Now, there are times when cheap items are what you DO want:
- Seasonal Dollar Tree stuff
- Trinkets for Mardi Gras
- Coffee filters, toilet paper, paper for school notes
But people in the USA are used to paying more for most of our consumables. We don’t blink at the cost of a good cappuchino, an excellent bourbon, or a truly awesome piece of steak.
The place where it is going to hurt is electronics. We need to get used to paying more for our technology. A LOT more.
Not the inexpensive netbooks or tablets. Not starter phones But the smartphones, good business and home networking computers, and vital infrastructure in our homes, businesses, and industries.
There, we need reliable products, and ones that are NOT open to intrusion by hackers or failure by poor quality.
I’ve been guilty in the past. I’ve not bought American, because in the items I need – basic electronic components, ham radios, and replacement parts – THERE IS NO AMERICAN-FROM-THE-BOTTOM-UP ALTERNATIVE.
MOST American manufacturers us at least some foreign-made components. And, even South Korean, Indian, and other Asian companies use some Chinese products.
“For Want of a Nail” Lyrics
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Pity parents so seldom know, and teach their children, those foundational truths.
2 comments
There is an amazing amount of “stuff” that, by any reasonable measure, constitute a national security issue <i> which we persist in not only buying overseas, and frequently from countries reasonably considered actual or potential enemies</i>, but for which we provide economic support for development and production.</i>
Not just military “stuff” although that’s a very large part of it, but simple replacement parts. What happens to the economy when 25,000 Hyundai cars become immobilized because replacement parts made in China are unavailable? What happens to the economy when those car owners cannot get to work, or the grocery store or their doctor’s office? What happens when if 10% of the elevators in high-rise buildings stop functioning because replacement parts are unavailable? How about electronic medical devices? The list is nearly endless.
Yet government considers it essential to spend thousands on useless grant programs, billions on Ukraine and trillions on welfare programs, and heavily taxes economic development, instead of supporting development and creation of American industries essential to sound and prosperous economic and social operation of this country.
Consider: American universities lurve them some Chinese students because they pay full retail and never complain about anything. Of course not – their tuition and supplementals are paid for by the Chinese government so they can learn from the best and take that knowledge back to China to use against us. And the United States government not only says – and does – nothing, it promotes, and supports, the useless “education industrial complex” that it helped create in K-12.
We’re doomed.
Nice sentiment. Take a walk through your local W/M or H/D. Almost everything is made in China. Tariffs were once just about the sole revenue source for the government. DJT put billions in tariffs on Chinese goods and it actually decreased prices here. It also begin the exodus of manufacturers out of China, many coming here.
If I’m not mistaken, Biden has rescinded those tariffs or most of them. Another consequence of fraudulent elections. Make no mistake, China is having major problems and DJT is just the man to make the most of those problems. Joe is giving them what they need most, time to sort shit out.
Anyone laboring any longer under the assumption that we could ship the icky, dirty hands work off shore and sit back while hoards of yellow people filled our country with inexpensive goods with no blow back is an idiot. One reason we had the greatest economy in the world for decades was precisely because manufacturing itself begets countless ways to improve.
Opening a box from China with a microwave in it has taught us nothing about the process of making it.