Putting your money where your mouth is???

I seriously doubt that. It is hugely UNeconomical to run any freight vehicle on a deadhead (empty), whether it be a tractor-trailer, a train car, or a ship. You can bet BIG money that ship is not returning to China empty. It has things like crushed and shredded vehicles, raw timber, iron ore, and the other raw and recycled materials used by the Chinese to do two things - take the best of that and use it for domestic and military use, and use the dregs for manufacturing consumer goods for US.

It ain't empty. Bet on that.

 

american made doesn't always mean good quality, either...(i'm not implying ANYTHING about rebel wiring,ok?)

 

Their exports are subsidized by the Chinese government.
Only way you can sell stuff below cost and make money.

Unfair compe***ion ? Absolutely.

 

That and the Chinese government is probably getting a huge cut of their final profits after the fact.

 

And, wow, California too.

It can't be easy though, Edelbrock has my respect, as well as a very big piece of my performance purchases, this due in no small part to their made in the USA commitment.

 

When a USA manufacturer actually backs their products it shows the quality. That's a damn good thing!!! But not always the "rule" nowadays. Making the consumer jump through holes for a replacement has become all to familiar. Unfortunately sometimes it's easier to buy the cheap tool, with the cheap warranty from harbor freight break it and take it back for a replacement.

 

Wait till China and India start bringing cars here.. Game over.

 

Be nice to China they own a m***ive amount of our debt.

 

Educated me...

I worked product R & D at a mail order company, we sold retail and wholesale, we sold some of the cheapest **** on the planet, (hint, they traded Manhattan Island for some)... we were 50% on most things wholesale... Our rule of thumb was if we sell it for $1, build it for .25... We even manufactured a few products too, all of them made in the USA from US made products... Same margin.

If you are bold and market that your margins are slimmer for quality US made products, who knows, you may sell more.

So, are your margins the same for US products vs. the overseas ones?

 

yes

 

Like my old man says, "I can do a lot of things and lose money, and they're all a lot more fun than running a business."



i like your old man already coolhand!!!!

 

This being the case i wonder how we will ever get out of this mess.Your not going to cut them out of the picture any time soon.

 

I manufacture small furniture pieces, and raw material is a small part of the cost, my Building insurance yearly cost is 20% of it value with only one provider. Workmans comp - you don't want to know, real estate tax is 4% of its value yearly. Shipping cost is right up there with raw material.
And I'm a small shop hate to think of what a big shop would cost.

the cost of liability insurance to be bad for ch***is parts for hot rod shop I know how high it is for safe insurance items.

 

I don't know what the foreign margins are, but I can tell you that my own margins (which is on all USA made stuff) are already razor thin.

For a lot of us, if we're higher than the Chinese, it's not because we're greedy, it's because we have higher government mandated overhead and much higher labor costs (IE, we don't use slave labor).

Yeah, he's a pretty cool cat.

Grumpy most of the time, but damned funny when it hits him right.

 

Even if the Chinese labor cost was ZERO, they still have to buy the materials,
ship them half way around the world, make them into whatever, then ship them again.
Somehow they can sell their stuff wholesale, then retail for less than the cost of the material.

People expect clean air, clean water, and a decent quality of living for themselves,
but don't want to pay a fair price for someone's labor.

 

They don't buy steel from us, they buy iron ore from us and smelt and form it themselves.

Part of the discrepancy in material costs come from the exponentially higher regulatory costs ***ociated with smelting and forming steel in the US. The Chinese don't have those costs, so their steel production is that much cheaper (which can be a substantial amount).

Their government also subsidizes their exports to the US so they can undercut US compe***ion.

This is an instance where tariffs could actually serve their proper function, but they aren't used. They are instead used to grant compe***ive advantage to select US companies who grease the political machine.

I'm all for free trade, but it's gotta be free between private en***ies without influence from government (from any nation).

When a foreign government alters the playing field, it is our government's duty to resist this on our behalf (all of us, not just selected businesses).

But it hasn't worked that way for a very long time now.

 

I've actually pretty much stopped dealing in parts at this point. The wholesalers are undercutting all the shops with their own mailorder houses. At this point the discount you get for wholesale and the margin the leave is not enough to make anything off it after you factor in everything. And the parts I make are razor thin margins and people still ***** about the price.

I don't say you should pay more, I say I am willing to pay more, as long as the quality is there....

 

I agree, i just don't want to be expected too simply b/c of a sticker or stamp.

 

Last I heard,beeing an alliance member was voluntary.I guess that only applies if you are Chinese.

 

Or if you run your mouth about supporting vendors... Maybe you should go back and read the thread. Reading is fundamental after all. Though comprehension doesn't seem to be.

 

Lets look at "buy American" in a simple way. 65 years ago, Hiroshima was nuked to a pulp. Today, a thriving metropolis. 65 years ago-Detroit, a thriving metropolis, today, total devastation. As goes GM, so does the U.S. Get my drift?

 

"... i also know that american fair labor laws, unions, and company politics all play a key role in deciding prices. ..."

You oughta look at M***achusetts "prevailing wage" laws... a city or town want to build a building or whatever, they maybe don't have to hire union workers but they gotta pay the "prevailing wage" to the workers... which really is political shorthand for... they gotta pay union wages to everyone, whether they are union or not...

Wonder who got that law p***ed?
And why bids on public projects are higher than for private projects...
And why local real estate taxes are so high....

 

Like my old man says, "I can do a lot of things and lose money, and they're all a lot more fun than running a business."

Amen

I was in indy and 99% of my booth is american made. Jay

 

Here are some pictures of a factory in China

http://www.curezone.org/forums/am.asp?i=1063782

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; ch****t=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Do***ent"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CDave%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDo***ent> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDo***ent> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> Not a real big surprise that US companies can not compete with them. Until we repeal NAFTA and put some tariffs on imports we are just going to continue to sink into a deeper and deeper hole. The fact the US government allows US companies to outsource there work to substandard factory that use what amount to slave labor and substandard materials (thanks for putting poison in kids toys you *******s) is criminal. The corporations that take part in this **** should be disbanded.

 

KELLY...I gave you a hard time in my last post. well the gentilman sent me a personal message. and folk's he had no at***ude at all. yes sir KELLY is a good man. and i agree we should buy american parts. PEROID! and most americans must agree. brother chevy's are selling like hotcakes. so KELL keep on- keeping on...POP.

 

Just the kind of post that REALLY adds to the topic

Frank

 

Lee Iacocca said it best when he took over at Chrysler, " The problem with the united auto worker is they want to make $30,000.00 a year and sell the cars they build to people who make $12,000.00." Doesn't work!!

 

Iacocca was/is a LOT smarter than the greedy weasels
running most big American corporations now.

 

Just my 2 cents worth...
although i am not from america...something that is reminded to me as i try to cross the border and get thrown back..
I try to buy North American ..that includes Canada lol as much as i can
even my daily little ****alier car that was changed from a ..hhmm honda
the quality shows its not there damn little car breaks down more than it drives
had the honda for almost 300 thousand kms never a prob
****alier 130000 kms and cant keep hub bearings change at 30000 kms
thought i would get a Chev for a daily bad mistake
and being from a town that lives GM although they seem to keep closing our plants and moving them to mexico
yet toyota an honda keep opening plants here
our quaility control keeps going down hill and everyone thinks they are worth a million dollars a hr better get back to work making good products at fair prices or we will all be doing calistetics before we are able to return to our work bench