|
All you're giving us is your opinion, TW. So Ford came up with the Taurus. BFD. They still make the Explorer, one of the worst cars I have ever owned when it came to frequency of repairs.
A country needs to retain its own steel making capacity for the sake of national defense, if nothing else.
The products sold at Wally world are far from the best, but they ARE cheap. Go take a tour of your local Walmart and inspect the labels. Damn near everything the store carries is made in China. Is it because the Chinese make the best products? Not hardly. However, China's banking and economic system is still fundamentally Communist. The Chinese government in effect subsidizes Chinese business. The standard of living in China is also below that of the US. Workers there will accept far lower wages because they do not aspire to own their own homes or put their kids through a good college.
Communism has quite literally destroyed American jobs, and it doesn't take an MBA to understand this. I am a global manufacturer of widgets. I can base my widget plant in one of two countries. Country A doesn't give sweetheart deal loans to me for plant construction and modernization. The people of country A demand a higher wage because they aspire to a 4 bedroom house in the suburbs and a better life for their kids. Plus country A demands that I compete for workers by providing a company health plan and retirement benefits. Country B will make me start up loans at half the interest rates banks in country A charge. The people of country B are happy to have 3 hots and a cot and a chance to buy a bicycle. The government in country B takes care of health insurance and retirement to an extent never dreamed of in country A. Workers in country B don't choose employers on the basis of their health plan. Its all the same to them.
Three guesses where I'm going to locate my widget plant and the first two don't count. Oh, yeah, and guess what? Country B has any number of de facto restrictions against imported goods. Country A believes in the "free market." Now just from this last fact alone, where is any smart executive, be he an MBA or a Mutha Fuckah going to base his operations?
The crap at Wally World is just that - crap. It falls apart. Its poorly made. But it IS cheap and it it's the only thing available. I defy ANYONE in this country to go on a strict "buy American" regime. You'll save a ton of money and do without becaue it just ain't made here anymore. Not for rubies or pennies. Not badly made or well made. Where-ever it was made, and however it was made, it wasn't made in the US.
I worked for Sears in their electronics department going on almost 10 years ago. Sears then had a great line of products. It STILL does. If your local Sears doesn't carry the right sized tools in its Craftsman line, its either because you had an incompetant salesperson tell you lies or a local manager who has his head up his ass. Ten years ago Sears trained its sales associates rigorously on its product lines. If you worked in Craftsman or electronics or any other department in Sears, you knew your product and you knew your customers. Sears carried a line of merchandize that was generally several notches above what Wally World carried, and if you went in and talked to a sales associate, we could generally work it so that you paid the equivalent price or less for a superior product.
Now Sears has decided to imitate Wal Mart and has pretty much given up on customer service. They pay sales associates minimum wage and don't train them on product lines. Thus, your local Sears associate gives you gross mis-information as to what tools Sears carries. Sears' great mistake has been to become MORE like Walmart - not less.
|