+ rep
The only thing that I don't fully agree with is the slave labour.
Taiwanese welders are highly skilled and are well paid within their economic strata.
This may not be the case in other countries.
...And it just may get a bit worse before better, China is now losing business to lower cost asian countries and some in developing Africa as Chineses labour costs are rising...
However I have heard the same that you mention regarding shipping. The cost benefits of over-seas production are eaten by higher shipping costs, as well as higher production oversight costs due to being a large pond away. This is the main reason that high-quality Asian production is not any cheaper...
So, if shipping costs becomes a bigger issue as we believe it will, this hopefully will spur manufactures to move production back home. Problem is then we have the lack of tech for the actual materials. So in the meantime do we then import the tube-sets and weld here, until we regain our mfg strength?
IMO I think we have a ways to go before this happens. There is still too much emphasis placed on saving a penny or two by moving overseas. Board rooms are still applauding these steps as cost savings... (Look at Apple - how many billions in the bank do you need) However if everything is then produced overseas, how the he|| are we supposed to buy it with no job or a McJob that does not even provide a decent standard of living? If they want to continue to sell their products here, maybe they should take a look at the long-game.
It's a mugs game.
cheers
michael
This guy gets it.
The US's "power" will never be manufacturing, it's innovation and coming up with new technology, new ways of doing things, new processes, new ways to increase efficiency (without necessarily being able to employ them with no end). Anyone who thinks we can have a factory crank out the same widgets for 40 years is just not living in reality. Machines will eventually be invented that can do a worker's job, and that machine doesn't need health care or retirement, so what do you do with the displaced worker? It's a good question, and not easily answered. The point of this is that SOMEONE SOMEWHERE will ALWAYS come up with a cheaper way to make or do something. The only thing that is constant in business is change, the second you rest on your heels, you get your a$$ handed to you. Finally US automakers are making somewhat competitive cars with decent mileage, but this is after nearly going out of business, federal mandates to increase mileage, and simply having their a$$es handed to them by asian manufacturers. Once we isolate, our businesses have no reason to improve and innovate as mentioned above, and then when something finally does come along, they are less able to adapt and compete, not to mention that when we isolate we got a company manufacturing and selling here, but other companies are manufacturing and selling ALL OVER THE WORLD, which makes them much more competitive and they are able to grow much bigger than our isolated US-only companies.
As an example, I blame Bike Shops to some extent for their own hardships. The internet came. A few very keen bike shops opened E-stores. THOSE are the innovators that deserved (at that moment in time) to not go out of business. Bike shops have to make themselves competitive, they have to find new ways of doing business that attracts customers and business, they have to be active. Otherwise, if they are sitting there trying to do "what they've always done" and complain about the internet retailers, they deserve to go out of business. Things they can and should do: have group rides, have a website with parts inventory and local info, participate in races and events, build a pump-track (like behind a local shop where I lived in AZ did), have bike maintenance clinics-maybe at colleges and high schools, find ways to offer things and attract customers, and so on. It's not my job to keep them in business, it's their job to offer something that the public wants. You constantly have to reach out to new markets and come up with new ideas. How many bike shops have you heard complain about E-retailers? How many have actually done something about it? There are a few, and those are where the heart of US innovation and spirit lies.
In the end, it sometimes costs more to build stuff here, the shipping as stated above is affecting that, which is a nice side-effect of the oil prices and increasing standards of living, but if you really want to "support american businesses" like the OP intends, you have to accept paying MORE for LESS. You have to accept a lower standard of living and your dollar bill doing less for you. That's not human nature though, we are pretty driven to maximize value and have a "better standard of living" for ourselves and our kids, even if it means sacrificing the long term for the short term materialistic gain.