This country used to make things

[HuskiesHowls]

And now, all we do is import them!! (I just wish we could export the current administration!!)

Where have all the good paying jobs gone??? Overseas, to Chinese slave labor camps, or Taiwan, or Turkey....just name a country. Where have all the people with the good ideas of new things to make gone?? Well, I think the Japanese and Chinese now have a lock on that market.

You wonder why the economy is in the porcelain throne?? We don't make much here anymore, and what is made here, is for foreign companies so that the money goes away, anyway.

Remember when the big thing was "Buy American"?? Just TRY to do that!!
Remember when Wal-Mart was big on only selling American-made goods?? Well, Sam died, and his kids are in it for the money, now.

Don't mind me.....its just that the last few things I've bought that are really neat things, show some original thinking and do what they're designed to do and do it well--have all come from offshore. This economy has gone to sh*t, and working at BK, or MickeyD's, or Hardees is considered "manufacturing".

Just something that I've been thinking about for a while!!

[senseandsensibility]

1. You're right

Somehow we have allowed this to happen. I didn't realize that at one time Walmart sold all American products. That's the first positive thing I've ever heard about them! Of course they don't do it anymore, so I will never darken their door.

[napi21]

2. nuh ahh. We still make war really well!!!!

Sorry for being such a smart ass. I agree with you. I guess the only inginuity I've seen out of the US recently has been on QVC when they have the occasional day or two where they let people with new ideas come on and make their pitch. It's sure no GM or ATT but some of them have been quite successful.

[Cleita]

3. We still could make things if we demanded that stores

carry 60% of their inventory in American made goods. We also have to go after the corporations who want to do business in America, but don't want to pay the taxes for registration and such and make them do so. Also, there should be laws making them keep 60% of their jobs right here in America or pay heavy tariffs for the privilege of doing business here.

[me b zola]

4. The head of 'New Balance' was on Lou Dobbs tonight

And he was whining because they took their factories to China because it is cheaper to operate there, but there are many Chinese 'counterfiters' who steal the designs of the New Balance shoes and sell them at a much cheaper price. Let me cry for these scumbag businesses.

The piece ended by a representative of New Balance trying to put a upbeat spin on it by saying how they trust that the Chinese are discriminating consumers and will by the 'better quality', higher priced original. What gall. They could have kept those jobs here and had that same faith in American consumers.


Very good OP. Yes, we USED to make things.

[Lisa]

5. You made beautiful, useful things ...

Paging through a Sears Catalogue from a hundred years ago -- they had books, toys, clothes, tools, and even entire house-building kits. Made in places like Bay City, Michigan.

I help out in a friend's antique store, and frequently come across all kinds of items made in small towns, places which today are dead or dying. They would stamp or burn it right into the product, they were so proud of that -- it wouldn't just say "Made in USA" or "Made in Canada", but "Orillia, Ontario" or "Hoboken, New Jersey". One community near my home had a bottle factory, two places that made components for pipe organs, a furniture maker, an iron foundry, several printshops ... none of these activities are done there today. (Unless you count the photocopier in the public library under "printing".)

Here in Canada, as recently as the early 1990s we actually made more money from manufactured goods than from raw commodities (timber, minerals, grain, etc.). Now we've slid back to the old days when we were "hewers of wood and drawers of water" -- selling off and overexploiting our resources. The logs and the ores are sent overseas to be made into things ... the companies can't be bothered with "restrictive" North American labor and environmental laws that keep them from spewing out poisons or making teenagers do dangerous jobs for a pittance.

[5thGenDemocrat]

12. Yes, Aladdin Homes used to be on Lafayette Street in Bay City, MI

My grandparents H lived right around the corner on Broadway.
Saginaw is eleven miles south of there. We were once home to the Lufkin Rule Company (tape measures), Baker Perkins (chemical and baking machinery), National Washboards, Wickes Corporation (a conglomerate which included Wickes Lumber, but also made boilers for factories) and so many more. We were also home to the largest bean elevator in the world and both power steering and tilt-wheel steering were invented here.
We still build steering components, but while General Motors employed more than 25,000 people here when I was in high school, the number today is around 6,000 or so -- and dropping.
John
I'm 48 now. I hope I'm dead before the last of the lights get turned out here -- but I'm not so sure I'll be that lucky.

[Lisa]

13. cool! The antiques guy has a case of old Lufkins ...

He only unlocks it for the "serious" buyers. Many of the tapes have been in use for decades, and still have nicer action on them than the cheapo models in the big-box stores. Strange to think that the people who made the tools are long dead.

[5thGenDemocrat]

14. My father was an assistant sales manager at Lufkin

My grandfather G was an engineer down in the shop there. Mr Ellis down on the corner of my block worked there his whole working life, too. And, yes, they're all dead now -- though Lufkin didn't close here until 1970 or so (my family almost moved to Apex, NC, when Lufkin was purchased by Cooper Industries and relocated there).
John
Lufkin tapes are still much prized here in Saginaw. I have a few myself. They work great and are accurate to a bazillimeter.

[HuskiesHowls]

15. I would LOVE to have a genuine Lufkin Tape

My dad was a printer, and I really wish I could have one of the Lufkin tapes he used. They were so very accurate, and they just seemed to last forever...but as much as he used them, he did manage to wear them out eventually!! As I think about it...I don't think I ever saw him use anything else to measure with.

[5thGenDemocrat]

18. Oh, there are still thousands and thousands of them around here

For years, if you owned -- say -- a Stanley tape measure around Saginaw, you were considered persona non grata, even a heretic. Give me a few days and a trip or two to the second-hand stores and garage sales and I'll get you one.
John
I'd ship you one of mine, but they were dad's. I'll have to find you an orphan (regular 25' tape measure okay?), instead.
ON EDIT: Since we were talking about accuracy -- when Grandpa helped engineer the production at Lufkin, they'd pick out, say, a 100-foot tape from a run and test it. If it measured the distance as 99 feet, 11 31/32 inches, they'd throw the entire run out.
The real prizes here are the micrometers -- but you can't hardly find one any more.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Story from the IT world.

So you got these companies that have been shutting down their server farms and sending everything to India. It's cheaper, right?

No, they are finding that it isn't. The price they thought they were getting suddenly gets bigger. Like in lots.

Then there is the software product they get back. It ain't what they thought. Seems that some of those people over there have rather...novel ideas...regarding what software is and can be.

[Karenina]

7. Yeah, like CONVERSES

:cry: :grr: :grr: :grr: :cry:

[tjwash]

8. Have you noticed how as CEO and Executive salaries have increased...

...newer inventions and the good old fashioned "Yankee Ingenuity" has all but disappeared?

Case in point, Carly Fiona, the ex-CEO of HP with her 1.2 million base salary (excluding the 45 million she walked away with after she quit). She basically ran HP into the ground. They used to be the gold standard in research and development in the computing world. She cut most of the R & D (I was one of the victims of that), and just screwed everyone over with this "bottom line-maximize profits-the hell with actually inventing anything new" mentality that is going around to most of the companies now. IBM, HP, Dell, hell everyone one of these corporate monstrosities are taking as many profits as they can grab,and cutting benefits, head count, and pensions. Yet CEO and executive salaries and bonuses have never been higher.

Sheesh.

[Lisa]

11. I remember people at my school bragging about their HP calcs

This was back in the 1970s, so they were still rare and miraculous things. Only the most fortunate senior students, the ones we knew were going to be engineers or scientists, had them. I don't recall any other brands being shown off. A couple of years after, my dad (a math teacher) splurged on one of your scientific models, and I remember that he'd be going through all the different operations, exclaiming at how innovative this all was. Mom would get fed up and march him off to bed.

I'm sorry that they trashed the R&D department. Seems pretty short-sighted and inconsiderate to the people who'd gotten them all the accolades.

[sam sarrha]

9. I made a darn good living as an Artist too..

[hector459]

10. We decided that high PROFITS for a few is better than properity for many

The standard of living of this country was made based on masses of workers being able to make a decent living, buying, and selling, investing, and saving. What middle class family can do this today?

[chaska]

16. Like I've always said, 'A nation that makes nothing, unmakes itself.'

[CoffeeAnnan]

17. I think we should blame business schools like the Harvard B-School

for this problem. With their emphasis on socalled Case studies that emphasized the heroic nature of financial wizards who saved companies from extinction, they managed to devalue the work of Product men (Engineers, scientists,R&D workers,manufacturing professionals) and elevated the status of financial, marketing and accounting men.What they failed to realize was that unless there were products in the pipeline there would be nothing for these money manipulators to work with.

That attitude, that money and not product excellence and quality, are the source of corporate profits have done in our corporations.The best examples are right here in Michigan, GM and Ford which are fighting for their survival.That a company like S&P has recognized that the chance of a turnaround for these companies is slim, says everything about the downgrading of technical people and worshipping the Bible of the Harvard B-School.

[Elwood P Dowd]

19. We have destroyed the foundation that built the house

It's just a matter of time before the whole damn thing collapses, crashes, and burns.

We are a paper economy based on consumption. Remember, consumption consumes wealth, while production produces wealth.

[RPM]

20. Here in Pittsburgh...

The Steel Valley (read: Arsenal of democracy) has become the shopping valley.

What once was the center of industrial production has now become a mecca of consumption.

:puke:

[kiki]

21. I like the title of this thread.

It sounds like the title of a novel, or a poem.

[knitter4democracy]

22. Bothers me too.

That's why I'm going to carry as many locally made items in my yarn shop (opening this fall in Battle Creek, MI) and as many American made yarns and needles as I can find. I've found a lot, actually, but the conventional "wisdom" in the needle arts is that we don't make any good yarns. I'm going to do what I can to fight that.

Btw, my freeper brother has a company, Cobra, that makes racing dirt bikes for kids (he's starting there and working up to 125s and 250s eventually), and his bike has more American parts (and it's made in Youngstown, OH) than anything else on the track. It's also the fastest bike on the track. He may be a Republican, but he's doing what he can to finally have a good American dirt bike.

There is manufacturing here, just not enough. The capital isn't there--most investors want sexy stuff, not manufacturing. We also have too high a tax burden on manufacturing (at least here in Michigan) compared to other industries (like insurance, etc.). If we don't support manufacturing, how can we really fight a war or stay alive in the years to come?

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Most commercial food service heavy equipment is still American made

Ranges and ovens and dishwashers and worktables and conveyors and walk-in refrigerators and icemakers and ice bins and exhaust hoods ......

Made in the US or Canada. A good bit gets exported.

Still a lot of privately owned companies. Also a good bit of consolodatioon and mergers ... and some foreign ownership, too (mostly European). But still room for entrepreneurs.

This won't save the country, but it is a small stronghold of Made in the USA.

[agincourt]

24. At one time we had leaders,

Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and so on who wanted Americans to have a good future, they tried to set a nation's commercial policy so that slave labor production overseas would not eat into American jobs over here so badly. That went out with the election of Ronald Reagen and the golden calf of free trade. When the only jobs are delivering pizzas to each other, they will still be crowing about the wonders of "free trade". Or just making stuff up like how sending jobs overseas creates more over here. The only competitiveness in this "global ecomony" is for diminishing jobs.