly simple items here in the USA?  Please don't answer - just think about it. We live well and mostly work well in relatively pleasant shops and factories, but there is a price to be paid for that.  TANSTAAFL
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
And how often do you complain about the high cost of seemingly simple items here in the USA?  Please don't answer - just think about it. We live well and mostly work well in relatively pleasant shops and factories, but there is a price to be paid for that.   
Click to expand...
Sorry but just have to answer - I quit worrying about paying a few bucks more for some items if they are US made a long time ago.  It didn't take much to see what was happening to our industry and it did not start with China.  It started with Japan after WWII when we were so kind as to help them get back on their feet.  Practically our entire sewing machine industry went there but it was more English anyway before the war.  Same for South Korea and even Vietnam (I have some shirts I was sure were from China but the tags says Vietnam). The point of the whole conversation is not political - it is simply pointing out that we are dependent on many other countries that our industry has flocked to for whatever purposes.  Cheap prices have not helped this country when you have entry level hamburger flippers demanding $15 an hour and wondering why prices are going up.  I have no answer but I try to buy the most American I can but there are many items that you just can't do that anymore.  I will say we did have some success in one industry by simply refusing to buy  - the auto industry and many of them are now made in Amercian factories in the south - many without union wages to drive the prices sky high.  I never understood how Detroit was successful in selling cars being assembled by workers earning $25 an hour to people making $8 an hour. JMHO
 
I'm inclined to agree with the original poster. but there is more to this...  I will give you ONE of the two reasons I'm upset over everything being Made in china. the other is political.

Our military is heavily invested into COMPUTERS.. Windows no less. In fact we've already had a couple ships dead in the water when the Operating System did what windows does best.. CRASH.

Now.. Only one company makes TVs or Monitors in the US and last I herd they were closing plants (Plus it's not high quality hardware) Nobody makes computers in the USA any more..  So what happens if we get in a "Disagreement" with china and can not buy replacment ______'s any more?

OR worse yet.. There is a Fiction story.. At least I hope it is fiction.. A company makes a computer chip that is part of the Nav system of all the jet fighters.. But there is a satellite that can broadcast a signal that basically frys that specific CHIP..  leaving the plane without navigation and.. SPLAT/SPLASH.

I read the story. it was PUBLISHED. not a classified document in any way.. What happens if China actually puts that plan into effect. they are launching space stuff now days .
 
Foreign entities have been buying into the companies in the US for many years. I know of 2 companies in particular because they were companies from my hometown. Allis Chalmers  and the Pillsbury Company. Most of my relatives worked at Allis after world ll, and I worked for the Pillsbury Company. Allis was bought out by Fiat. They closed the plant here and took the manufacturing to Italy. The Pillsbury Company was bought out by hostile take over in 1986 by a company named Grand Metropolitan from Great Britten. The Pillsbury Company just didn't mill flour, they owned many other entities, Burger King, Green Giant, Joan of Ark, Van de camp, Hagen Daze, American Beauty, Tombstone Pizza, and a few others I can't remember. They started selling off the entities right away, only keeping the ones that made the most profit. By the middle of 91 they had sold off most of the entities including the Pillsbury Company itself. This was even before the NAFA agreement was in effect. The plant I worked at had over 380 employees till mid 91 when the plant was sold to Carghill, they only kept the mill itself open, with 41 employees. Carghill ran the plant into the ground, never did any maintenance to the facility. When the building started to fall apart they shut it down, and sold The Pillsbury Co. to General Mills. Corporate GREED is why this countries manufacturing was moved to other countries, plain and simple. At least General Mills has honored the Pillsbury Co. pension liability, so far.   
 
The only things we have that we know were 100% made in the USA are our kids. They have lasted 38 and 40 years. Not saying we haven?t had problems with them but neither came with any guarantees or warranty. We even tried to send one back very early in the ownership due to what we considered manufacturing defects. We were told there were no refunds or returns. We do know some folks that got the same products from China and other countries and they are perfectly happy with their purchases. They have a somewhat different look and seem to have been implanted with a chip that makes them better at math and science. That chip was not available in the US made products we got.  ;D
On another note, I have purchased a couple baseball style caps at the clothing sales store at Dover AFB. I really like the style and the wording And AF emblem is embroidered. Just looked st the tag and the hats are manufactured in China.  :'(
 
I share the alarm about loss of manufacturing in this country, but I think "corporate greed" is just a nasty way of describing basic market economics: if you can build & sell your product a few pennies cheaper, the buyers will beat a path to your door.  Global transportation & communications has made international businesses practical (economical) and we are seeing the harsh results here at home.  Global business has no geographic loyalty - as long as it is practical they manufacture where costs are lower, which these days tends to mean labor is cheaper.

It's popular in the USA to believe that Chinese factories are filled with 12 year olds working 18 hour days, but it's mostly not the case. Granted there are more abuses than in the US, but China is actually a world leader in Child Labor & protection laws. Required education, protection from abusive treatment, etc.  The abuses are largely in places where the central government scrutiny is minimal and they really crack down once it is discovered. And a crackdown there is much more than a fine or slap on the corporate wrist.

One thing that bothers me is that goods can be made on the other side of the world and shipped here and still cost less than those made here. How did our costs get that far out of line with the rest of the world? And is it sustainable?  Like it or not, we have to compete on a worldwide basis these days.
 
  What I hated was the buyout of Makers Mark and Jim Beam by the Chinese....cant remember when or who but I was awake enough to remember "chinese buyers" .....sorry,just read an article that said Japanese, my how things change so quickly

 
One of my pet peeves regarding the China products is the total disregard for "Intellectual Property Rights" .  Anything made and developed elsewhere (America or any other country) is quickly copied and sold by China with no regard  to the owners property rights. They even have Jeep Wrangler knockoffs! I have seen the pics. Identical in every way but the name on the front. 
 
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