Made In China

[David Hartung]

It seems that most of the consumer goods I buy these days are made in China.

The thought occurs to me, what would happen if the American people were
to decide to boycott Chinese made goods?

More realistically, the question I wrestle with on a regular basis is
why? Why is so much of our retail manufacturing taking place outside of
our nation? The answer I come with is that the government has regulated
many US manufacturing jobs out of existence.

Just a thought.

[Lee Curtis]

David Hartung wrote:

> It seems that most of the consumer goods I buy these days are made in
> China.
>
> The thought occurs to me, what would happen if the American people
> were to decide to boycott Chinese made goods?

Ain't gonna happen. Lower prices trump "made in Ameica"
every time.

>
> More realistically, the question I wrestle with on a regular basis is
> why? Why is so much of our retail manufacturing taking place outside
> of our nation? The answer I come with is that the government has
> regulated many US manufacturing jobs out of existence.

Could it be that US tax policy REWARDS companies
for shipping jobs overseas?





Republicans block ending offshore jobs tax breaks
WASHINGTON | Tue Sep 28, 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans blocked
a Democratic bill on Tuesday to end tax deductions
enjoyed by companies that close their U.S. plants
and move overseas.

With a largely party-line vote of 53-45, Democrats
failed to muster the 60 votes needed to clear a
Republican procedural hurdle against the measure,
which would also give employers a tax break to hire
new U.S. workers.

http://tinyurl.com/3ffhneb

[wy]

Stupid, ill-informed thought, as usual. Trade with China, as
imbalanced as it is, has allowed American companies to settle and
manufacture goods there because a) a lot of resources needed are mined
in China which otherwise would have to be shipped to the US at
additional cost, labor costs are much cheaper, and companies, whose
sole motivation is profit, see increased profits in producing goods in
China for world export. Corporate America has no allegiance to
America if it can't make money in that country. Just look at Apple -
it's all Chinese made and that's how they make their $100 billion in
profits, probably twice as much, if not more, than if it were all
American made. The only thing government did wrong is create a
condition to allow Corporate America to get away with it. Government,
especially under Bush when Chinese trade had increased hugely,
should've instilled all sorts of taxes and penalties on Corporate
America to discourage any full relocation in order to preserve some
manufacturing jobs in America. But Repugnants don't think that way
and since they had control of Congress under Bush, that's why you lost
jobs that they claimed they wanted to create. Beats me why you keep
siding with Repugnants, they never really side with you.

[Slackfest]

On 5/4/2012 9:41 AM, David Hartung wrote:
>
> It seems that most of the consumer goods I buy these days are made in
> China.

Indeed, and how did this get that way?

> The thought occurs to me, what would happen if the American people were
> to decide to boycott Chinese made goods?

Well, first off, that ain't gonna happen..

> More realistically, the question I wrestle with on a regular basis is
> why? Why is so much of our retail manufacturing taking place outside of
> our nation? The answer I come with is that the government has regulated
> many US manufacturing jobs out of existence.

Sadly, quite the opposite is the case, as it was 'deregulation'
that led to the 'off-shoring' of manufacturing and services..

--Keep in mind that I get tech-support calls *FROM* India..

[Robert Fitzgerald]

Thing is, if an iPhone were made in the US, it'd cost $2000 and nobody'd
buy it anyway. So we just wouldn't have those, and all the industry/etc.
that does exist locally to support that... Probably more stuff than the
manufacturing..




--
Bobby

[bobo fizmarkian]

Which is fine by me too. I'm part Chinese, and I'd like China to
have *all* the infrastructure involved with IPhones, etc. etc.
and everything...

Design, local usage, international distribution, etc. etc. etc.

China has moved towards free-market stuff more, and America is moving
towards more socialist stuff... So, where is the bread buttered??

China!

Obama is helping China with the Canadian oil stuff... Making sure
Canada's oil is going to China... This is good.. Obama knows who he has
to answer to now... Thank you President Obama, a good friend of China,
and thanks for not stopping Canada from sending that oil to the west
coast and across the Pacific to China...

Sorry American pensioners! Sorry unions!

We also are grateful American can send it's natural gas to China! You
don't need it - you have batteries!

(well, partly just kidding, but all substantially I think based on
truth...)

--
Bobo - (What's the Jive? Bird's alive!)

[jane.playne]

It boils down to one simple reason, the "demand" side of the old
supply&demand principle.

People love to bash the evil & nasty corporations who just want to
maximize their profits, but it is the consumer who has driven the move.

I remember, ages ago, when my father bought a "made-in-Japan" bicycle
for my brother's Christmas present. The part I remember about it was my
grandmother, without saying a word, tapped the "made in Japan" label
with a scowl on her face. My father shrugged his shoulders, also without
saying a word. It amazes me the images the stick in a child's mind.

The bicycle wasn't an American bicycle corporation that has shipped jobs
overseas for the sake of profits; it was a Japanese Corporation that was
exporting its products to a willing consumer. The point was that my
father, the consumer, was driven by a cheaper price.

Many ages later, I was on a return flight from Singapore. An executive
from one of the computer hard drive companies was sitting beside me.
The conversation started with "what do you do?" or "why were you in
Singapore?". He told me about the hard drive manufacturing in Singapore
and I said, "shame on you". He shrugged his shoulders and I had a
flash-back to my memory of my father's / grandmother's interaction. He
said, "We have no choice. We can't compete in the American market place
with a made-in-America product. The consumer looks at the price tag,
not the label stating where it was made."

The cheap price of things has made us consumer addicts and we act like
addicts. Look at the old time TV shows like "Leave it to Beaver", "the
Dick Van Dike Show", and "Ozzie and Harriet". They were upper middle
class families, but they lived a simpler life with fewer "things".

Now we have one car for every family member; we have a TV for every
family member; rather than one phone, ever family member has a cell
phone AND every family member has to have their own computer in a pocket
(a smart phone); and we buy junk furniture from IKEA because it is cheap.

NOW, about that regulation thing. I don't think that that is the cause,
but it has exasperated the situation. There are stories where the
police have shut down a child's lemonade stand. John Stossel checked
into this and went through the procedure to "legally" setup a child's
lemonade stand; the process involved several stages and processes,
including a 15 hour food processing safety course and an inspection
with the Health Department's Bureau of Food Safety and Community
Sanitation, and took 65 days.[1]


citations:
1. http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120228/OPINION02/702289991