How many here go out of their way to buy just American lights?

[KROMATICS]

If we do buy stuff from cheap countries, they will become richer, living standards will improve, wages improve, and after some years/decades, they will be the same as other countries.

That's a nice theory but it doesn't always work that way. Typically most of the money goes into the military.

 

[jumpstat]

If my own contry develope a lite that can match or exceed in quality, performance, reliability, after sales service, aesthetics and competitively priced with the best currently offered of course I will buy it. Why not support your own country and economy.

 

[Coop]

What difference does it make where a light is made? As long as it's a nice light and it meets my needs, I'll buy it...

 

[270winchester]

no need to go out of the way to buy American lights. There are good, solid lights available and I buy it. I don't go out of my way to buy as many cheap lights as I can though. I guess that makes me weird these days

 

[ABTOMAT]

If we do buy stuff from cheap countries, they will become richer, living standards will improve, wages improve, and after some years/decades, they will be the same as other countries.

If we buy enough stuff from cheap countires, domestic industry will fail and pretty soon our living standards and wages will be at the level the other country saught to escape.

Plus in many cases the money goes directly to government-owned businesses.

 

[KROMATICS]

If we do buy stuff from cheap countries, they will become richer, living standards will improve, wages improve, and after some years/decades, they will be the same as other countries.

If we buy enough stuff from cheap countires, domestic industry will fail and pretty soon our living standards and wages will be at the level the other country saught to escape.

:thumbsup:

 

[balazer]

If we buy enough stuff from cheap countires, domestic industry will fail and pretty soon our living standards and wages will be at the level the other country saught to escape.

That's true - if we buy too much stuff from other countries (and buy too little from domestic companies), domestic industry will fail. But you're not going to stop people from buying foreign goods. Even the most fiercely nationalistic peoples buy foreign goods. So the questions are how much is too much, and what can the U.S. do to maintain its lead and its standard of living?

I would submit that the answer lies in keeping an educated, skilled, and creative workforce whose hours spent working are more valuable than its competitors. When we create more valuable and innovative products and services, other countries will buy from us. I'm fine to have my socks made in China, if their computers and medical equipment are made here. But I'm not an economist.

 

[defusion]

That's true - if we buy too much stuff from other countries (and buy too little from domestic companies), domestic industry will fail. But you're not going to stop people from buying foreign goods. Even the most fiercely nationalistic peoples buy foreign goods. So the questions are how much is too much, and what can the U.S. do to maintain its lead and its standard of living?

I would submit that the answer lies in keeping an educated, skilled, and creative workforce whose hours spent working are more valuable than its competitors. When we create more valuable and innovative products and services, other countries will buy from us. I'm fine to have my socks made in China, if their computers and medical equipment are made here. But I'm not an economist.

good luck finding any computer made in the US, or any other western country for that matter!
I agree with you that the best way to keep the standards up is by having an educated country.
I wasn't saying you shouldn't buy stuff made in other countries then your own, i meant let people do what they're good at doing, and increase import/export. Every person serves their purpose (some more then others ), the same is for every country. Germany has some great engineers (and cars!), the netherlands knows alot about everything in/on/around the water, asia is known for being ahead technology wise, and being able to mass-produce anything cheaply (and not just the "bad" countries there), the swiss are great with miniature engineering. i can go on and on, but my point is, buy what is good, don't mind the politics to much as you wont really change the fate of their country in a good way by boycotting them, or actively participate in changing the country, though i think thats up to the people, you can only support them so much.

 

[n4zov]

Buying American made products is important to me, and I make every reasonable effort to support domestic producers.

 

[MicroE]

I definitely go out of my way to support companies that make their products in the U.S.A.
I also willingly buy German, Swiss, EC or Japanese products.

I have had a lot of bad experiences with Chinese-made products.

 

[Biker Bear]

Respectfully, no. America's capitalistic society is based on a culture of competition. So buying only American just for the sake of buying American wouldn't be honoring the tradition of capitalistic competition that has made America what it is today.

Thank you; that's exactly my perspective. If there's no competitive pressure, there's no reason for corporations to improve their products, invest in R&D, and so on.

I have no problem with people also considering other business practice issues that are important to them - like how the manufacturer treats its workers, protecting the environment, or the like. But an uncritical devotion to "BUY AMERICAN!" is, in my opinion, actually opposed to what the USA supposedly stands for in terms of economic opportunity.

That said, I would LIKE to see more quality goods for decent prices made here in the USA; the erosion of our industrial base concerns me.

 

[balazer]

good luck finding any computer made in the US, or any other western country for that matter!

Dell desktop PCs are assembled in the U.S. The most expensive and complicated parts of PCs - the processor and the operating system - are largely made in the U.S.

 

[riffraff]

Dell desktop PCs are assembled in the U.S. The most expensive and complicated parts of PCs - the processor and the operating system - are largely made in the U.S.

Leixlip, Ireland. Jerusalem, Israel. Qiryat Gat, Israel. Cavite, Phillipines. Pudong, China. Chengdu, China. Penang, Malaysia. Kulim, Malaysia. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Those are just some of the fabrication and assembly sites for Intel microprocessors. Want me to list those of AMD? How about IBM?

I doubt Windows is wholly written in the U.S., either. Of course, it's also widely considered the most buggy, least enterprise-worthy OS, too, so be careful what you wish for.

 

[Patriot]

I purchase what I'm most interested in, usually only well made reliable lights.

 

[ABTOMAT]

That's true - if we buy too much stuff from other countries (and buy too little from domestic companies), domestic industry will fail. But you're not going to stop people from buying foreign goods. Even the most fiercely nationalistic peoples buy foreign goods. So the questions are how much is too much, and what can the U.S. do to maintain its lead and its standard of living?

I would submit that the answer lies in keeping an educated, skilled, and creative workforce whose hours spent working are more valuable than its competitors. When we create more valuable and innovative products and services, other countries will buy from us. I'm fine to have my socks made in China, if their computers and medical equipment are made here. But I'm not an economist.

No one should stop people from buying foreign goods, but it's a delicate balance. The problem is that in my view we've already tipped far over the edge. There are literally many products the US is no longer even capable of making because the companies and the physical industrial facilities no longer exist in the country. Large metal castings and press forgings, for instance.

Walk into a store and you'll see almost everything is made outside the US, the growing majority from China. Nearly all computer equipment is produced in somewhere in Asia. Most consumer electronics (other than things like high-end cameras from Japan) are Chinese. Medical equipment still is a fairly heathly business in the US and Western Europe, but the Chinese aren't ignoring it. Even industry sectors that previously were thought to be immune to offshoring, like electronic hospital work and computer tech support, are now largely in India. Even software is more and more often being coded in other places.

I'm not an advocate of buying domestic only for the purpose of supporting local companies. The auto industry in the '70s, for instance, got so crappy they deserved to get whipped by the Japanese and now they're better for it. I'm not going to spend money on someone making junk. But nowdays usually things made in the US or friendly countries are much better quality than goods that only have the advantage of being a few dollars cheaper.

Your comment about an educated workforce is a good one, taken the right way. A big problem now is that no one's being taught to do it, in fact they're being told that it's not proper to be involved in regular work. Lots of unneeded middle management and liberal arts educations being cranked out, while types of knowledge that's actually in demand is marginalized.

I think I'm going to stay out of this thread from now on, I didn't mean to take things so far off topic.

 

[balazer]

Leixlip, Ireland. Jerusalem, Israel. Qiryat Gat, Israel. Cavite, Phillipines. Pudong, China. Chengdu, China. Penang, Malaysia. Kulim, Malaysia. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Those are just some of the fabrication and assembly sites for Intel microprocessors.

Intel has about that many U.S. manufacturing sites as well. And certainly when I say "made" I count the research and development effort, which is also largely in the U.S. Knowledge workers are workers too.

 

[dapyro]

Except from a couple of maglites I don't have any US made lights. I like to test them, but they are far too expensive for me to buy. I set a limit of 40 euro or 50 US-dollars per flashlight to keep my expenses low.

And about the country I prefer to buy from, the only reason why I would prefer to buy or not buy from certain countries is about environmental or social issue's. I don't like to buy stuff where other people or the environment suffered from beyond some limits. But how can I test it?

 

[Tightgroup]

I buy high quality lights from any country of origin. It's interesting & refreshing to see the different perspectives!


Todd