If made to choose...

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wemay

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Which would influence your purchase decision more?

That the product is made and/or assembled in the USA (but a foreign brand)
or
The product is a US brand, made/assembled on foreign soil
 
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Made in USA supports US workers and the economy more than made elsewhere and profit to company based in US.

So for me:

Made in USA > Company based in USA

My aunt has argued with me over this for years. I have bought "foreign" autos made in plants in the US by US workers, with parts sourced mostly from US sources.
She says her Ford, made in Mexico, with parts from many source countries, is more American since it is a Ford.
 
That's "global" economy for you, no matter which way you look at it, it leads to regular people getting the shaft. Those foreign companies, that many think are "American", will quickly lower the wages, once the competition moves out overseas, or they move out themselves.

The real question should be, do you want us to become the next China, where all we do is make cheap stuff for others? If no, then look at addressing the bigger picture, not blaming people for their purchasing choices.
 
I'd buy the better product of the two. As you can see in my signature, it seems that I buy made in USA foreign products but that's completely unintentional.
 
Originally Posted By: wemay
Which would influence your purchase decision more?

That the product is made and/or assembled in the USA (but a foreign brand)
or
The product is a US brand, made/assembled on foreign soil

I think I'd want to run from both of these scenarios.
smile.gif
 
Domestic company.

My outlook is, where does the profit from that purchase go? Ultimately, to the headquarters of the company.

I'm not as concerned about "made in USA" as I once was - I still pay some attention, but I don't have unwavering faith in the workmanship quality of American workers and can't change that by what few items I have a choice to buy made in the US vs. made somewhere else. I have a certain amount less confidence in the quality of something made in China, for instance, that in the USA, but I don't get hung up on it because I've been in too many manufacturing environments here in the US where the workers were perfectly happy to turn out a really poor product. For domestic manufacturing to live up to what some people make it out to be the majority of our workforce needs to undergo a substantial change of attitude.
 
I prefer American company over American made. A company headquartered in America is still creating tons of jobs, they're just not manufacturing jobs. It's corporate, engineering, R&D, marketing, etc... type positions. Secondly, the profits that company makes are coming back to America, unlike money made by foreign brands. Ideally, we would be able to do everything here but if I have to choose I'll take higher paying white collar jobs and company profits over manufacturing.
 
Originally Posted By: Alex_V
Domestic company.

My outlook is, where does the profit from that purchase go? Ultimately, to the headquarters of the company.

That's a bit of a simplistic view, IMO. The question is: who benefits from it? Take GM, for example, who have been using these profits to build out their China operations in order to make money there but also to make their US business more profitable (by building cars in China). Do you, as an American consumer, benefit from it? It's complicated.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Alex_V
Domestic company.

My outlook is, where does the profit from that purchase go? Ultimately, to the headquarters of the company.

That's a bit of a simplistic view, IMO. The question is: who benefits from it? Take GM, for example, who have been using these profits to build out their China operations in order to make money there but also to make their US business more profitable (by building cars in China). Do you, as an American consumer, benefit from it? It's complicated.
smile.gif




Touche, there are two sides to that coin. More than one foreign auto maker contributes substantially to the economy in my area - Toyota in Georgetown, KY comes to mind. The last machine shop I worked for (job shop, winter before last) got the better share of its business from Hitachi nearby. My outlook of headquarters location vs. where it's actually made is more for large purchases, like my Cruze - 56% domestic parts.
laugh.gif
 
There is this thing in economics called the multiplier effect. American jobs keep other Americans working by spending their earnings to get by. That the net profit goes off shore is a problem for people beyond middle class wage earners. How much of that gets squirreled away offshore anyway?

Keep it RSP free, guys
grin2.gif
 
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Depends on the situation. If I'm just looking for something cheap and not something that will last 10-20 years, then foreign is fine.

Reminds me of the time I was buying some cheap pliers at Sears. They were no name stuff that just had a 1 year warranty. Guy was trying to sell me on Craftmans tools and said they were more professionally built. I said that's ok, I'm not a professional. I notice small stuff like that tends to get lost or stolen so I don't bother with anything really good. Plus when you only use it a couple times a year if that as opposed to all the time, it doesn't need to be that good.
 
Best value. I am buying for me and/or my family. Since I do not have unlimited resources, I have to get the most for every dollar I spend. I am choosing the product or service that provides me with the most value for the spend.

Could be domestic, could be foreign. But it has to be a good value.
 
Given the choice as written, American assembled.

That's a huge part of why I chose the foreign-but-built-in-Alabama Sonata over the hencho-en-Mexico HHR when I bought a new vehicle in 2010. The other big reason is that the Hyundai dealer gave me a killer deal that the Chevy dealer couldn't match even with the available rebates plus my GM-Mastercard rebate, but that's outside the scope of the question.
 
A _VERY_ good post.

Unfortunately I don't know if there's a good answer to your question.

It's a sad state of affairs when iconic American companies like Gibson Guitars cannot compete with the quality of inexpensive imports, even at twice the price.

Personally, I'm selfish for myself and fellow American countryman--so if isolationism is the easiest answer, so be it. It's difficult to dispute we were a more prosperous nation before modern technology made it easier for corporations to "globalize". If it doesn't benefit the majority of the population (the REAL stakeholders), what's the point??


Originally Posted By: KrisZ
That's "global" economy for you, no matter which way you look at it, it leads to regular people getting the shaft. Those foreign companies, that many think are "American", will quickly lower the wages, once the competition moves out overseas, or they move out themselves.

The real question should be, do you want us to become the next China, where all we do is make cheap stuff for others? If no, then look at addressing the bigger picture, not blaming people for their purchasing choices.
 
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