Buy American........Junk

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It is long past the time for the people to rise up and put an end to this situation.

Exactly what are you proposing?
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
We can build quality stuff. The question is, at what price?


$73.95 and worth every penny.
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Snap-on
 
Been buying tools off the SnapOn truck for 30+ years. Others work almost as good,look almost as good, cost less,have the same or better warranty. The key here is,,"work ALMOST as good". Trouble is, last few years I've began to see other "stuff" on the truck that is available to the dealer through SnapOn's system with [made in] labels from all over the globe. Even bought a set of variable angle head line wrenches from SnapOn dealer that he said were "a company owned Chinese venture of SnapOn". I'm betting this is a test of the waters to see how well foreign made is accepted before actual "Made In China" SnapOn appears.

Bob
 
just bought a 40 piece metric and sae socket set with wratchet and extension for my 10 year old nephiew for $2.95 at harbour freight. yes i said two dollars and ninety five cents. that is less than a pack of cigarettes. and it comes with a protective abs plastic case. for what he uses them for, skateboards, bicycles, etc, its perfect. would i personally want to use them to rebuild a car motor? no way. but for the average household consumer who might need to tighten a garage door occasionally, or pull a bike wheel to fix a flat, etc. this is a prefect set of sockets. the metal seems to be a mild steel. not a tool steel. they have what appears to be a light chrome plating. what this means is these sockets and the ratchet would easily break if you tried something like popping a lug nut lose, or using them with an impact wrench. but that doesn't matter for a typical homeowner.

in fact we used the set tonight to pull 4 of his skateboard wheels off so we could clean and re lube the 8 bearings. they were a bit dry and did not spin very well. after cleaning and lubing the bearings with a low drag oil (dexron 3 which was the lightest viscosity i could find), the wheels spin like butter and are whisper quiet.

if you went to snap-on or mac you would find the price of just one socket to be more than that of this entire set. wrap that around you're ugly little minds for a moment. one snap-on socket costs more than this 40 piece set with ratchet.

90% of homers and weekend warriours do not need snap-on, craftsman, mac, kobalt, etc. just a cheapo set of throw away sockets to last a few years. hey if they last even 1 year it's worth it. but a new set for 2.95 every year and throw the old ones in the trash. it's that low cost.

besides that, he is 10. i give him 2 weeks before half the sockets are forever lost. hahaha.
 
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I'm betting this is a test of the waters to see how well foreign made is accepted before actual "Made In China" Snap-on appears.


If that ever happens than please strap me to an ICBM headed for Beijing!

I'll be the world's first nuclear suicide bomber!
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Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
It is long past the time for the people to rise up and put an end to this situation.

Exactly what are you proposing?


He's proposing an American business model that actually benefits Americans and not just American businesses and their foreign producers.

Americans could rarely afford American products. Until around 1973 all of our stereo equipment was Snap~On. Nobody could afford it then. Foreign Craftsman grade stereos were enjoyed by the rest of the world. They weren't superior. They were affordable. There was no consumer electronics market in the USA before foreign competition was allowed access to our markets. None of any merit. B&W television sets and transistor radios were probably about it. A US produced stereo is just as expensive as it always was ..and is just as much beyond most consumer's means to purchase. AM radio was an option in every car ..and FM, let alone stereo, wasn't available in most models. I purchased the first new vehicle in my family in 1975. The only other new car was purchased by my father when he was single before WWII.

The point I'm struggling to communicate that it costs something to employ your own people and you'll have to live with the limitations and restrictions of your internal distribution of wealth. We had tremendous military and public works projects that provided much of the go juice between the end of WWII and the Vietnam war.
 
Gary,
with a debt based economy, you cannot afford to buy locally produced goods.

It's a pyramid, not a funnel,

There need to be serfs/slaves (depending on One's view of the world) to keep on lowering the cost of production to keep trinkets at the affordability level of the worker bees.

Modern model of more retirees and less taxpayers exacerbates the prollem (see other thread)
 
Other than a Holley 1V carburetor, I can't recall a single American made product that I've ever been disappointed with.
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The Australians make a set of roller rocker arms for my Buick called "Yella Terra" that I dream about from time to time.
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Really interesting things will happen 30 years after the world's population growth slows down, and there are suddenly 3 or 4 billion retirees.

I've seen some food packaging that has the name and photo of the quality control person who okayd it. that might be a way to bring quality back.
 
Originally Posted By: moribundman
I had one once.


(from johnny dangerously)

You shouldn't have eaten that Oreo, Johnny.
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mori ate an Oreo once...ONCE
 
I know of the "all for profit" mentality - one reason my scheduling changes so and sometimes reminded that I can leave early if I so choose.

It's a diverse customer base that a producer "need" supply, and thus no one design shall serve all due to balances between up-front costs, complexity, durability, etc. Snap-on vs. Harbor freight set as an example. From necessity to "it would be nice to have..".

I'll admit that I've had trouble absorbing history in my school years, so I am at a lose here. I wonder though if some promises might have been made that might not have been possible for generally accepted ways of employment - sorry for bringing up benefits again, but it seems there's been much in the news over the past year or two with Ford, etc. It's does seem to be an issue across the board though.

Like with lubrication, there's a lot of factors at work that lead to defining the momentary state of things.

Take care.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Originally Posted By: moribundman
I had one once.


(from johnny dangerously)

You shouldn't have eaten that Oreo, Johnny.
31.gif

mori ate an Oreo once...ONCE


I don't mind the cookie part.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
...Today I received a whole case of defective B-vent (chimney). When I took it back, the dealer said the company moved the plant(south U.S.) and they were having problems with quality control...


New manufacturing plants have teething pains no matter the location. Sounds to me like your (northern) dealer should have checked the product before selling it if he knew they were having quality issues.

BTW, I live 1.3 miles from a Snap-on Plant...in the south.
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Some customers put such demands on producers that it's better to ship defective parts than it is to fail to ship the order. The contract may demand delivery with x amount of lead time but has provisions for rejected defective products. Sometimes the producer has to ship the bad product or lose even more money.

Heck, Ford has done it a few times ..as I'm sure the rest of them have too. The guy who actually brought the lame product to market on time got promoted as long as sales weren't impacted. Remedy was far cheaper than having the trains not be on time. It's often a matter of avoided costs.
 
Quote:
New manufacturing plants have teething pains no matter the location. Sounds to me like your (northern) dealer should have checked the product before selling it if he knew they were having quality issues.

BTW, I live 1.3 miles from a Snap-on Plant...in the south.


Hey TN Tracker, I'm not picking on the south! I'm an equal opportunity basher for all regions. I just inserted that to clarify that it stayed in the U.S.. Don't even get me started on Michigan's woes.

Apparently these vent problems have been problematic over the past year. This was the first time my dealer saw it in my larger, less common size. When I asked about the quality of the Canadian brand, he said that they dropped that brand a few years ago due to similar problems.

My point is, where is this all heading? Is it just growing (globaliztion) pains? Will we survive or go down the toilet?

Today, the president at my work place received a $25 THOUSAND dollar annual salary increase ($550 K anually+/-). Adjusted for inflation, her position has had a 35% increase over the past decade. My raise was less than 2%....I digress.

These thoughts are just the tip of the iceberg of symptoms of a toppling giant.

Now, a toast: to family, friends, and health........the things that matter. Oh, and BITOG, too.
 
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