A letter that tells it straight.

[darthtang aw]

From what I read, it is more like 200 a month for your average low wage factory worker.  The people who work in high skill tech, is more like 200 week.
There is no competing with that as I said in this topic from the beginning.
But once you start factoring in shipping costs, customs........that changes. It isn't about matching wages.....it is about all the other costs, regulations, and so on as well......Running my own business, my employeecosts are not in the top ten of cost related issues for end product cost. And I pay well above minimum wage for a job requiring just basic math...hell one of my employees has no GED or high school diploma.
It also isn't always about cost...sometimes it is about manufacturing capabilities. The is a Chicken Jerky company that produces out of China. The chicken is free range still, hormone free, won the glycemic index award...basically all the "goodness" we desire in the states...But the plant produces 12 million pounds of chicken a month. the closest largest facility we have here can produce 12 million pounds a year. That is a significant difference in termsof production capabilities..........Americans dont want a plant that size near their homes..............

 

[theclemsonkid]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darthtang AW http:///t/394723/a-letter-that-tells-it-straight#post_3513629
I don't shop at walmart out of principal. As a business owner I value my time far more than the cost of goods. So I have a different outlook. In walmart i can stand in line 25 minutes to buy three items. I used to shop there many years ago and would wait in line far more than the cost savings were valued at. The only thing I occassional might grab at walmart is ammunition...and they haven't had any stock for months. so I skip them.
As far as U.S. made goods being more expensive. I call bullshit. I own a few pairs of Texas made jeans I paid 30 dollars for. Icarry an american made dog food product that contains better ingredients than Purina and cost less per pound. It can be done if a person is willing to try. For Christmas I did shop at a local store for a big screen TV. I purchased an Olevia. It was about a hundred more for the equivalent tv in other brands, however I received a 5 year full warranty from the store with that price. If I move and drop the TV they will repair it...........
There are American made products out there for just about everything, you just have to look for them...which now days takes just a simple google search.....And takes less time than standing in a walmart 20 item or less line, with some schmuck that has a full shopping cart in front of you...................
Well, good for you taking a stand (and for the record, as a business owner, I do the same); but let's be honest... For every hardworking business owner like you and I, there are 25 deadbeats who will always go to wherever they can get their hands on the cheapest price. The worse the economy gets, and the more children the deadbeats have, the longer the lines at Walmart get, and the worse off we are economically as a country...
Good luck teaching "pride" and "value" to those kind of people...

 

[reefraff]

Heck, I was going to buy the wife a Ford Fusion but found out they are built in Mexico. Looking at a fine American made car like a Volkswagen now LOL!
Another downside of imports besides shipping costs is turnaround time. Of course guano crazy Ross Perot was right when he warned about that giant sucking sound a generation ago. I think we need to rethink all these free trade agreements.

 

[stdreb27]

This is just an idea. But I think the train of logic is good.
You can go back, and figure out what the average factory line worker made during the industrial revolution. I've seen numbers all over the place, but factoring in inflation, averaging out about 4-5 different numbers from someone I'd consider somewhat reputable, targeting a low skill assembly line job, it's around 10,000 bucks a year. I'd be willing to bet you, if we could pay morons to work for 10,000 dollars a year assembling toasters, we'd have more made in the USA toasters.
Apply that to your life, when I was 10 I'd mow someone's lawn for 5 bucks. Today, I make more than 5 bucks an hour, if I had to trade off working and paying some kid 5 bucks to mow my lawn, I'd pay the kid 5 bucks. As a society, most of us aren't willing to build our own stuff for 10,000 bucks a year, so we pay some poor chap in china, Mexico or whatever, to build it for us. I don't necessarily see it as a failure in our society. But as a proof of the progress we've made economically on a whole.