Just a thought.....?

[Bill Edgeworth]

It’s a complicated issue. 90% of the time it’s the result of us all wanting more for less.
Even when you expect nothing but the best you can still get junk. Example; Earlier this year Austin Martin had a recall due to the electronic accelerator pedal breaking. Austin Martin sub contracted making the part to a British tier one automotive parts supplier who then sub contracted the job to a Chinese auto parts supplier whose injection molded parts supplier substituted a cheap resin to save money over the specified material. So even when you are buying a $300,000 luxury sports car this can happen.
But as mentioned lots of other things lead to offshoring. Example in the last two decades lots of American companies have been purchased by foreign interests just to gut them for their customer base to up production at existing foreign factories. And in the case of the company I work for offshoring happened because some of the large US glass companies no longer wanted to deal with distributors and/or dropped production of certain items. They decided they would not deal with anyone that was not lets say a big beverage company buying a 500 million+ parts a year. It lead to us going from primarily being a distributor for US companies to distributing mostly for Asian and European companies.
In the end I have to ask why can we buy a Chinese made TV for less in America than what it costs a consumer in China? That’s where subsidies and fair trade practices come into play.

[Dan Bennett]

Originally Posted by Bill Edgeworth

...That’s where subsidies and fair trade practices come into play.

Your reply hits the target dead center, Bill.

In the early 90s I was working for a division of Anheuser Busch that made aluminum beverage cans. The raw material was a large roll of aluminum stock, each one weighing anywhere from 10 to 14 thousand pounds.

The company decided to switch from Alcoa (made in Alcoa, Tennessee; 500 miles away) to an asian company. The Japanese coil could be shipped the 6000 miles and still be sold for 20% cheaper. As far as I can see, there wasn't any aluminum ore deposits on the islands so they were buying the stuff on the open market just like us. The Japanese government was making that price happen.

I never understood why we never took a small portion of the money we paid to enemies for foreign aid so we could do the same thing for our companies and working people. I guess I'm not smart enough to be in Congress.