nakkers
Junior Member
So by all means, keep buying those Chinese parts and Pakistan leather products.C'mon, thats funny.
That beer you say your gonna buy me, it better be imported beer!
Bodeen
As long it's imported from Canada eh!!!
Made in China ?
- Thread starter R_W_B
- Start date
As long it's imported from Canada eh!!!
R_W_B
Senior Member
Just for more awareness of a complex issue, saw on the news last night about a product that China buys that is Made in the USA. It's chop sticks. Obviously it's not because we have cheaper labor to produce them, it's because China has a shortage of usable wood. And for what it costs to ship the raw wood they can just buy the ready made chop sticks cheaper.
Additionally I have known since the early 90's that China is a large buyer of US wood. It has slowly over the last 20 yrs made a marked increase in the cost of a home here in the US. Yep the old supply and demand thing, China was buying a huge part of the US wood production and caused prices to go up EVERYWHERE, including here in the US. I sometimes wonder just how much cheaper oil would be if the environmentalist would let us drill in certain US areas that have as much oil as Saudi Arabia. You think the Oil companies would give us much of a discount on the global oil price ? That is a question, I have guesses but no real answers on that.
I remember in 1992 the environmentalist got a law passed protecting the spotted Owl regions. Which meant the loggers could no longer harvest wood in areas where the Spotted Owl nested. This caused an immediate sky high jump in construction lumber until the industry could regroup and move into other areas to harvest lumber.
Lumber was so high for about a year that we actually could buy metal studs cheaper and for many months residential homes were built with metal studs. As soon as wood prices starting leveling off though we went back to wood because the labor to frame and fit metal was twice as high as the labor cost to frame wood. The wood never came back down anywhere near as cheap as before the spotted owl. But it was cheaper than the cost to install metal.
I remember most of my wife's family saying it was good to protect the owl. But then when some of the younger family members found out the price increase made them unqualified for the house they wanted they were not so happy about it. Life is a two edged sword sometimes.
Additionally I have known since the early 90's that China is a large buyer of US wood. It has slowly over the last 20 yrs made a marked increase in the cost of a home here in the US. Yep the old supply and demand thing, China was buying a huge part of the US wood production and caused prices to go up EVERYWHERE, including here in the US. I sometimes wonder just how much cheaper oil would be if the environmentalist would let us drill in certain US areas that have as much oil as Saudi Arabia. You think the Oil companies would give us much of a discount on the global oil price ? That is a question, I have guesses but no real answers on that.
I remember in 1992 the environmentalist got a law passed protecting the spotted Owl regions. Which meant the loggers could no longer harvest wood in areas where the Spotted Owl nested. This caused an immediate sky high jump in construction lumber until the industry could regroup and move into other areas to harvest lumber.
Lumber was so high for about a year that we actually could buy metal studs cheaper and for many months residential homes were built with metal studs. As soon as wood prices starting leveling off though we went back to wood because the labor to frame and fit metal was twice as high as the labor cost to frame wood. The wood never came back down anywhere near as cheap as before the spotted owl. But it was cheaper than the cost to install metal.
I remember most of my wife's family saying it was good to protect the owl. But then when some of the younger family members found out the price increase made them unqualified for the house they wanted they were not so happy about it. Life is a two edged sword sometimes.
Fishslayer
Member
My last pair of work boots... "Caterpillar." Great American name, right?
Made in Pakistan.
Good boots tho.
Made in Pakistan.
Good boots tho.
The Tourist
Banned
Recently we had a thread about TV news teams and the public display of American flag pins. Yesterday (08-29-11) I went to my local dealer's shop to steal some coffee and happened to walk past the display which features conchos and pins. Harley has an American flag pin. I flipped over the cardboard to which the pin was attached.
Take a wild guess where this pin is made...
Take a wild guess where this pin is made...
R_W_B
Senior Member
Yea, I know what you are talking about, I started both threads. But that's not all. Try oridering say like $100 worth of parts from HD, stuff like o-rings, gaskets, frame grommets, electrical connectors and pins etc. When you get them home, write down where each part was made (it's right on the packs). Only about 8% of mine was made in the USA. The rest was spread out over China, Japan, Mexico even had one in South Korea.
The Tourist
Banned
RWB, if it's any consolation to you, this has been going on for quite sometime. In 1974 I bought the first FXE that hit Madison, Wisconsin. It had the first electronic tach I had ever seen.
On the bottom of the gauge, where it used to say something like "Certified," mine said 'Nippon Seiki.'
If I'm not mistaken, most of the electronics are Bosch, aren't they?
On the bottom of the gauge, where it used to say something like "Certified," mine said 'Nippon Seiki.'
If I'm not mistaken, most of the electronics are Bosch, aren't they?
R_W_B
Senior Member
:cheers enjoy exchanging with you Tourist, but actually no consolation needed to me, maybe some others that replied to the thread. I am well aware (as most of us our age) this has been going on for decades. If you read over the first 20 or so posts of this thread you will see pretty much all the ins and outs of the discussion.
Oh and just to be clear I originally started the thread as I was surprised at China's competition (no not us) but Pakistan.
J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Still a Good thread Dave, I am amazed at all of the OFF shore parts I install every day
The Tourist
Banned
RWB, oh, we are on the same page. However, I believe that it's one thing to tell folks of a global condition in the abstract, but quite another to show specific examples on real products they are purchasing.
This has permeated so many products in our lives that I am having trouble finding knives not only built in this country, and also constructed of materials and components entirely made in the USA.
Granted, you and I have been watching this shift over our entire adult lives, first slowly and insidiously and now like flood-gates.
My hope is that some manufacturers read threads like this, hear your voice, see our disappointment and perhaps keep jobs on our shores. Wouldn't it be great if MoCo decided that the American bikes should be built of all American parts.
This has permeated so many products in our lives that I am having trouble finding knives not only built in this country, and also constructed of materials and components entirely made in the USA.
Granted, you and I have been watching this shift over our entire adult lives, first slowly and insidiously and now like flood-gates.
My hope is that some manufacturers read threads like this, hear your voice, see our disappointment and perhaps keep jobs on our shores. Wouldn't it be great if MoCo decided that the American bikes should be built of all American parts.
R_W_B
Senior Member
Exactly !
Uh, well ... you might want to re read the entire thread in all it's boring detail, since we covered that aspect also. My point of view was expressed as well as possible without becoming political, but basically I feel it's not JUST the companies fault for outsourcing. Our own greed in all entities involved played a part. And actually MOCO (even though obviously still using many outsourced parts) has made a pretty good restart model to address the CURRENT resulting conditions of the past. The only down side was MOCO did have to close down some of it's operations and streamline it's production. Which did result in a loss of jobs. But they did do so without asking the average wage earning tax payers to bail them out, unlike GM and Chrysler (with a still unrepaid debt).
The fact is we can never fully escape supply and demand, if costs get too high to successfully sell a product in magnitude needed, then a slow down is inevidable. Even the Communist and Socialist countries cannot escape this reality. They are a mix of capitialism. In fact true communism and socialism does not exist and from what I learned of it in High School, it never did in the form that Carl Marx envisioned. Probably because it just won't work, unless you could convince everyone to live in a totally ownerless society where everone (including educated doctors and engineers) gets up goes to work on time, never lays out drunk, and rarely gets sick, and doesn't complain about living in the same house, driving the same car as the guy picking tomatoes.
In summation, it's kinda like my Dad always used to say about business, Pigs get fed, but Hogs get slaughtered.