Issues with China made items - A rant of sorts!

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randycmaynard

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Saw the China ref in the Kitchenaid mixer thread and wondered how many of you, when buying new or newer, look specifically for American made or some place other than China or other Asian countries? I specifically look for American made and I get even more frustrated around the holiday season (Christmas to be specific) as I collect older tree ornaments and you can hardly find anything that is not made in China - even the new Shiny Brite retro remakes are made in China.... what a disgrace! I have original Shiny Brite ornaments that my mother had and all were the vintage 40s-60s era and all were American made!

I sent an email to the folks making the Shiny Brite retro ornaments and basically blasted them for having those made in China when the originals, an American Christmas tradition, were made here in America!! Of course I didn't get a response which is what I expected - maybe more of us should send a little note to them and others about this and other issues - be it appliances, Christmas ornaments etc.

Okay, time for comments, thoughts, suggestions.... snide remarks, #$&^%&(@#! or whatever.

randyc
Knoxville,TN
 
Personally

I really do not worry in the slightest about where a product is made. All I'm interested in is that I get the best value for money I can afford, and that the product is made in a safe and fair working environment and that it is not at all dangerous.

Now ofcourse some products made in developing countries are produced using slave labour, but this is not a rule. Some of these products may contain dangerous chemicals or be poorly made or what have you, but again, not all of them.

It is important to remember that products that are/were made in developed nations can also suffer from these problems.

I have heard that a number of products made in the USA are made using prison labour (in particular in the appliance industry!), forced to work long hours with few or no breaks in unsanitary/uncomfortable conditions with no pay. I'm sure similar situations exist in many other developed nations too.

So to me the "made in ****" has no importance, I'd have to know about the conditions under which the product was made and could not just make statements such as "I will not buy products made in country X or country Y because they use slave labour or the products made there are inferior etc etc" as it is impossible to make such claims for everything made in a certain place.

Those are just my feelings on the matter anyway.

Matt
 
i avoid chicom whenever possible and do try to buy american
when possible,when stores sell chicom,not only do they undercut
the price of non-chicom item,they usually make a huge markup
on the crap! Problem has gotten really bad after about 2002
-a lot of stuff that was made in USA in 2002,said made in china
by 2004,also not much variety with foreign goods anymore,hard
to find anything from italy,france,japan,etc.-all imports seem
to be chinese-and then there is the lead in toys,faulty tires,
rancid drywall sheets,faulty extension cords,etc.etc.etc...
i could go on and on with this subject...
 
Not what I want to buy but what I am FORCED to buy

I buy well over a million dollars of linen each year. Most was made in the us, Until 6 or 8 years ago. Now there are almost no mills here and the major suppliers now only stock imported goods. From anywhere you can think of. We have gotten scrubs made in Cambodia, Turkey, Iran, Iraq. Mexico ect.. the same for most of the terri and flatwork. Not my choice at all but what we have to accept if we want linen. I dont like it at all but ALL the suppliers are doing the same thing on most of the goods I buy.
 
I could rant about this issue for days--perhaps even make it a career! When you come from a blue-collar family mostly employed in manufacturing as I have, you quickly understand how global trade has become a political issue rather than one designed to put people back to work and help reduce poverty. Instead, it has done just the opposite.

Randy, contact me offline sometime! I'd love to talk about this subject (and your interest in appliances, of course) with you!

Rob
 
The fix for what is destroying America's manufacturing sector is simple: impose a 50% tariff on most imported goods, impose significant tax penalties on U.S. corporations who derive income from foreign production, and otherwise eliminate the financial incentives to export American jobs.

Of course consumers will wind up paying this extra cost, but it's the only way to save what's left of our manufacturing sector. Unless we do this, we'll all wind up flipping hamburgers and cleaning badpans for a living.
 
I have heard that a number of products made in the USA are m

(in particular in the appliance industry!), forced to work long hours with few or no breaks in unsanitary/uncomfortable conditions with no pay. I'm sure similar situations exist in many other developed nations too.

Good!

Perhaps such offenders wont repeat the offence or an offence again.

Prison is for punishment and not to be liked with cushy days or relaxation and god knows how many priviledges even us whom work cant afford.

Crazy do gooders have ruined this country by giving prisoners rights that they should not have had. Break the law which is there for the good of a nation and you should have all rights taken away.
 
Its a Small World After All

We, the Americans who reside in the Uninted States of America have no one to blame but ourselves. It was the American shopper who refused to pay the higher cost of made in USA goods, pressured stores to stock lower priced inventory, chased every sale and coupon to the cheapest price and drove many stores out of business. Pay what it costs to support unionized American workers who must work in factories that comply with all environmental and OSHA strictures, pay back China the money they loaned us when we tanked the world economy and you'll have all the baubles you want to hang on your politically correct holiday tree. We should all be on our knees thatnking the Universe for China, the steadying force in the world. Trust me, they'll save us again when the little countries start spitting their homemade nukes at each other.
 
And likewise in Oz ...

Much the same thing happened with our manufacturing industries, starting in the mid-'80s. People don't think about the consequences of buying the cheaper/est product. They only see that they can have more toys per dollar. Then when they lose their jobs, they wonder why. The theory says they'll move up into different work requiring different skills, however I don't fully believe that. With respect, somebody who was only capable of working on an assembly line isn't going to end up in a white-collar job. As a nation, we should have a responsibility to provide work for all our citizens, dullest to brightest, yet most of the manual work is long gone.

I also feel the country is now in a position where it has lost the ability to design and manufacture pretty much anything. We still have an auto and steel industry, but I suspect heavily subsidised. Heaven knows what would happen to us (or any other western nation) if for some reason China decided to stop supplying goods.
 
The UNIONS can share a LOT of the blame too!

It is always them that scream for more money for our underpaid workers. Poor little dears only have 20 holidays a year and 5 weeks vacation. When they get it prices have to go up . Then when its contract is up they scream for more and prices have to go up some more..
 
Rob

Do you think these workers are really going to give a damn if they are making a quality product or not? There really isn't much of an incentive to if you arent being paid, and are being overworked in uncomfortable conditions.

As for this country being ruined, well, global economic crisis aside, I'm hard pushed to think of a time when things have been any better. Ofcourse the scare tactics used by the right wing press have lead most people to think this country is falling apart, but when you actually look at facts and statistics, it's all one big myth. Anyway, that's a whole other debate, and I do not particularly wish to get into it.

Matt
 
Turned out to be an interesting thread......

Thanks for the diverse views, left wing, right wing, libs, neo-cons, moderate, conservative, center - one big happy family and I'll take all the vintage american made baubles I can get for my holiday tree(s) - lol!! Great stuff guys - never a dull moment........
 
Just to ratchett it up just a tad.....

Those baubles go on a Christmas tree.... holiday tree? Land o goshen.... who ever heard of such? LOL! Sorry for the southern corn... couldn't resist! Thanks again guys!
 
More made here than you may think

I'm currently in the process of totally renovating my house, and am buying American made products whenever possible. My goal is to buy quality approaching what was in the house when it was originally built in 1953. You are much more likely to find non Chinese items if you stay out of the following 4 stores: Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot & Lowes. All the following items I've purchased or will be purchasing in the near future are of U.S. origin -

Windows - Warroad, MN
Doors & Frames - Milan, TN & Iowa
Roofing - Memphis, TN
Stone - Chilton, WI
Siding - Pulaski, VA
Bathroom fixtures - Kohler, WI (except shower base from Canada)
Ceramic Tile - Olean, NY & Gettysburg, PA
Cabinets - Grabill, IN
Kitchen sink & top - Franklin Park, IL
Electric panelboards - Sumter, SC & Lincoln, IL
Dishwasher - Findlay, OH
Refrigerator - Amana, IA
Light fixtures - Portland, OR

The carpet, sewer & water pipe, door hardware, electrical switchs & receptacles, and many other items are made in various U.S. locations. Some brands offer both imported & U.S. made versions of the same item. The domestic version is more likely to be found in supply places specializing in a particular product line, i.e. plumbing supply, electrical supply, etc., rather than the big box type stores. The prices overall were about the same.

One item that is imported is the kitchen floor, linoleum from Germany. It is a very high quality product, and no North American based source.
 
Tom, add KMart to your list of stores to steer clear of. I've never seen another department store with such a high percentage of Chinese-made garbage. Looks to be even a higher % than Wally World.
 
I can't hardly find anything worth buying at the major stores
just about everything i pick up is chinese crap,last year
even visegrip went chicom(you can still find some of the US
ones left over though-check the origin)I'M sure the stores
get a higer markup on the chinese versions.
There are a lot more problems and recalls etc. with chinese
goods than the news covers-seems china must have a pretty
good lobby to keep a lot of this under wraps...
 
I have found ...

that American made products today are usually quite inferior to the overseas made products. But when you figure in the labor costs to not only build the unit you are buying (say, a stereo) but to pay the labor costs for building the parts to build the unit, and the parts to build the parts to build the .... well, you get the drift. A pocket radio would cost $4.65 from China, and $3.941 if made in America. In a sense, we've screwed ourselves in an attempt to be fair to all.
 
Thanks again - good to see the various places

to find good quality American made products - this is one way to do ourselves some good and yes the price may be higher but, the saying "you get what you pay for" is very true however, not everything is higher priced some things are quite competetive in pricing without compromised quality.

Keep listing the places to find the good quality American made products and places to avoid as well - really appreciate it.... this is probably far more helpful than ranting over it anyway though I get plenty frustrated trying to find things made here sometimes.
 

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