We do control import/export taxes, as well as opening up free trade arrangements.

 

I buy tools based on their quality, not on their origin or name. I have a mix of tools, mostly US made Craftsman but also some HF and some German tools and some Snap-On and Mac. All of my rolling tool boxes are HF except one Kobalt; a box is a box.

 

I have a Craftsman 8.5" floor model drill press from the '50s that works great, I even do some milling with it. Until the '90s, craftsman electric tools were made by DeWalt.

 

Thats why mine will becoming from Ididit.

And you are right, I dont blame the Chinese.......I blame the USA!

 

It is a combination of corp profits and regulation making it easy to maximize those profits by outsourcing production. If the regulations were such that it cost more in import fees/taxes the companies would produce the product here. We need congress to start looking out for us not themselves. Some will say I'm barking up the wrong tree or belong to the wrong party - has nothing to do with party perference at all. I don't care if it's a Republican or Democrat - they get elected then manage to stay in office by fear tactics and every one of them become multimillionaires. While all the time making laws to make it easier for companies, that put money into their campaign chest, make a bigger profit at the expense of the little guy. Just my soapbox 2 cents worth.

 

I am going to throw some gasoline into the fire on this but here goes. I buy a lot of tools for work and play. I have HF, Kobalt, Husky, Craftsman and some Mac Tools. All have a purpose and reason for being in my shop. If someone is paying me $75 an hour to work on their stuff, they usually will have Mac Tools doing the job. If someone is borrowing a tool, they are usually getting Kobalt or HF. When I am turning wrenches for personal projects it is all fair game. Good quality tools have there place but so do cheap tools. If I am removing a snap ring here and there, the $9 set from HF works just fine. Why spend big $$$ on a Snap-on set when the HF set does the same. I go to HF and buy my cutoff discs because they are 7.99 for a pack of 10. Dewalt, Bosch, etc. try to jack me for $2.49 PER DISC. Why spend $24.49 for the same thing? Some will say the quality is better, but I beg to differ. Dewalt sawzall blades cost 3 times as much as a cheap chinese blade and they still snap and bend like all the rest. Do I hate Chinese goods flooding the US market? Yes. But the reality is the days are gone when Made in America meant something. Our beloved trucks use to be built in America, with American made parts, by American hands. Those days are over, sadly. The reason stuff moved overseas is because the consumer wanted cheaper goods and the corporations wanted more profits. Who's fault is that then? Craftsman stopped being quality when Sears stopped sending out catalogs and being a good place to shop. I once asked a Snap-on rep why I should pay $400 for a set of sockets when I could buy a set of Kobalt for $49. His reply was because it was better made and Made in America. I still have that set of Kobalt, use them every day and only broke one socket in all these years (which Lowes replaced without hassle). To this day I will not allow Snap-on to come into my shop. They try to sell my employees tools they cant afford using payment plans as a way of disguising the pain of the price. If you want to buy top dollar tools, go ahead and someone will be happy to borrow them and maybe steal them. No one ever steals my HF stuff but my neighbor does eye my old Craftsman stuff a little too much.

 

Greed for more profit, and politicians that only care about there next term in office, have sold out the American people. Just my opinion.

 

Sears went downhill when they kicked Roebuck out That kinda dates me don't it.

 

We the American people don't send jobs to China - It's the corporations and the stock holders that demand more profits that causes the money flow overseas - I try to buy American whenever possible but after going to three or four use to U.S. stores - I'll get an overseas brand - Harbor Freight is getting worse in their quality - I went thru 3 2 ton engine hoists before I found one that the parts matched up and my neighbor got a tool box that was locked with no keys and only three casters.
When you buy there products if they come in multiple boxes make sure that all the SKU numbers match up - Each SKU is for a different MFG making the same item - It's kinda like they are the same thing only different

 

Maybe this is why we all also like old trucks! They were made to last.

 

Also, don't forget the jobs that were sent off shore due to overly burdensome government regulations and bureaucracy.
And we old timers remember the stuff coming out of Japan after WW11. Much of it carried the imprint, "Made in occupied Japan", and it was for the most part, junk. Some decent stuff coming from there to day.

 

Nobody seemed to care when it was "low skilled" jobs being outsourced, but that's changed. Now the corporations are leaving or have left, and whole swaths of manufacturing industries with millions of decent paying jobs gone, and "low skilled" workers being imported by the millions and with labor unions blessing. It really is Bizarro World. All the "experts" had to lie about all that too.

Wait till food is mostly imported, that will be a hoot!

 

I agree Dave. The old forgings and castings and the steel used, including the nuts and bolts are of very high quality by today's standards. For the most part, the components in our old Ford trucks are of the finest quality possible, while keeping the vehicle affordable to the public. The machine work is also very nice. By comparison, I have some large Chinese woodworking tools in my cabinet shop. I hate fixing them. The threads are poorly machined into the rough, grainy cast iron. You never know when you are gonna snap off a cast iron ear or strip something. They perform their work well enough, so I will continue to buy them when necessary. Last time I looked, most of the old 'American' brands we have known for years are now made over there too. The heart of the shop is my Powermatic model 66 table saw, built in McMinville Tennesee, and plenty of old Delta machinery too. To stay on track, I also have some really crappy new craftsman ratchets, but most of my wrenching tools date from Christmas's and birthdays from about 1969 when I was 16, to about 1979 when my dad died, and are primarily SK brand. Nobody gets to borrow them.

 

It's funny that the Snap-on guy would 'put down' Kobalt tools. Kobalt tools was established in 1998 by Lowes and Williams Tools, (Williams is a subsidiary of Snap -On) at that time, Williams (snap-on) made the tools. In 2003 they changed over to a US tool manufacturer called Danaher,(which used to make the old Craftsman hand tools) and Waterloo to make their tool boxes. Then in 2011 they switched to JS Products which owns Steelman Tools, which is mostly Chinese tools.

 

It is ALL about the almighty dollar and greed to get more of them. Billionaires pretty much run our country now with everything based on money, and money alone. No more American pride in the American worker, no more in Made in the USA, and all about making a lot more money. China, Viet Nam, Malasia, Mexico, and others are where the Billionaires go to get manufacturing cheap at the expense of the American middle class. And here we are buying what they sell that is taking away our way of life.