Made in America

If you don't think Chinese companies are subsidized, think about this. I sell castings and metal components for a living. I see Chinese castings that are machined, painted, and delivered to the US at a price BELOW the cost of the raw materials in them. And, they pay the same or more for those raw materials. To me, that's just predatory pricing to undermine our industrial base. Makes you wonder what their real motive is, huh?

Mikey
 
I never meant that they weren't subsidized. That is highly probable and doesn't suprise me a bit. This is a really interesting thread guys!:thumbup:
 
China's goal is not to undermine the US. Their goal is to crawl a huge country out of the stone age into a modern country. They don't have the 75 years of development the US has to accomplish this and they don't need it. They use their cost advantage to generate huge amounts of cash. Just look at our trade deficit to see that. They use that cash to buy technology, raw materials, etc. to accelerate their country forward. The thing Americans can't understand is their people are on board with this. Everyone that visits and does business there soon recognizes they don't mind 1/12 the labor rates and they are by no means unhappy. They don't want to fight us they want to become us in a very short time. They have the money and the unified means to do this.
 
Good one Satrang! You go to HK and Shanghai and they've got Mc Donalds and all kinds of American chain stores. They have British chains as well. Exactly! These are too many people who need work and in their economy a dollar will go farther. BTW, the US dollar is not the strongest on the planet and hasn't been for a while. The pound has always been stronger and the Yen ain't far behind us although it's dropped significantly. As well the Euro is also stronger than the dollar but not by as much as the pound. Because it's a Communist country doesn't make all its people part of some evil empire. They are people trying to make a living just like us. Only they have more need statistically then we have. Same goes for Imigrants here, they work their asses off 14 hour days in sweat shops here in our various chinatowns, their own businesses, etc. They get a lot of credit in my book. China is just trying to catch up with the rest of the world in every way. Whether its weapons, industry, fashion, music, modern culture in general.
 
American workers need to start cranking out that kind of quality.
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I don't think the workers are the problem. The management of American companies set policies and determine how good the quality of a product will be. And most, regretably, have the Donald Trump sort of attitude of getting the most profit for the least value.
 
Satrang said:
The American Mold Builders Association did a study a few years back on the Chinese advantage in making tools. The study did a breakdown of the percentage of costs to make a tool in the US and compared it to China.
The average costs for a tool were broken down as such:
29% Overhead costs
26% Labor costs
19% Materials
The rest was pretty much fluff.

China had on average 1/12 the labor rate and 1/2 the overhead rate due to government subsidy. They actually pay more for their materials than we do.
So on average, right out of the box they have a 39.5% cost advantage on US manufacturing. This was confirmed by actual quotes being roughly 40% cheaper when quoted. As commented above this is nothing we can do anything about. It's China and it's fact. It was interesting to read Ernest Emerson's take on China whittling down our manufacturing base. It's easy to blame them when in fact the blame lies with our own manufacturing base costing themselves out of the markets and outsourcing. Look at what is happening to GM, Ford, Chrysler the backbones of manufacturing. They put themselves in their own holes with outlandish union contracts and benefit packages. Even the UAW acknowledges they bit off too much. They'll pay the price with many less jobs over the next few years. On the other side, the Japanese can put up plants in the US, employ US workers, make a profit and make a better vehicle. That proves it can be done, just not by the old "traditional" companies. Some blame our government. Here's something to chew on. Agriculture is roughly 8-9% of our Gross National Product. We have a department of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture, subsidies, etc. Manufacturing, et al is roughly 26% of the GNP. No department of Manufacturing, no Secretary of Manufacturing, etc. The government has left manufacturing's future up to individual companies who base their decisions not on what is good for the US but what is good for profits and their shareholders (The US public). You want to find the bad guys that ruined US manufacturing. Have our companies look in the mirror
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This is a very good point!:thumbup:
 
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