Made in the USA

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It's the reality of business. There are large pools of skilled labour in many of these foreign countries (especially in engineering). The cost of living is lower there than in NA. To be able to keep costs low it's only natural to shift production there for the mass consumer goods. Economic Power between countries is a constantly shifting thing, and as much as it sucks for us in NA, the longer we whine about it the further behind we fall.

While there is an argument for greed of the execs being a motive, when it comes to publicly traded companies it is really the shareholder that demands growth. If growth slows down or drops too much, share price drops. Share price drops then a business will be forced to cut costs. If they don't then they go out of business and a lot more people are out of jobs. It's also important to note that a lot of shareholders are normal educated middle class citizens. People trying to expand their investment portfolio to be able to either add to their yearly income or save up for retirement/child's education.
 
Reeek said:
Unfortunately, the company I work for is shipping as many jobs as they can to India and this isn't because they can't keep up with demand. We're a very large gaming company that was originally founded in Chicago back in the 30's. The two india offices have grown from zero to over 750 employees in less than 4 years while the US based jobs have shrunk. Say goodbye to American jobs at my company, probably within 1-2 years. We've had some that heard an executive say those remainingg in Reno will be support, those who travel and have to face the customers. Basically a minion considering these are all educated engineers. And to add salt to the wound, Indians with visas are being hired in mass in our Reno offices too. I'd guess 25% are Indians with visas now. It's a simple matter, our Executive Vice President is an Indian and it appears all he wants to do is lower his costs and apparently that means hiring people from his own country. It's been said that he considers us Americans lazy and expensive and it's been heard that he doesn't like the Reno office because of this attutude toward us. Our company has posted record revenues and profits up to the very last quarter this year yet they have not given us a raise in two years. Yet if you look at the insider transactions, the officers have been granting themselves millions of dollars in stock and selling them like tomorrow is their last day. The executive VP cashed out 6 Million in stock options just last week, the one who is shipping our jobs to India and hiring Indians to fill our open positions here in Reno. And all executives have sold stock worth millions during the last two periods that we would have typically gotten our 3 % COLA. It won't be long before the only engineers in our company are Indians or Indians here with visas, not Americans. The CEO seems to let this guy have his way. I can safely say now, that I am starting to know what it feels like to be discriminated against because of the color of my skin and/or my nationality . . . It's tragic.

My point is, there isn't always a truly valid reason for an American company to go global. Sometimes it's just greed and discrimination. If a global company, which mine is, employed staff in other parts of the world, which we do near locations with gaming,to help mitigate the demand and to produce product where the international offices are located, then I'm all for it. But in some cases, it's pure greed and in other cases it's discrimination. In my company's case, it appears to be both. As far as I know, they don't even have casinos in India.
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Ankerson said:
It's usually just pure greed to pad the pockets of Corporate Management....

The Corps have been selling out Americans for Decades now one way or another. ;)

They use words like Global Economy to hide that fact they are just greedy while the Economy and Unemployment here in the US are suffering. As long as they get their fat bonuses they could care less.... They would sell out every employee they have putting them out on the street to keep getting them too, have and will continue to do so.
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Thank you both for having the intestinal fortitude to state the truth. :thumbup:
 
Thomas W said:
Umm...for some reason I don't think we're talking about the knife industry anymore.

I think that a China produced knife can be marked with a different country of origin. There are countries other than the US that seem to take advantage of this type of situation.
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Taiwan? Only 180 kilometers port to port seems there would at least be opportunity.

I also read somewhere that Japan has the same problem with China.
 
Can anyone here remember the last car that could be legally labeled "made in the USA". If you remember your giving away your age. :D
 
RevDevil said:
I think the FTC may be just as shady though, they have no real oversight that I am aware of.
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Most FTC investigations are triggered by complaints, usually from a competitor company. So, I agree with you on the oversight point in that the FTC, in general, is not actively performing audits.
 
arjung said:
While there is an argument for greed of the execs being a motive, when it comes to publicly traded companies it is really the shareholder that demands growth. If growth slows down or drops too much, share price drops. Share price drops then a business will be forced to cut costs. If they don't then they go out of business and a lot more people are out of jobs. It's also important to note that a lot of shareholders are normal educated middle class citizens. People trying to expand their investment portfolio to be able to either add to their yearly income or save up for retirement/child's education.
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Basically, the problem is Capitalism, a system in which one group can profit ONLY at the expense of another group. But as soon as you say maybe capitalism isn't the best way forward, people immediately start frothing at the mouth and calling you a communist and the anti-christ. :jerkit:

We started talking about the knife business, but if our society wants to maintain certain standards of living for as much of the citizenry as possible, and still be competitive, we really have to reevaluate our unchecked corporatist system. People bad mouth and 'fear' the government, when in reality it is the big corporations that are doing much more damage to society and are much, much more intrusive and deleterious in our everyday lives. But thanks to corporate media, and piss poor education, most Americans have been brainwashed into fighting AGAINST their best interest. (The whole healthcare mess is the prime example of this). :barf:

I hate to say this, but in the end, we as a people get what we deserve... :(
 
I bought two enduras and tenacious. both have centered blades. I do prefer made in USA but the 2 militaries I bought had off center blades. I dunno....
 
Rafthos said:
Can anyone here remember the last car that could be legally labeled "made in the USA". If you remember your giving away your age. :D
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Yeah I believe I have one. A 1955 International Harvester Pick Up.

STR
 
Wow, this thread got really deep, but I agree with most of what you guys are saying. I don't agree with what my company is doing, but what do I do, I still need the paycheck, I got a wife and a small son.... Grin and bear it I guess...sad thing is what will it be like for my son?????

On a side note, I do own knives made in China, but I purchased them at China pricing (I.E. Persistence). What would really rub me raw, is a knife made out to be USA made with USA built pricing and made 85% in China, that would be just wrong and deceiving. :barf:
 
jvarn81 said:
Wow, this thread got really deep, but I agree with most of what you guys are saying. I don't agree with what my company is doing, but what do I do, I still need the paycheck, I got a wife and a small son.... Grin and bear it I guess...sad thing is what will it be like for my son?????

On a side note, I do own knives made in China, but I purchased them at China pricing (I.E. Persistence). What would really rub me raw, is a knife made out to be USA made with USA built pricing and made 85% in China, that would be just wrong and deceiving. :barf:
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I imagine your customers would have the same outlook of they knew. ;)
Just like anyone else here.
 
China is slowly destroying the medical/optical industry which I work in. Precision optics is not something you want to cut corners with for the sake of cost. Everything from opthalmic instruments, to lenses, and even eyewear frames has been affected.

This is part of the reason why I am so fervent with regards to buying American knives and products and not sacrificing quality for cost.
 
arjung said:
It's the reality of business. There are large pools of skilled labour in many of these foreign countries (especially in engineering). The cost of living is lower there than in NA. To be able to keep costs low it's only natural to shift production there for the mass consumer goods. Economic Power between countries is a constantly shifting thing, and as much as it sucks for us in NA, the longer we whine about it the further behind we fall.

While there is an argument for greed of the execs being a motive, when it comes to publicly traded companies it is really the shareholder that demands growth. If growth slows down or drops too much, share price drops. Share price drops then a business will be forced to cut costs. If they don't then they go out of business and a lot more people are out of jobs. It's also important to note that a lot of shareholders are normal educated middle class citizens. People trying to expand their investment portfolio to be able to either add to their yearly income or save up for retirement/child's education.
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:thumbup:


I really wish all the people whining would try to start a company and only use American made parts and labor.
 
It's probably the big one that's getting it's ass sued by everyone.
 
jvarn81 said:
We make some of our products in the US and some in China. Since some countries will not buy medical equipment from China, my company will build most of it in China, ship it to the factory I work in, and we do a percentage of work to it, so we can stamp MANUFACTURED IN THE USA on it.
I wonder if there are any knife companies who do this? In my opinion, its kind of a under the table approach. But it would definately up the selling price.
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For me this is cheating, I would never buy a knife from the company who does this.
 
I make a point of buying knives made in the USA and I dont even live there. To me it represents a standard of living and a culture that I support and endorse. I don't support or endorse the Chinese way. I am fundamentally opposed to it.

Of course, it is now practically impossible to completely avoid buying goods that are made in China, but I check labels and make my choices when I can. Even when it costs me more. Every time you pay less for Chinese made goods you are just hammering another nail in your own coffin.

Buy local whenever you can and support your own economy!
 
I recently studied to pass the Custom Brokers Exam. From my understanding reading
the texts of the Customs Regulations book and their Tariff Book is that the country of
origin can largely depend upon the transformation of materials to catergorize under a
different product after significant work has been done to it. If that can be shown
to take place in one country or antoher than that determines country of manufacture
or origin. So it's legal for a company to do. But I guess I could see why people could
perceive it as shady.
 
knifezoid said:
I recently studied to pass the Custom Brokers Exam. From my understanding reading
the texts of the Customs Regulations book and their Tariff Book is that the country of
origin can largely depend upon the transformation of materials to catergorize under a
different product after significant work has been done to it. If that can be shown
to take place in one country or antoher than that determines country of manufacture
or origin. So it's legal for a company to do. But I guess I could see why people could
perceive it as shady.
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Thinking about how many kickbacks, payoffs and assorted other shady things were made to get that law to read like it does... ;)
 
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