Is it just a matter of marketing?

[Fritz Maurer]

I was in Drug Mart this evening in the office supplies dept., looking at all the Chinese made stuff, most of what could be made in someone's garage. Over in the snack isle there's a bag of fried soybeans, but the bag didn't state where they were imported from. Ertl toys also come from China. I'm sure there's guys on this very forum that can run a Bridgeport well enough to carve out a mold to cast a 1/16 scale tractor. You don't need any real ingenuity to melt pop cans. What in the world makes this and all other small metal do-dads so cost prohibitive?
 

[Greg1959]

The investors want to see a ROI(Return On Investment). The greater the dividend, then more investors will want to invest much more money into your company so you can grow.

Labor costs are the issue. In China- labor costs amount to around $1.60 a day (I know Foxcomm raised their rates). So, when you get Americans to work for a Buck-Sixty per day, Then America can compete with other third world countries.

They can build it cheaper Overseas and ship the items to us cheaper than we can pay people to build the same item here.

So, until a large portion of our population decides that it is okay to live in dirt floor huts or dormitories with 10 to a room, this is why you have the problem with "Made in the U.S.A."
 

[JD Seller]

I live just 15 miles from where Ertl toys started. The real problem is the regulations requiring this and that to manufacture here in the US. The requirement you have to go through to cast anything today is terrible.

Have you ever heard of the Chinese OHSA???? There is not one. So where a US manufacture would have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in air filters and personal protection equipment the China manufacture has ZERO cost. If some one gets sick or dies there is no law suets in China either.
 

[Greg1959]

JDSeller- Do you think the regulations put in place by the Federal Government would prevent fires like a garment-factory where a fire killed more than 110 people Saturday on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh? Just because there were no fire escapes and the managers told the workers to get back to work because there was no fire. This seems to happen quite often in places where there is no "government regulations". Just like China...They have very few laws regulating hazardous waste disposal and that aids in producing a cheaper product. Heck, they even put melamine into baby formula thus killing many infants. What about the China provided drywall to the USA? That created lots of problems for homeowners in the USA.

I guess my bottom line is...There are just as many unscrupulous people in the USA as there are anywhere in the world, when it comes to making more money over someones families health or well-being.
 

[int3414]

now I'm ticked off again......reminding me about that stinking drywall.
thanks for the reminder!!!!
 

[oldtanker]

[JOCCO]

JD if someone gets sick or dies they also have 4 billion more to replace him!!!!
 

[Greg1959]

Oldtanker- How about this... what do you say about stiff Tariffs on imports? I understand everything in the USA will increase. At least, we are not funneling more of our dollars to a foreign country. :)

China has undervalued their currency on purpose.
 

[Spook]

A lot of companies blame regulations, but even China does have some standards. I used to visit a lot of foundries, as part of my job. Iron and steel casting was the nastiest, aluminum foundries were relatively clean. What really gets the foundries are labor and matieral. Aluminmum is a pretty common element, but it takes a lot of electricity to refine it. And countries like China subsidize basic industries, to the point that a US foundry can't buy the matieral for what the chinese company sells the finished product. US managers don't want to be honest about why they outsource production. It's all about the money, and screw the workers. Ertl moved out a long time ago. I've got a couple of their tractors, and some Spec cast also. Lots of detail, lots of hand work, if you can get it done for a buck a hour, you can sell a lot more, at a higher profit margin. The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal....
 

[Greg1959]

[Spook]

I don't think that a lot of folks realise how much US industry has been hollowed out. It would be very difficult, if not impossible to produce anything much more complex than a shovel without using foriegn components. The corporate guys sold us out years ago. A lot of things "manufactured" here are actually just assembled, painted and packaged here. All the parts are made somewhere else. Assembly is generally the least capital intensive, low tech part of manufacturing. I don't think you could buy a car, truck, toaster, airplane, or tractor made entirely here anymore. It doesn't exist.
 

[Spook]

I was talking to a friend of mine at New Years. He works for a large automotive interior company. He spends a lot of time in Mexico. Says the plant in Mexico is a huge industrial park. Literally hundreds of manufacturing plants, employing anywhere from a few hundred to 10K workers each. His plant has over 1K workers, and they hire every day. People quit every day, people get fired every day. Always a bunch of folks waiting. Wages are the same everywhere, the government sets the wages thru government controlled unions. Nearby are huge government housing projects for the workers, very basic, and they have a bus system for the workers to use. They have over 1000 workers, and parking for about 100 cars. The Mexican government subsidises food, transportation, housing. If you try to buck the system down there, you might just disappear...
 

[Wesley Stephens]

I don't think JDSeller was defending the Chinese system, just pointing out that they don't play by the same rules US companies must and therefore have much lower costs.
 

[oldtanker]

[JOB]

How much per hour can you live on. You are making
payments and paying taxes on your house or paying
rent. You have insurance on your car and house. You
have a wife with a baby on the way. And there are so
many other expenses the list could go on and on.
Everyone needs a job to support themselves and a
family. You are most likely retired but if you were just starting out today, how much would you work for?