http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/flipflop.asp


Severely burned the skin of several people. I don't know why we keep importing crap from this place. It goes against everything this country stands for. jd

 

America is about making money. As long as people buy crap, there's money to be made.

Globalization re-wrote the book on what America stands for. When corporations went after foreign markets, the US market lost importance. And so did the American worker.

Henry Ford sparked the old way of doing things. Paying his semi-skilled workers $5/day. Enough to actually buy one of the cars they were making. His example became the model for the rapid expansion of American industry. An America where workers joined the middle class in the tens of millions.

As incomes increased, so did consumption of everything from houses to automobiles and washing machines. Whenever the economy hit a recession, the government created some construction work to keep everything moving.

The prime directive was full employment, so households would have enough income to consume all the goods being produced.

But eventually the US market was no longer enough. Corporations began to focus on the global market. All the hundreds of millions of Chinese they hoped to offer credit cards and sell them car insurance.

And today American workers no longer matter, because they are no longer needed as consumers.

The new jobs are in the service sector, serving coffee to aging baby boomers. Or working in a cubicle for some multi-national corporation. Or serving in the army to protect the economic interests of the nation's wealthy elite.

China Mart has a long history of breaking the law. Hiring illegals, violating their employees' legal rights.

People who shop there should know that.

 

Erm, well, sort of.

I think companies saw China as super cheap labor and a great way to get around unions and increase their bottom line.

Companies like Wal-Mart just accelerated the shift of manufacturing to places like China.

I personally am disgusted by the fact that you go into ANY store, and 90% of what you pick up is MADE IN CHINA.

But of course, the American consumer demands cheaper and cheaper goods, and where else will you get cheaper goods than China? The way people rave about Harbor Freight Tools is testament to that, I think.

 

Ok I'm guilty, I want my stuff to be cheaper and cheaper. Who doesn't? Especially when energy is out of control and pretty much everything is getting more expensive.

Then there's the part about the American worker. How many of you have ever worked in a factory? Noisy, hot, cold, dangerous, repetitive, boring, and low pay.

Why in god's name would you want to do that? I know I wouldn't. Not saying that I wouldn't do it if I had to, but if I'd work my butt off to get out of that line of work. As an emergency responder, I've seen plenty of really bad stuff happen to people in factories. Fingers and limbs ripped off and mutilated, chemical burns, thermal burns, trauma from flying objects, heart attacks, etc, etc, etc. Heck my cousin works in a warehouse and ran over his ankle with a lift truck. Tore it up pretty bad although he did fully recover. (He didn't even call me to see it!)

Now where I work, there is a whole district of industrial. Places like a Fed-ex distribution center, Thompson Publishing, Schwann's Foods (Red Baron Pizza), etc, etc. The list goes on and on. Let me tell you that Americans aren't working there. Most of the time, I don't even speak the langauge that they do and I'm not talking about Spanish.

BTW-My definition of American is a legal citizen, not just a white guy.

Mike

 

Take off your blue-tinted glasses and look at the history of Ford. Henry may have been the benevolent, flag-waving, American employer in the very beginning. Then Ford became a "global" corporation, long before anyone uttered that term. Ford has been in Europe, Latin America, and Asia long before most Americans even heard of Japan. Also, Henry resisted the UAW here, using armed company thugs to try and kill (literaly) the union movement.

Jim

 

The one reason WE (the US) prevailed in WWII is that we out-produced the Axis powers in every imaginable war supply...planes, carriers, destroyers, tanks, ammo clips, medical supplies, etc. That was strictly due to the vast manufacturing base we had at the time...factories converted their normal products to support the war effort. (and of course we provided substitute "manpower" from Rosie the Riveters and materials came from rationing).

The point is, at one time the US could and would manufacture EVERYTHING we as a country would consume...cars, quality tools and machinery, trains and streetcars, even table lamps! Nowadays, with such a tremendous amount of manufacturing moved off-shore and the former plants and factories converted to luxury condos or ballparks, how could we hope to duplicate such a war effort if it were ever needed?

As far as quality of manufactured goods today...no comparison. Wife and I just bought some table lamps. After less than a month, the lamp socket **** won't turn anymore. Had to go to Home Depot, bought push-button sockets to replace the rotaries...the new sockets also made in China!

I inherited a lot of hand tools from my father when he passed away. I was cleaning some of them up and came upon a center punch. As I cleaned it off, I noticed how well it was made...precision knurl on the barrel, squared-off striking surface, and a hardness to the metal that you don't see today. I also noticed it was stamped "Millers Falls - Made in USA". I don't know where Millers Falls is, but I got to thinking that the men who worked at this foundry (probably half their lifes) had at least a steady income that they could raise a family on...maybe enough to put a kid or two through college.

Was it noisy and grimy work?? Probably. But it surely would beat serving cappucinos to seniors or working at McD's.

[rant] over [/rant].

 

I have worn flip floppers from Wallys with no problems. If I did begin to develop a rash or skin irritation, I just wont wear them anymore and get rid of them.

 

"Ok I'm guilty, I want my stuff to be cheaper and cheaper. Who doesn't? Especially when energy is out of control and pretty much everything is getting more expensive."

and this is the reason why energy is more expensive, if it were not for people buying from china, there would be no one to help sap the world's energy supply to drive up prices. save in one area, pay in another. but heck, a person can not even find many things that are not made in china, now have no choice except to do without.

"The one reason WE (the US) prevailed in WWII is that we out-produced the Axis powers in every imaginable war supply...planes, carriers, destroyers, tanks, ammo clips, medical supplies, etc."

the one reason we prevailed like we did was because we did not directly border any enemy country, the oceans gave a great buffer to land invasions and bombers.

 

Hmmmm....

so by that logic, it was really the Australians who won the war.

Or was it those Canadians?

 

as for the war..it was a combination of many factors. manufacturing capabilities, strength of will, and location.

 

remember when walmart promoted itself on buying only American made products made a mint on that lye

 

did they have a huge manufactoring complex like we had?

obviously not, we used our existing huge industrial base for the manufactoring of war related goods. if we had been within range of any of the axis powers at that time those facilities would have been bombed out and rendered useless.

i think about every history book points that out pretty clearly, i did not come up with it.

 

"made in the USA" i remember that was walmart's big pushing point, i guess once they drove much of the competition out of the walmart competitive areas and got a stranglehold on the market, they switched to chinese made products. of course that was right after sam died.

 

From Wikipedia:

Millers Falls Co. is a tool manufacturing company originally based in Millers Falls, Massachusetts.

I recall the first time I really noticed how badly we are getting ripped off by all this global BS. I needed another set of Vise-Grips. My mother-in-law obliged me that Christmas with a set of three clamp-pliers, three sizes. "Great!" I thought. I noticed she forgot to remove the price tag..they were about $10 for the three. Not a bad deal.

Some time later I opened the package to try out one of the vise-grip-like tools. I saw it was made in China. The absolute first time I clamped them on a piece of work they failed, wouldn't work, never did and never have. The other two tools were equally poorly made and would not hold much.

I didn't know who to feel worse for...her for having wasted her hard-earned money on shiny junk or me because I still had to buy another Vise-Grip.

Time after time this cruel ploy had plagued me, but folks who don't use tools don't know. How much of the crap we buy from China and third-world countries ends up in the landfill practically unused?

I bought real Vise-Grips sometime later and I have little doubt they'll last like the last set...until the jaw teeth wore smooth...maybe 20 years or more.