Made in the USA - really

I'd be willing to pay more.. probably up to 25% more. For several reasons. First it would bring jobs back home, and force employers to pay a decent wage. Second, due to reason 1 the product quality would be better, closer to what it use to be (one would hope).

The real problem is not illegals taking our jobs, its us outsourcing them..

I've said for a long time that these mega corps that are doing all this crap are going to end up cutting their own throats in the end. Sure people want cheap, but it's really not cheap when you have to buy 10 cause they keep braking. Nor is it ethical to buy from corps whos only concern is the bottom line and employees be damned..

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I would be willing to pay up to 3X's as much..or 30% if it was a well made product in a "free" world country or USA. I just have been reading the latest issue of E magazine and there is an article in there telling about China and the cotton industry and using small children..7 yrs and older..to pick cotton with use of chemicals. It is very hard to purchase anything these days..or it seems to me..that you can find out anything about their products. I do buy things from the National Wildlife catalog..clothing, gifts etc.. and one dress was made in India. I call National Wildlife and they were unable to tell me anything about how or who made it and under what circumstances. How does one find out where the products you buy are made under what conditions on a human interest level ?? Recently bought a $27 chicken waterer.. I went wild..after one day it came apart. Bought it from Tractor Supply company...it was glued..not welded..on the bottom. Of course, they made a refund ..it was made in China. My old one literally wore its self out...so now I'm "forced" to improvise and make one of my own. ??...should have done that first..eh?..anyways..Yes..I would pay more for well made products..and pay more for fair wages to the workers too.

I'm willing to pay more for local or COMPLETELY made in the U.S. products. (Heard an ad the other day, where they said the product was "assembled in the USA." Yeah, right. And the materials came from...?)

I can't say for sure how much more I would pay, but I think I am willing to pay about twice as much for a product that I know will last and will support the local economy. For instance, found a local guy who sells eggs. I can see his chickens, see how he treats them and what he feeds them, and I spend... yup, twice as much as for grocery store eggs.

I apologize for carrying a thread drift further, but the statement earlier that our government is lying to us about conditions in China: Were you allowed to go ANYWHERE and check things out, or were you only allowed into State-sponsored areas? Propaganda is not limited to our country.

Pony!

I probably pay 2x as much, although it's for quality and usually on sale. I don't care who makes it.

When I was in Hong Kong I stood & watched people bent over sewing machines sewing polo type shirts. Each with a different designer label stack sitting on the machine. Same shirt - different American label.

American unions and their mindset have priced american workers/goods out of the market - we just can't compete anymore. Yet the minimum pay keeps rising. And now there's a "Living Wage" movement.........Go figure

50% more.. DH will always look for American made products and buys them when ever possible.. If he finds an American made item he will buy everyone he knows one--often paying a much higher price.. He LOVES American Made, and gets his nose out of joint when he sees, every shirt in his size made in 3world countries... He has even ask for the manage to complain about the orgin of clothing..

Unless the quality is better, none.

On clothing, I use to get a pair of Carharrt jeans about once a year, an paid three times what I could get a pair of foreign made jeans. The last pair I got had Mexico on them... I still like them, but ~40$/pair is a little steep for 'furrin' made clothes.

Unions pushed too hard, and reaped what they sowed. Businesses are in the business of making money, not welfare for employees. If you own stock in a company, you expect profits on your investments. If you're rich and you want to be altruistic, you can give your money away to poor people (and take tax dedcutions for doing so).....whereas the average small investor won't invest with the promise of losing money.

I can't afford a new truck, now... mine is ten years old... New American vehicles have around a 5K premium for (welfare payments) healthcare for their retirees! Is that right?

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Glen, I tend to agree with you... mostly. First, I'm firmly committed to the concept of buying locally - whether locally is defined as my community vs the next county over or US vs foreign. That being said, if there is a significant difference in quality or price, it will affect my decision on buying. Quality being similar with a minor (10 -20%) difference in price, locally produced items will get my money - it's that simple. Second, when purchasing manufactured items when I know they were produced with unionized labor, my tolerance for price disparity dwindles. I know that items made in America could be sold locally for a significantly lower price if the labor costs were more reasonable for the labor provided. I also believe that one reason we have so much imported 'stuff' is that even with the cost of transportation, the foreign-produced items are still produced and delivered at a lower price. Some of it is crap.... but not all of it. Even the well manufactured items are normally less than a comparable item manufactured in the US. Labor costs are the #1 reason that many of our manufacturing jobs have moved offshore and the American labor unions created the disparity....

Let the flaming begin..

Since the 80's I've been buying American products whenever possible. Lately, that's expanded to buying 'Local' whenever possible. I'm willing to pay extra to support American and local industry up to a point - the point where I just feel ripped off.

Lately my wife and I have been concentrating on eating local and shopping at mom & pop stores. We expanded that to going to farmers markets and farm stores - every farmer we bought food from, we asked which stores they sold their produce to - returning to our favorite store we realized that the store's markup STARTED at 300% of what we could by at directly from the farmer. Local or not, that's highway robbery.

I would pay 50% more for a quality USA made item. BECAUSE if we continue to depend on foreign countries for our goods and keep sending them our raw material......we simply aren't going to be the powerful country that we used to be......... and BTW I don't mind made in Mexico or Canada......although I am certainly NOT for a North American Union.....heavens NO. We had a vehicle that was made in Mexico and it was quality well built.


OK, side note here, I think the WORST possible situation would be the majority of FOOD items coming from other countries. We HAVE to keep our ability to grow the majority of our own food or we are toast.

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When I traveled to China in 1997, I was allowed to go anywhere that I desired to check things out. Now, I didn't go asking where the secret military bases were or anything like that. We have off-limits places in America too: military bases and nuclear power plants are easy ones that come to mind.

I wouldn't go quite as far as daytrader, but I do think we are fed some misinformation about conditions in China. The people I met over the two weeks that I was in northeastern and southeastern China were friendly, open, and very interested in Americans. In the cities, I saw poor sections but was never afraid for my safety like I am in parts of Chicago. Things were generally clean, much cleaner than places that I've visited in Mexico, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. There are cultural differences: the dogs and cats in the food markets were a bit surprising, but different strokes for different folks.

Western capitalists are exploiting economic conditions in China. My brother-in-law, who works for a leading U.S. manufacturer of printers, has helped locate factories in China because good capitalists follow cheap labor and cheap materials. I am not at all defending the Chinese government which I find reprehensible on many levels, but I have great admiration for the Chinese people in general.

To answer the question, I'll pay up to 50% more for quality materials produced locally--the more local the better. I try to buy as much as I can from people that I know personally. Local folks make transactions right, and I don't end up in anyone's voicemail hell or denials of warranties.

Has everybody given some thought to how much money they are talking about when they say they will pay 2x or 3x as much for American made. Take for instance a car. A normal car will cost about $20-$30,000. 2x or 3x will make the same type car made in America cost 2x $40-$60,000 to 3x $60-$90,000.

I dunno the percentage.
My wife buys everything from china mart. She gets jeans for around $10.
I buy all my clothes from a local feed store. They are all made in the united states. I pay around $40. I dont care. They are all carhart.
The imported stuff just doesnt hold up as long.
There are other reasons I buy united states made stuff. IM not going to get into it now.

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While it may be blastphemous on HT, country of origin has no bearing on my purchases with the exception of vehicles, where I won't buy anything BUT Japanese (and these are getting harder to find). And this, along with everything else, is determined on my best judgement of value, however flawed it may be! Now before anyone gets their US made textiles in a wad, I have this to say, my wife and I buy very very few manufactured goods. Most of what we spend our money on are services provided by the good old US of A such as insurance, interest, ect...

I try to find union-made where I can, and American-made if I can't find union-made. This is working out to me getting away from buying stuff from catalogs and big stores, and just putting off buying things in general. I broke down and got my son new shoes at Kohl's, despite the fact that almost everything they carry is imported, because I just plain can't find American-made, let alone union-made, children's shoes at any price. I'm thinking of haunting thrift shops for raw materials and taking up sewing again. Won't help with shoes, but at least I can take care of clothes.

I got depressed looking through the last LL Bean catalog that came in the mail - nothing US-made at all, except in some cases assembled overseas of fleece from Malden Mills. Bleep that, I can buy fleece from Malden Mills all by myself.

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NO ! ! !
I would not pay that much money for any of those products that you listed above.

The say a fool and his money will soon part.

It's hard to afford products made in the U.S.A. because they cost to much and they are not made any better than the other contries make them either.

bumpus
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You pay 40 and she pays 10

You can get 4 pairs for 40 and which one did you say that you would have later on.

Will the one pair at 40 out last the 4 pair at 40 ?

bumpus
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.
The unions wanted to much, to quick, and they priced there self right out of a job.

Now they have to by the non-union made things just like everyone else.

And there pay check is down with the rest of the world.

The world of labor is becoming an level playing field so get used to is because it will get worse before it levels off ! ! !

So tight tighten up for the next tidal wave of down sizing of The American Economy. It is coming and no one can stop it. Ross Pero told everyone it would and business people know it will, and they are leaving and going to where the money flowes uncontrollably ! ! !

Soon the question will be ... What's not in your wallet ?

bumpus
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Bumpus - what does this mean?

America always talks about third world countries, and not she is becoming a second world country.

Some of the so called third world countries are becoming second world countries.

If it does not slow down you can get ready to wave at them as they go by on up to the top and become a first world country. Could be China.

If they don't we will all be the same and equal in strength and power but America is loosing power fast in many areas already.

bumpus
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