Little Mouse wrote:40 yrs ago foreign stuff started showing up on the shelf right beside the american made product, tools as one example. The american consumer started making a choice it was not based on they did not have the money to buy either tool. They knew the american tool was better quality would last longer, but they made a decision that the cheaper tool was good enough to do what they wanted to do for less money, few people use there tools every day like a mechanic does. So the stores started stocking what was selling the most not whats setting on the shelf not sold. The american product was costing more to make our wage scale higher. So to stay in business or go under they simply had stuff made in foreign countries. Now today for many products that choice between american made or foreign is no longer even there and what is an american owned company claiming to be american made many are using foreign labor for part of the product. Only the american consumer had buying power there the ones that pulled the money out of there pocket and bought the foreign goods knowing full well it would put american workers out of a job, they simply did not care until now i guess when its there job gone lol. I was at a whataburger so when i left i looked at the cars parked outside counted 15. Two were new fords one old chevy car paint chipping off it and one older suburban rest were all Japanese cars. I have a cousin that's rich just one thing he owns is motorcycle dealership one of his products is yamaha. He confirmed for me that both yamaha and suzuki are being assembled in China, so the japanese are using there cheaper labor force. When i first heard that did not believe it being as Japan once invaded China. Last time i looked a toyota tacoma pickup assembled in Tijuana said so boldly on the window sticker. What was it back in the 60s american car companies put some assembly plants in mexico cheaper labor i suppose. We do have the highest corporate tax in the world doubt that's a positive on a decision to where some business will locate at.
This is so true and up here its bad this way.
when I was 14 or 15 years old I started buying Sears Craftsman tool made in USA and did so for a long time as they had everything a snap on truck had as far as hand tools go but after about 10 to 12 years later they started having an "option" and while they had the craftsman name on them they were very badly made and broke all the time.
It became evident to me when I had a 24" flex bar that I owned for 10+ years till I broke the hex 1/2" drive and needed a replacement.
They gave me a complete new bar but it was not the same quality as what I had originally and it broke on the 2nd head bolt I tried to undo so I returned it for another and another till I asked for my original broke tool back as this all happened within a week. They offered me a refund on the purchase price of the original tool and they said the refund was from memory $42.95 which was about 1/3 the cost of the same tool from the US even with the exchange rate at the time.
I complained to the manager about it and told them to get me a replacement for my original tool of the same quality.
They did in the end but it took 6 weeks to get it and 35+ years later I still have it
