I don't have problems with USA using China and other asian countries for cheap labor. It gives them billions of dollars, makes political relationships stable and gives us cheap products. I generally do have a problem with americans buying EXPENSIVE products made overseas. Luxury goods is a market americans can compete in. High quality is usually more focused on skilled labor, AND there are already .gov restrictions on these luxury items entering the country. $50K+ cars from Japan and europe- The only reason Lincoln and Caddy's aren't in this race is because they are cheaper. Probbaly to cheap to be considered "quality" or "cool". No one had a problem driving their luxury SUV's though. Optics- Even Leupold (makers of binoculars and riflescopes) now uses imported glass and coatings. And this is the one that really gets me. Toyota's new "full size" truck. 40k+ and they are going directly at our last american made vehicle market. Now before you guys tell me toyotas are made in the heartland just take this analogy. I have no problem with cheaper chinese and vietnam goods because we design them, spec them import them and then sell them at retai level. They only make the money on the labor side. Thats a good deal for us. Toyota actually saves money by making vehicles here. The raw materials come from here (cheaper than taking them to japan) real estate is cheaper to buy here, import tariffs go away, and their labor is cheap since they have no unions and little .gov intervention. In the meanwhile they use their own engineers, designers, and corporate suits. The only thing we "gain" is non-union jobs. "gain" being the key. We lost in the end. tl;dr version If its expensive make it Made in THE USA If its cheap crap you need, go for the cheapest, with pride fully intact.
This ignores several economic realities. At this point, Japan has designed the proverbial better mousetrap. Japanese cars, for the most part, tend to be of a higher quality. Their prices are cheaper for comparable goods based on: 1. Cheaper labor, and 2. Japanese car manufacturers bought into the Deming model of TQM and JIT inventory. Therefore, their carrying costs are less, and their factories are more effiecient. Better product overall for the same price. I would love to buy an American car, but the last two I owned were crap.
Globalization makes buying products with the "made in the USA" sticker entirely worthless. There aren't many manufactured goods that contain purely American parts from the ground up. Plus, our multinationals have benefited immensely from cost cutting while relying upon their corporate branding to reap insane profits. An example is computers. Almost all of the parts is made in Asia... Korea for LCD/memory... Taiwan/Japan for semiconductors, disk media, memory... China for everything else... except that these computers/laptops you buy at Bestbuy (bless that great American institution) are branded HP, Dell, or Apple. It's a fruitless endeavor. Much like how buying a Prius will give you the self satisfaction of a smaller carbon foot print. Want to make change? Encourage fruitful reforms in the education system. Get active in community involvement for children of the poor. They're the ones who have to lead and cope with pressures of the fully integrated world.
one of the biggest reason that the trade deficit is so large with china is that, US severely limits the products that can be exported to china. anything that they can remotely link to high tech, they will not let them get to china. i am not talking about weapon here. they will make up bull**** reasons for medical field equipments linked to military, etc. it's kind of stupid in my opinion. so if china is selling "low tech" products to US, then china does not need to import "low tech" product for high price from US. a quick fix, offer more products that china can buy. simple as that.
I agree with CaseyH. Unfortunately, we live in a capitalistic country which is controlled by the rich and powerful. These people like to use luxury goods to distinguish themselves to feed their ego. Since they also control our politics through lobby groups, to ban luxury good is simply not politically possible.
Perhaps the US automakers should figure out how to make better products that people want to purchase.
If there is a comparable product that is American made, I will buy American. My last two SUV's were american made. However, if were in the market for an upscale sedan, there is no way I would buy a caddilac. They are butt ugly.
This sounds very anti-capitalist. People should buy products for whatever reason they feel like, whether it's country of origin or if it's quality or price. But telling people they should conform to buying certain because of country of origin just encourages our luxury makers to be complacent with their products. That's a losing formula, I'd prefer they compete instead of relying on nationalists to buy their products.
I don't mean to nitpick, but Korea is one of the world's largest producers of semiconductors. In fact, according to this article, South Korea is on pace to overtake Japan in semiconductor production (and digital electronics) by 2015. Currently, the USA is #1, Japan #2, Korea #3. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06017/639368-96.stm One of my more talkative Korean students was a director at Samsung's semiconductor assembly facility. I now know more about Korean semiconductor production and export than I ever thought possible.
IAWTP. You are being the best capitalist by buying the best product for the best price (i.e. the best value). We have three cars: A Toyota Camry, a Dodge Dakota Quad Cab and a BMW Z4. In each case we wanted a specific kind of car (i.e. decent sized sedan that could hold four people and get reasonable gas mileage, a four-door pickup truck that wasn't humongous and a fun, rag-top roadster that got good gas mileage). We purchased what we felt at the time was the best value.
Pride? What Pride? I have four kids and I will buy the cheapest most reliable product from anywhere.. I don't care if it's from a backyard,parking lot,foreign country, the damn moon. This country will not care if my salary doesn't match inflation... It's a big dog eats little dog world and if you don't do what it takes to survive you will be left standing and saying to yourself what happened to me *cry*sniffle* ... Your complaining about purchasing vehicles? How about smaller goods like clothes, handbags, watches, etc.... I bet you those revenues total more than vehicle purchases.
Oh and 1 more thing the Tunda was designed here by American engineers.. They were from California.. Designed and built by Americans.
Bingo. Charles Deming tried to get the US auto manufacturers to use TQM and JIT, but they refused. He sold his model to the Japanese, and then they started making better products at a good price. Now they dominate. Deming was definitely onto something. In the late 80s/early 90s...GM tried to istitute TQM in one line of cars (Saturn)...but they refused to use JIT. Also, they modified TQM to fit their business model. The result was less than what they hoped for.
I don't care where things are made. If it's cheaper and/or better, I'll buy it depending on what my needs are. Services long overtook manufacturing as the dominant component of US GDP. Manufacturing makes up only about 12% of the US' GDP, yet the US remains the world's top manufacturing country, with its factories producing goods worth ~$1.5 trillion, 1.5 times the level in the next country, Japan.
I thought about buying one. I just don't think I could deal with having a bag over my head when driving it. plus they don't have nearly enough power.
