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Do you think the United States can survive without manufacturing?


Mensan

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No. Why do you ask?

 

 

 

Yesterday I went to the hobby store with a friend of mine looking for some R/C car parts. I took a gander over at the model trains to see what kind of pricing and options Lionel had to offer. I still have a number of trains from when I was kid. They were manufactured in the United States. I knew I should have never looked on the packaging. It was a great disapointment to find "Made in China" on the box. In the last 6 months I have paying close attention to where things are made. I can not get over the number of electronics that were once made in Japan are now in China. I have to wonder how in the hell did we get ourselves in this mess. If we had never had all of this manufacturing go over seas would we actually feel it in the wallet for paying higher prices? Before you say yes did you ever stop and think that maybe we have too much for the income we have? Maybe would just have less wants and still have our needs met. I am guilty as anyone else. I have fleet of cars. The ones that I do drive only get a few hundred miles put on them a year with the exception of the beater I drive everyday. I also have a number of other wants that I do not need. I have them because I can afford them. I am wondering if the reason I can afford them is because of the lower prices that I pay for things that come from over seas. I do not see how we as a country can survive on sales jobs, and service alone. I realize that me posting this is not going to change a thing or bring any jobs back to the US. I really wonder one day if I will be worried about how I am going to get money for food instead of worrying what C6Z or GT500 I am going to buy. I can not see the "working" chinese continue to work for less then a dollar a day so that us lazy americans can have the latest IPhone or other high tech device when the one we already have does the job just fine. I feel very blessed to have a job (one that I have worked very hard to establish) that allows me to not have to live paycheck to paycheck or worry about how I am going to pay for needs. The one part that worries me most about my job is that I provide a service that is a want and not a need. I will be out of work way before a mechanic who does repairs to a vehicle so he or she and get to work. Makes me wonder if I should start planning for other sources of income just in case the day comes when people do not have the money for dynamometer and tuning services. I do not think that day is going to come tomorrow. However I see A LOT more credit cards in my business now along people who need to save up save up for some time to be able to get their car tuned. Makes wonder how many of these people when from making X amount of dollars a year at a manufacturing job and then had to take a pay cut in half working a dead in job after their previous employer moved across the waters.

 

I do not claim to have all the answers. I think I may only have one answer to the many questions that need answered. Some way some how we need to get manufacturing back here in the states. All of these big shots that are at the top of their company will become broke like so many other people once the majority can no longer afford their product or service.

 

I have a handful of connections over in Australia who are in the automotive performance industry. Their stories are all about the same. They have pulled out of the US market due to the mess we are in. One person who will renamed unamed from the land down under said that "We are a bunch of fucking idiots for letting China manufacturing into the US". Makes wonder how much truth is to that statment.

 

 

Open for discussion.

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Like most my wife and I do what is needed to survive. I realize unlike most that I do not really understand what all goes on, because between politics and greed I don't think anyone but the decision makers can understand what is really going on. All I can do unfortunatly is keep rolling with the punches, and when things get really bad I do what I need to at that time. As hard as it seemed to do I have still been able to pull myself up, getting my career on the right track and buying a house, so I find it hard at this point in my life to dwell on this topic.

 

Just my two cents, carry on.

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I have a feeling you contacts in Australia are correct. We are potentially giving short term financial gains for corporations at the long term destruction of our manufacturing sector. I still am at a loss how we allow China to keep their currency at such deflated levels. An easy fix would be to greatly increase tariffs for imported goods from China. Great for american workers, but the corporations wouldn't be able to quadruple their profits. Sticky situation.
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I have a feeling you contacts in Australia are correct. We are potentially giving short term financial gains for corporations at the long term destruction of our manufacturing sector. I still am at a loss how we allow China to keep their currency at such deflated levels. An easy fix would be to greatly increase tariffs for imported goods from China. Great for american workers, but the corporations would be able to quadruple their profits. Sticky situation.

 

Agreed 100%

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I worry about manufacturing jobs a lot myself as I work in a manufacturing job. I've been fortunate to be where I'm at for the last 8 years, but idk how long thats going to last with the ceo of our company trying to move everything overseas (and proud of what he has done so far). One of my biggest fears (coming from a guy who does live check to check) is that they are going to cut the pay of the people in manufacturing just to stay competetive enough to keep jobs in the us. I'm starting to brainstorm other routes to try to get out of manufacturing (and hopefully away from living check to check), but it's not an easy task, and it's also one of my wife's biggest worries that if I were to try to start my own business that it wouldn't take off. But that's another discussion.
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I have a handful of connections over in Australia who are in the automotive performance industry. Their stories are all about the same. They have pulled out of the US market due to the mess we are in. One person who will renamed unamed from the land down under said that "We are a bunch of fucking idiots for letting China manufacturing into the US". Makes wonder how much truth is to that statment.

 

I agree with them 100%.

 

As I stated in anotehr thread, when I was at SAE Convergence a few months ago I spoke with a few people in the industray who said they are pulling some things out of China due to the quickly rising costs. For them, it's not cheaper to manufacture in Mexico by a large margin, and China is almost on par with the US. Corporations have a responsibility to their shareholders to maximize profits, which is good....to a point. We still need these types of jobs in the US, or else the only thing outsourcing will continue to do is increase the gap between the upper and middle class. At some point, employing people in the US and allowing people to earn an income capable of buying your products is smarter business than saving 0.02 on each part.

 

I look at children's toys and shake my head in disbelief. They're mostly simple designs of injection molded plastic and they are all made in China. Is it really that much cheaper to ship the raw materials to China, manufacture, then ship back a simple piece of plastic than it is to do it here? There's got to be a way to add more automation to the process in order to bring the US labor costs down to a reasonable level.

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Is it really that much cheaper to ship the raw materials to China, manufacture, then ship back a simple piece of plastic than it is to do it here? There's got to be a way to add more automation to the process in order to bring the US labor costs down to a reasonable level.

 

 

Bring back slavery, that would bring the pay rate to Chinese levels.

 

 

Duh.

 

 

/sarcasm

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Is it really that much cheaper to ship the raw materials to China, manufacture, then ship back a simple piece of plastic than it is to do it here? There's got to be a way to add more automation to the process in order to bring the US labor costs down to a reasonable level.

 

You have to remember the taxes, insurance, unemployment, retirement,....need to factor into the equation too. Simply put, the cost of doing business in the US had grown into a massive burden for these companies.

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Well, we can start by having less regulations. Make it easier for business to grow and reward company for having jobs here in the US. And of course raise the import tax when company bring goods back into the US.

 

As consumers we can start by not buying crappy Chinese made goods (not just Chinese but foreign made goods).

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I have a feeling you contacts in Australia are correct. We are potentially giving short term financial gains for corporations at the long term destruction of our manufacturing sector.

This This This This This... and This. Why? Wallstreet.

 

 

As consumers we can start by not buying crappy Chinese made goods (not just Chinese but foreign made goods).

 

 

That would drive walmart out of business, which I am all for!

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One of the biggest issues facing that problem is that someone in the world will always have a stockpile of unemployed, unskilled population that are willing to work for pennies on the dollar.

 

Also, we have built generations of Americans that not only feel entitled, but more importantly live their careers as politicians. CEO's look to save their company a % of costs short term but are willing to forgo the entire company for the long run. We have generations of Americans in power that see 'long term goals' as 5-10 maybe 20 years down the road, refusing to accept the national cost long term.

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China now out manufactuers the United States in the car industry....

 

People think its a joke, but one day we will be known as The United States of China. They fucking own us, I really hate this sociology class I am taking this semester, makes me realize we're all fucked lol.

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China now out manufactuers the United States in the car industry....

 

People think its a joke, but one day we will be known as The United States of China. They fucking own us, I really hate this sociology class I am taking this semester, makes me realize we're all fucked lol.

 

Just to provoke thought. China comes here in mass to take "their land". We owe them how much? At what point do they just say fuck it we own you?

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