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Another example…Timberland and LL Bean make far superior boots than anything you’re likely to get cheaper out of China.
Silk ties made in China and sold throughout Asia and the US are generally CRAP.
do you think there’s enough American consumers here who would pay more to buy “made in USA” products than imports?
With certain things, yes. In general, no.
As an example that’s not exactly on point, I buy my lumber from the local yard in Bucks County. they are more expensive than HD & Lowes but they also sell a far superior product tnan bent and twisted 2x4s that you have to cherry pick at HD.
“DH, do you think there’s enough American consumers here who would pay more to buy “made in USA” products than imports?”
hell no – i’m not saying there’s really anything we can do about it.
just one of those sad realities.
“Lech is going to be annoyed when he finds out later on why some fellow park slopers moved in”
Some friends of ours from the slope moved to Irvington a month ago. Their kid went to PS 107 with our kid and now they are in the Irvington school together. [Brooklyn in da house!]
Another couple we are close friends with is looking at houses there now.
DH, do you think there’s enough American consumers here who would pay more to buy “made in USA” products than imports? cause unless we close off imports, Non-USA firms would import their less expensive stuff in (ie even if US firms dont farm out their manufacturing).
By daveinbedstuy on March 21, 2011 10:29 AM
It’s called “specialization.” The manufacturing of items and components moves to the most efficient operator/manufacturer. There are also economy of scale issues. It’s not economical or practical for every country to manufacture everything within its own borders. Most countries cannot. The US is probably the only country that THEORETICALLY could do so. That said, we cannot supply all of our own energy needs
JB, it’s essentially what DIBS said. Plus there are huge problems with finding enough qualified specialized labor in US. Most of our products either involved tidious tasks (putting strands of hair in dolls) which U.S. workers don’t want to do at minimum wage and even if they did the price would go up from say $19.99 to about $59.99 for a simple doll which no one would pay and we would be out of business very quick. The other side is more technical specialized labor like electrical and mechanical engineering and U.S. currently is in pretty big shortage of Engineers. I think the statitstics say that something like 80% of engineers are currently 55+ and will be retiring in the next 10 years.
dibs and etson have given you a good idea of the economic reasons why freed trade is generally considered better economics than protectionism. The caveat is that it also can give a competitive advantage to countries willing to have lax wage and work safety laws (not to mention child labor, etc.), environmental regulations, and the like. This can put downward pressure in these areas in countries with stronger labor and environmental laws. The trick in my mind is how to maintain the essence of relatively free trade without undermining these values. A hard-core free-marketer will tell you that none of that matters, that the market will decide how much to value the environment and worker safety globally. As you would probably suspect, I don’t put that kind of faith in the market.
“isn’t globalization just a fancy text book word for US Corps screwing US citizens for cheaper labor and more profit?”
DH;
You are seriously misguided on this. I work for a division of a major Japanese company. My division has 16,000 employees, of which 12,000 are Chinese. That’s right, we have moved much of our low-end manufacturing to low-cost countries like China and Malaysia.
Check on the back of any Japanese TV or consumer electronics and you will find that it is made in Malaysia, which has become a center of excellence of consumer electronics.
Last year I went to the factory of one of the major contract manufacturers (Jabil) in Malaysia. This factory must have had 20 assembly lines. Above each line was the name of the company for which Jabil was making the product, and it was the heavyweights of ALL the world, not just the US: IBM, HP, Sony, Nokia, Siemens, etc.
“isn’t globalization just a fancy text book word for US Corps screwing US citizens for cheaper labor and more profit?”
Snort. Yes.