Really? That is not the mentality that built this great nation...and it certainly is not what Henry Ford believed.

 

Hopefully not too far off topic but a shorten version of actual discussion I had with a manufacture of sanding booths in USA. A small US manufacture wanted to ensure his business was operating within OSHA guidelines. Sanding booth manufacture recomended equipment valued over 500K. US manufacture wanted assurances after investing dollars would this satify OSHA requirements. Sanding booth manufacture runs it up the chain too the highest levels of OSHA in Washington DC. OSHAs response was maybe, but if sanding booth manufactured is written up (by OSHA field inspectors) then we (OSHA) will let the courts decide. Do you think the US manufacture has a warm fuzzy about doing manufacturing business in the USA?

I use a lot of equipment manufactured in the USA 40 plus years ago. It works like a charm but new guidelines make it illegal in many cases.

 

Good points Bruce. Rules, regulations, patent legalities. It's very complicated and the playing field is absolutely not level. Perhaps I am just naive, but I really don't believe every CEO in the US wakes up every morning trying to figure out how to outsource everything and purposefully undermine our manufacturing economy for a 2% increase in profits. Unfortunately the difference is much bigger than that.

 

I watched a great documentary video on outsourcing where a gentleman in KY had a plywood plant that supplied most of the plywood to the region. He was located in an area with a good source of raw material and he had built a thriving business manufacturing plywood. His profit margin was dictated by the costs of raw materials, labor, taxes, etc weighed against the price he could charge for his plywood. He was not getting rich but he was getting by.
In come the Chinese...they buy his manufacturing business. They continue to use his raw materials but instead of processing them in KY they ship them to China where they make the plywood and ship it back to him in KY. His manufacturing facility now becomes a plywood distribution center. He still sells his plywood but now he has a guaranteed profit AND he has no labor costs and no government oversight/taxes. He has more than doubled his income and cut his overhead and govt headaches.
Is he greedy? Well some may say so...but what happens to his business when someone else takes the Chinese deal? There is no way that he can compete. There are many ways to "fix" this situation but it appears that no one who is in the political position to do so is willing to step up to the plate. Instead we are listening to all this "global warming" hype here in the US while we are subsidizing gross polluters in other nations (China).

 

Charlie, I am not convinced that global warming doesn't have some merit. I truly hope I am wrong. Humor me please, because you are still right. 25% of the world is going to somehow fix it without cooperation from the other 75% who pollute with impunity. It's ridiculous to think our national regulations have any meaningful impact if the problem is in fact real.

And one of my other hobbies is woodworking. It's just insane I buy a bulky 50# piece of plywood that grew in my backyard and was shipped round trip to China and back to Home Depot. It's poor quality plywood BTW. How much carbon was created getting it to the consumer?

 

Blah blah blah; don't you guys ever get tired of complaining about the same old stuff. Made in America is no better then the other offerings; wake up. I bought a genuine made in America transmission mounted parking brake handle and it lasted a whole 3,000 miles before it broke. Impressive; I guess they thought that I was going to trailer my ride everywhere and it was only for show. It cost $140.00 just for the handle. Not impressed with either options but quit saying that Made in America is better. I bought a shifter from the same company and you would think that the mounting hardware was made out of butter, the socket head screws strip out the first time you try to tighten them. Come to think of it, I don't have the time to go on about this stuff.

 

For you and others who would like to learn a bit more about this topic I encourage you to watch this video from a man who knows weather and has the facts to back his position: I have learned over my 60+ years that if something seems amiss you always "follow the money" and soon it will all make sense.

 

Thanks Charlie but I don't even trouble myself with the subject and all the politics that go with it anymore. I probably don't vote like you think by the way but that doesn't belong on this forum. 35 years in military and an unapologetic tree hugger. Vacation in Alaska each year and watch the place meltdown over my lifetime. It sickens me. Yeah that is anectodal evidence. It will be 500 years or more before we know if we had an impact in our demise, or it's just a natural cycle. It won't be proven in our lifetime. I like to be a good person and I'll spend the rest of my days assisting with cancer benefits and picking up other peoples trash on the streams where I fly fish. In my mind that makes a difference. Maybe that will somehow make up for when I paint my truck and race my Mustang I pulled the catalytic converters off of lol. Just trying to do more good than harm while I am on this earth.

 

Understood. Where it affects us in the automobile hobby is that we all are paying the price for the politics of this issue. Maybe not so much in IA (yet), but here in CA it is running full force...and we all know that what begins here will soon be elsewhere. I am an engineer by education and avocation...I believe in science and right now science has been coopted by political correctness and the greed of some who are now reaping the rewards of "carbon credits" that each of us are paying for. Educating ourselves with the true science will ensure that we don't fall for the hype.

 

I didn't realize you were from the left coast until now. I understand your passion. We have enviro laws of course but they are largely unenforced if you aren't a business. It's not legal for me to remove my cats from a drag car because it is licensed and driven to the track. No emission inspections the reality is we can do what we want here and many other states. Safety inspections even ended 30 years ago. GOV forces you to burn our corn in your car even during times when oil prices drop and the math doesn't work at all. My rivers are not drying up. Your rivers are. It's complicated for sure and politicians aren't likely to fix much of it. I'll read the article you posted.

 

No it's not the mentality that built this great - It is the reality that this nation has become
I would love to have every part on my toys to be pure American, however at 67 I don't have time to sit on my butt and wait for the parts to return to the USA
The main reason for the economy moving offshore is the laws passed by the *******ed people that we vote into office