Doing this throughout the year is tough but Christmas is the hardest. Made it through Christmas shopping without buying anything from China, but about 90% of what I looked at was made there, up from last year. Put lots of items back on the shelf. I was even happy to find something made in Mexico or Malaysia....being as they aren't communist nuclear powers contesting Taiwan and northern Japanese islands. Wonder where we are headed if more people don't start talking with their wallets. Is the Wal-Mart greeter industry saturated yet?
I hear ya Very hard to shop non-China, but it is POSSIBLE!!! And like you said, more people better start going out of their way to buy non-China, even if it means spending a few dollar's more than the non-China junk!! If your the typical American that doesn't care, think about it this way for a second. Everytime you buy made in China, you are strenghtening the Chinese economy and weakening the American Dollar/Economy. And don't let someone try to fool you into thinking that this NAFTA crap is a good thing, or will be eventually. The Chinese are never going to be American consumer's, IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Do you really think that some poor Chinese worker's that are basically Slave labor working for 2 rice cakes a week are going to rush out and spend about $45,000 on a new Chevy Suburban??? IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Everytime you decide that it's o.k. to buy the cheap Chinese part instead of spending a couple more buck's on the U.S.A. part, you are potentially putting your fellow American worker out of a job, maybe eventually putting yourself out of a job :eek2: Not trying to sound political, just painting a picture with the cold hard truth! Value your own well being and job security? Value your neighbor's well being and job security? If not, you better start. SAY NO TO CHINESE MADE JUNK!!!!!!!!!! :Smarty:
I take it you don't shop at Harbor Freight for tools, eh? uzzled: Talk about the Mother Lode of "Made in China" cast iron/pig iron! I bought a bench vise there not knowing it was Made in China until I opened the box at home. That pile of crap lasted me about 3 months before I split the thing in two. I now have a "Made in USA" bench vise. I go there now to buy tarps only!
i borrowed a firend of mine's cherry picker to pull a 455 and it broke just after i told my buddy to stand back from it while i lowered the engine after just getting clear from my '68 gs.the inner adjustable tube went rite thru the main beam.where i had it set at it was rated at 1000 lbs,the 455 did not have the trans on it and the engine had an aluminum intake.geuss where the p.os. was made.the steel had porosity in the tear.o by the way it was less than a year old.made by larin corp.
Gets a little messy........... Lots of people get real upset when "Americans" buy "Jap" cars that are actually designed, developed, tooled, and built in the U.S. by US labor. They still refer to it as a Jap car since the company is owned by the Japanese and the "profits" go back to Tokyo. On the other hand, most of your new US car or truck (defined as a company owned by a US firm, and the profits stay here) now comes in from outside the US suppliers that are usually a joint venture half owned by the US company. Both Visteon and Delphi are essentially abandoning their Big 3 customers (which they were spun from) and concentrating on their international operations for their core business in the future. Do we get it both ways? Made in China in a US joint venture vs made in the USA by parts not made in the US? One is OK, other isn't? Or both NG. What do you drive then? Don't get me wrong, Brian hit the nail on the head that working with and buying from China is VERY different from Japan, Korea, or Europe (including the new operations growing in Eastern Europe) where they do not have communism (although some border closely on socialism). For all practical purposes, I consider Mexico and Canada as part of the North American sector along with the US. The problems we're having now will hit there, too, as soon as the US is bled dry.
Yes. :TU: The thing that troubles me the most about China, is I believe they have watched the US - former Soviet dynamic closely. Because the former Soviet Union became bankrupt trying to out do us on militery spending (very simplified statement). With their growing economy, they will easily have the upper hand in any future negotiations or conflicts such as Tiawan or the disputed northern Japanese islands. They could, in effect, shut down the US economy. If their people complain shooting is an option. It is in my estimation an extreme threat to US security.
I couldn't agree with you folks more. I went shopping for kids clothes last week -- have a LOT of nieces and nephews -- and went to Penney's since they usually have good quality kid's clothes and a lot of sales around Christmas. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't just China. Almost everything I picked up came from Pakistan, Viet Nam, and Cambodia. It's getting scarier and scarier.
So Steve, let them go naked. :laugh: That's what it's coming to. Spend 3 days driving around and wasting gas (the profits which go back to another country anyway) to find a sweater made in North America instead of Asia. What if you live in a rural setting? I can see if you lived in North Jersey, the mall and store capital of the universe. Then you have a chance. But where I am, there's ChinaMart and the Bangor Mall, everything of which is made in China anyway. It's hard to buy stuff made in USA when 95% of everything is made somewhere else. :rant:
oh oh....if you dont buy made in China...that means they will eat more and more cats and dogs ..... oh them poor pets... :Smarty:
Here it comes, bend over!!!!!!!!!! From the online Wards Auto: Chinese Car to Debut at Detroit Auto Show By William Diem WardsAuto.com, Dec 15 2005 The CK, a South Korean-designed car that Geely put into production in May in China, is powered by a 1.5L, 4-cyl. gasoline engine. Print-friendly format E-mail this information China's largest private auto maker, Geely Automobile Holding Co., will bring one car to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January as way of introducing itself to the North American media. The CK, a South Korean-designed car that Geely put into production in May in China, is powered by a 1.5L, 4-cyl. gasoline engine making 94 hp at 6,000 rpm. It features China's first domestic-built automatic transmission.(See related story: Geely to Sell Chinese Cars in U.S.) Jenny Jin, vice general manager and auto business director for Geely Holding, says Geely is bringing the car primarily for the media conference. The time and date for the press conference has yet to be announced. Geely, founded by Chinese businessman Li Shufu, took five cars to the Frankfurt auto show last September, including the CK. Its name in Chinese translates to "Freedom Ship" or "Free Cruiser." (See related story: Chinese Auto Makers to Debut at Frankfurt) Geely unit sales jumped 76% in November following a whopping 98% in October, to 115,153 units year-to-date, the company says. The CK, Geelys newest product, added about 20,000 units of growth through November, during which more than 4,000 vehicles were sold. Geely, expanding capacity to build more CKs, this fall invested in two new production sites in China, in Xiangtan (10,000 units) and Lanzhou (50,000 units). The auto maker has four other plants in operation in China: Linhai; Ningbo; Taizhou; and Shanghai; with a total planned capacity of 650,000 units in 2007. Company headquarters are in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang province. The ambitious auto maker has said it plans to produce 1 million vehicles in 2010 and 2 million by 2015. Listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company has been building cars only since 1998. Geely President Xu Gang said last year that Geely "will introduce a slew of new products, including recreational vehicles and sport/utility vehicles, in cooperation with foreign automobile design companies." "In a way, we are at a similar situation like Toyota (Motor Corp.) 30 years ago and Korean auto makers 20 years ago, when they tried to enter the North American market," Zhao Jie, president of Geely International Corp., the company's export branch, tells a Chinese trade publication. "It will take time for us to catch up in quality. Right now, we are trying to optimize our production process and quality control." Zhao says 3,000 journalists and 500,000 visitors saw the Geely Pavilion at the recent Frankfurt show. Geely began exporting cars in 2003 to the Middle East, Africa and Central and South America. A company spokesman says it will be at least two years before it begins exports to Europe. Great Wall Automobile Co., another independent Chinese auto maker, is said to be interested in participating at the Detroit show, as well, but the company did not immediately answer requests for confirmation. Great Wall displayed its Hover SUV and Deer pickup at the Bologna auto show in Italy in November. (See related story: Great Wall Displays Chinese Vehicles at Bologna Show)
It is in my estimation an extreme threat to US security.[/QUOTE] Brian, you bring to mind a statement that I heard several years ago, I don't remember who said it. "The best way to defeat communist China, is to figure out a way to export liberalism, and maybe some lawyers too." :Brow:
Exporting laywers won't defeat China, but will make the U.S. a safer place. We can send my brother first.
Guess I'm in the minority here. If a company is interested in having me as a customer, they'll make what I demand, whether active or latent. Elementary economics talks about specialization. That's why Detroit builds cars, why furniture is from Grand Rapids, why movies are from Hollywood, and so forth. It also works in the macro level - good crystal comes from Murano, good porn comes from Sweden (although they're losing out to the Germans), and good tiles come from Portugal. As a believer in capitalism and freedom of choice, I'll buy what suits me. I can't expect America to make everything that will suit me, mind you, but for a purchase that requires some emotion, I'll be damned if I care where the item is from.
Diego: Good to hear from you. I would totally agree with your statement except for the major point that China is not a capitalist society or anything that resembles it. They are slurping up the benefits of capitalism by exporting to the free markets of the world without any of the responsibilities and ethics that go with it. If and when they do play by all the rules, then I would agree with you totally. Especially the porn part! :TU: :TU: :TU:
Hi, Dave . . . hopefully you had a good New Year. I partied like a rock star, which makes me wonder how some of them can continue to behave that way when they're 40. I'm still out of commission. Anyway, the thing with China is that they have learned to like money. We taught the Japanese to like money, and we taught them TQM, which they embraced in a way that we didn't (and are still paying for it.) And, as China has become a huge money-making opportunity, there's no way that we're gonna miss that opportunity. When it comes to money, there's no ethics. If this wasn't true, we wouldn't be doing business with China (I remember Tiannemen Square quite well). Alas, this wouldn't stop other countries, so do we sit back and watch these opportunities that others are taking advantage of? Or do we join the fray? Also, I must take issue with your implication that capitalism does not exist in China. It does. Just not in the way that we are used to. The government doesn't own all the business enterprises there, unless I'm missing something.
Ahh, it brings a tear of joy to the eye......our Diego has grown into a full fledged Bushie! :TU: :laugh:
Far from a Bushie. The only thing worse than the left is the right! But I've got a lot of ties - I used to work at Chrysler, after all!
Truth in advertising? Maybe I missed the fine print... I just returned from a church mission trip to Mexico, and it was an eye opening experience in many, many ways. I saw first hand several of the factories that took their operations south of the border...from the LG cell phone I carried in my pocket, to the Zenith made tv in my house...and lots of others I can't remember. But the striking thing was that often these products carry "Made in the USA" labels...coincidently, I talked to a couple of truck drivers who explained how this worked. One guy hauled finished Zenith TVs across the border to a facility in the US where they TVs were simply placed in their boxes and then loaded back on the truck to distribute to the stores...another guy hauled oranges all the way to Florida to get the "Sunkist made" stamp and then sent out to the stores. And I'm not even gonna go into how we're getting raped on the price of pharmaceudicals...they sell the exact same stuff across the border, but at 1/10 of the price, and still make a profit... :af: So instead of a product "Made in America", you may only be getting a good feeling stenciled onto yet another imported good... ------------------------------ Hillbilly Racing Team
Rob: I think you're right on the money on this. I doubt, however, the Chicoms will be shipping from China in containers to some port of entry place in the US to put in the box, change or add the stamp, etc. like we do with our business partners in Mexico and Canada. I just hope Mexico and Canada don't start getting their "components" from China, then pass them through to us. Then everybody (except the Chicoms) loses. I think it's time to go back to referring the nationalist Chinese as Chicoms and screw the politically correct crap until they clean up their own moral, ethical, and social policies of pure socialism. Only thing capitalistic about them is selling to us. VERY different from the Japanese, Koreans, Germans, French, etc. End of rant. Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.
