Buy American

[sealybobo]

Like I said, if you don't like how much money that a corporation pays one of its employees then just don't buy anything from that corporation. Stop being an envious little pussy.

I could care less what other people are paid. That is not my concern. If I think something ain't right, like we see with Union thuggery and supporting the Democrat scum, then I will simply not buy anything made by them.

You hate personal responsibility, don't you?

I like unions. So I will tend to buy from a union company or one who I know pays their employees well.

It's a bad argument you are making. Who makes the car? Who makes the part that makes your car rattle if it goes over the white line when you are driving? Or beeps when you are coming up too fast on a car? Am I supposed to investigate how much they pay their employees? Get real.

I'll tell you what. I don't like how Ford Dealerships treats it's sales people. They should be compensated and treated better. There shouldn't be so much turn over.

The point is, too many companies pay shitty for me to make an impact. I like what you are saying but that won't solve dick. Unions will solve the problem. No one cares about your CEO/Investor arguments. This is between labor and management. We know, you side with management. Every time.

 

[sealybobo]

Like I said, if you don't like how much money that a corporation pays one of its employees then just don't buy anything from that corporation. Stop being an envious little pussy.

I could care less what other people are paid. That is not my concern. If I think something ain't right, like we see with Union thuggery and supporting the Democrat scum, then I will simply not buy anything made by them.

You hate personal responsibility, don't you?

who made you hate unions? Think tanks and republicans that's who. Corporations pay a lot of money to brainwash you.

OMG I've been saying 9% of workers are in unions. I just heard the other day it may be 6% now. Yea, corporations have all but killed unions. Luckily for us they are making a comeback. Turns out they are still useful.

Do you hate the healthcare workers union, casino workers union as much as you do car unions?

Will you not go to a casino if the workers are unionized? What a dope.

Do you only watch movies made by non union workers? OMG I would love it if your dick burned every time you watched a movie or tv show that was made by union workers.

I wish unionized cops didn't show up when you called 9-11. Do you only live in neighborhoods where the cops aren't in unions?

Do you only put your grandparents in a low paying non unionized facility where she's most likely going to be abused or neglected?

 

[Flash]

I like unions. So I will tend to buy from a union company or one who I know pays their employees well.

It's a bad argument you are making. Who makes the car? Who makes the part that makes your car rattle if it goes over the white line when you are driving? Or beeps when you are coming up too fast on a car? Am I supposed to investigate how much they pay their employees? Get real.

I'll tell you what. I don't like how Ford Dealerships treats it's sales people. They should be compensated and treated better. There shouldn't be so much turn over.

The point is, too many companies pay shitty for me to make an impact. I like what you are saying but that won't solve dick. Unions will solve the problem. No one cares about your CEO/Investor arguments. This is between labor and management. We know, you side with management. Every time.

You are really butt hurt over the fact that American car company CEOs make more money than you think they should, aren't you? LOL! Typical for a Commie Moon Bat.

Just go buy a Honda or Toyota. They are produced here in the US and their CEOs make considerably less than the CEO that you are bitching about. Better vehicles also and the additional bonus of the workers not supporting the filthy Democrat Party.

You think you can do that and quit your bitching about how life is so unfair to you pathetic Socialist assholes?

 

[Blues Man]

I've stated this story before. I go to a shoe store with the wife. I see shoes priced at $50 and above all made in places like Vietnam and India.

I refuse to believe we can't profitably make $50 shoes in this country.

We obviously can't

SAS Men's Black Journey Mesh Lace Up Sneaker

SAS Men's Black Journey Mesh Lace Up Sneaker. American made, crafted with pride. Click now to buy.

www.allamericanclothing.com

$200

Men's James Court Sneaker | Lo | Ivory and Olive

The James Court Sneaker was designed in house to reference the classic court sneakers of the 70s. Tumbled Ivory leather with suede Olive collar accent and Milkshake suede toe cap. Upper: Dry milled ivory calfskin leather from Italy Lining: 100% Vegetable tanned leather from Ecopell Sole...

opieway.com

$428

Victory Sportswear Sneakers Made in USA

These road/trail/walking sneakers are based on our heritage silhouette, constructed from premium suede and mesh upper which have been individually stitched at our Fitchburg, MA shop in the U.S.A. Each pair is hand lasted with replaceable EVA midsole and our new road soles made in Italy. Please...

victorysportswear.net

$230

 

[pknopp]

We obviously can't

SAS Men's Black Journey Mesh Lace Up Sneaker

SAS Men's Black Journey Mesh Lace Up Sneaker. American made, crafted with pride. Click now to buy.

www.allamericanclothing.com

$200

Men's James Court Sneaker | Lo | Ivory and Olive

The James Court Sneaker was designed in house to reference the classic court sneakers of the 70s. Tumbled Ivory leather with suede Olive collar accent and Milkshake suede toe cap. Upper: Dry milled ivory calfskin leather from Italy Lining: 100% Vegetable tanned leather from Ecopell Sole...

opieway.com

$428

Victory Sportswear Sneakers Made in USA

These road/trail/walking sneakers are based on our heritage silhouette, constructed from premium suede and mesh upper which have been individually stitched at our Fitchburg, MA shop in the U.S.A. Each pair is hand lasted with replaceable EVA midsole and our new road soles made in Italy. Please...

victorysportswear.net

$230

We don't is different from we can't.

 

[Blues Man]

We don't is different from we can't.

We can't because labor costs are so high in this country.

Besides that Made In America doesn't necessarily mean every single part of that shoe, or shirt or whatever was also made in the US. Most of the materials are not made here and the shoe or whatever is only put together in the US

as Ford likes to say
Assembled in the USA

 

[sealybobo]

You are really butt hurt over the fact that American car company CEOs make more money than you think they should, aren't you? LOL! Typical for a Commie Moon Bat.

Just go buy a Honda or Toyota. They are produced here in the US and their CEOs make considerably less than the CEO that you are bitching about. Better vehicles also and the additional bonus of the workers not supporting the filthy Democrat Party.

You think you can do that and quit your bitching about how life is so unfair to you pathetic Socialist assholes?

I can't because the union made Ford give me a super good deal on Ford's as long as my dad is alive. He has great benefits from Ford till he dies. Now that's when America was great. Google 1999 ford record profits and record profit sharing. Google the same only 1998, 1997, 1996. American car companies were doing great union GW Bush. Then I remember this attack of Unions by Republicans.

Let's face it. Ford paid think tanks and Republicans to trash labor while they were about to send all those jobs overseas. You helped them sell us on it idiot.

 

[sealybobo]

We can't because labor costs are so high in this country.

Besides that Made In America doesn't necessarily mean every single part of that shoe, or shirt or whatever was also made in the US. Most of the materials are not made here and the shoe or whatever is only put together in the US

as Ford likes to say
Assembled in the USA

Corporations are finding it's not that cheap to manufacture abroad. Not with high gas prices especially.

And we should slap em with a tariff.

 

[Blues Man]

Corporations are finding it's not that cheap to manufacture abroad. Not with high gas prices especially.

And we should slap em with a tariff.

Tariffs are nothing but a tax on the consumer.

Why do you want to pay higher prices than you have to ?

 

[sealybobo]

Tariffs are nothing but a tax on the consumer.

Why do you want to pay higher prices than you have to ?

To employ Americans.

And hey, I'm not the isolationist Trump supporter who thinks we should bring all manufacturing back home. I know that's not realistic. But there are just some industries, products and times when we need to tariff certain companies.

Did you read what I wrote before? Every time you hear RING at a Walmart cash register, that's money going to China. Why do you want to send our wealth to China? They love it.

Do you know there was a time when we were the largest manufacturer and the largest creditor nation? Now we're the biggest debtor nation and we buy from China and Mexico. How lovely.

But hey, I know the truth lies somewhere in between. I'm a globalist not an isolationist.

 

[sealybobo]

Tariffs are nothing but a tax on the consumer.

Why do you want to pay higher prices than you have to ?

I think Thom Hartmann pointed out that Trump's trade war with China made things worse. So you may be right.

 

[pknopp]

We can't because labor costs are so high in this country.

We can't because of the demand for record profits every year.

 

[sealybobo]

Tariffs are nothing but a tax on the consumer.

Why do you want to pay higher prices than you have to ?

China has slapped export controls on graphite, a key metal used to make steel and electric car batteries, ratcheting up a trade fight with the United States over the technologies needed to wean the world’s economy off planet-heating fossil fuels.
The measures, announced Friday in a joint declaration from Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs, banned exports of artificial graphite, the natural flake version of the metal, and products made with them unless the government grants permission. The restrictions take effect on Dec. 1.

The restrictions come as President Joe Biden has expanded the Trump administration’s trade war with China, placing export bans on technologies like the semiconductors needed to power artificial intelligence applications. The Biden administration is set to ramp up tariffs on Chinese-made solar equipment as Beijing provides its own factories with so much government support that even dairy companies are opening factories to churn out the materials for panels. In response, China in July put new export controls on two metals used to make computer chips and solar panels, gallium and germanium.

As with so many of the metals required to make batteries, solar panels and other crucial energy hardware, China is the world’s top producer and exporter of graphite, generating 65% of the global supply and nearly 90% of the battery-grade version. The U.S. is the largest importer, followed by its allies in the European Union and South Korea, with whom Washington is now increasingly competing as America’s demand for graphite has grown in the past five years. Imports for consumption in the U.S. surged by more than 50% from 2021 to 2022

Yet the U.S. mines none of its own graphite. Three U.S. companies are looking to develop graphite mines in the U.S., two in Alabama and one in Alaska. In July, the Biden administration offered $37.5 million through grants issued via the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to boost the Alaskan project and support a processing facility in Washington state.
But demand is only expected to grow as funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s landmark climate-spending law, spurs more automakers and battery companies to open factories in the U.S.
“Virtually every lithium-ion battery chemistry uses graphite for its anode. China processes 90% of the world’s battery grade graphite. China has put export controls in place to protect national security,” Jay Turner, an environmental policy historian and author of a recent bookon battery supply chains, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Welcome to the new geopolitics of the clean energy transition.”
As the U.S. and its allies seek alternatives to China for various so-called critical minerals, the rush for graphite could put a new focus on countries in Africa. Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania have large reserves and increased mine production significantly from 2021 to 2022. The two countries with the largest reserves outside China are Brazil and Turkey, but mining increased only marginally in both places during that same period.
The trade fight with China has spurred calls to mine and refine more metals in the U.S. But efforts to permit new mines have foundered as local opponents, fearful of the effects on water tables and general pollution, seek to block the permits at various levels of government.

China’s dominance over the global supplies of critical minerals first came to light in 2010, when Beijing blocked shipments of rare earths, over which it enjoys a near monopoly, to Japan over a political dispute. While the U.S. and its allies have been slow to prioritize domestic mining and processing, China has continued to increase its share of global production and deepen ties with other major producers in Africa and Asia.
Reluctant to simply become exporters of raw ore, which typically offers a minimal economic boost while generating a lot of pollution, many countries are now putting more government controls over mining, including creating incentives for Chinese, American and European companies to set up local processing plants.

 

[sealybobo]

We can't because of the demand for record profits every year.

In 1999 Ford had record profits and gave out record profit sharing. How could they possibly do better the next year? I know. Send high paying union jobs to Mexico.

They may be cheaper but they aren't more productive and they refuse to work overtime. Manufacturing companies don't love manufacturing in Mexico but they can't get American workers to work that cheap.

Here's the funny thing. American companies don't even care about American consumers. The masses are broke. Struggling. Why not go to China where there's more people to sell to and they're getting richer by the day.

 

[Mac-7]

American manufacturing was at the core of the American Dream, with good union manufacturing jobs offering stability and prosperity to a growing American middle class. It also made America the technological leader of the entire planet.

Nixon had "opened" China on behalf of Pepsi, and Reagan and Bush negotiated the NAFTA agreement that was at the heart of the 1992 presidential campaign, "free trade" being such a hot issue that it brought billionaire Ross Perot in as a single-issue candidate with his infamous "giant sucking sound from south of the border" commentary. (break run on sentence and tell me why this was a bad idea)

During the 1980s, though, President Reagan radically expanded the use of a loophole in the Buy American Act that allowed the president to sign "waivers" to allow government agencies to purchase things from offshore manufacturers.

The waiver provision was in the law so our government wouldn't be crippled if it immediately needed something that wasn't domestically available; the assumption was that they would be used judiciously and rarely. And that was the case until the 1980s, when Reagan started handing out waivers like jellybeans.

Didn't I say Reagan was the beginning of the end of the middle class? Here's another example.

Both major parties stumbled blindly into supporting free trade.

Including clinton and most democrats since the 1990’s

Republicans are willing to admit their mistakes but dems never will

 

[Flash]

I can't because the union made Ford give me a super good deal on Ford's as long as my dad is alive. He has great benefits from Ford till he dies. Now that's when America was great. Google 1999 ford record profits and record profit sharing. Google the same only 1998, 1997, 1996. American car companies were doing great union GW Bush. Then I remember this attack of Unions by Republicans.

Let's face it. Ford paid think tanks and Republicans to trash labor while they were about to send all those jobs overseas. You helped them sell us on it idiot.

I'm sorry Moon Bat but I am not in the welfare business.

I want the best possible vehicle for the lowest price.

I bought a Tundra made in Texas and a Pilot made in Alabama. Great reliable vehicles made by non union workers.

Since you are so butt hurt over CEOs salaries you should also buy Hondas and Toyotas. Their CEOs make a lot less than the CEO of Ford that you buy.

Put your money where your mouth is for a change.

 

[initforme]

You stupid Moon Bat.

If you don't like what a company pays its CEO then don't buy anything from that company. Problem solved.

Just like I don't like these bloated greedy Democrat supporting Commie Unions like the UAW so I don't buy anything made by them.

See how it works?

Its clear you want american workers earning a wage equal to those in China. Why?

 

[Flash]

Its clear you want american workers earning a wage equal to those in China. Why?

I'm not in the welfare business. Are you?

If the workers aren't making enough money then they should go find a job elsewhere.

However, those non union auto plants in the right to work states usually have a lot more people applying for jobs than they have jobs.

 

[Dadoalex]

I notice a common theme when arguing about labor/wages. Republicans insist if you raise wages, companies are going to go overseas and consumers are going to pay more. But I notice they don't complain when CEO's and VP's pay goes up 1322%. That will be part of this discussion too but the fact is, buying American is important. Here is a good op ed on why

If America Doesn't Implement the "Buy American" Vision Now, the 21st Century Will Be the Chinese Century

(Thom plus logo) Technological independence and repudiating "free trade" are key.A technological arms race is underway right now between China, the United States and Western Europe.The stakes include military superiority, economic prosperity, and the status of being the political and economic...

www.thomhartmann.com

In 2016, the single topic that most likely propelled Donald Trump to the White House by grabbing voters in Midwestern swing states was "free trade," as he repeatedly pointed out the stupidity of promoting offshore manufacturing simply to reduce labor expenses.

He promised to bring manufacturing back to America, and voters in the former manufacturing powerhouses of the Midwest bought his sales pitch. (Sadly, he was so incompetent that his efforts actually made things worse.)

We can't say we want to bring back manufacturing but only want to pay $15 hr. That isn't going to MAGA.

Buying because of country of origin is, well, kind of dumb. Certainly not a "free market capitalism" idea.

I'm old so I remember the 70s when American cars wnet in the crapper for quality and the penthouse for price. People started buying Japanese cars because they were better and cheaper.

Then came "BUY AMERICAN"
Remember the Wal Mart "Made in the USA" campaign.
as in "Let's make economic ignorance patriotic!"
Buy American allowed American manufacturers to continue to charge premium prices for crap products.
The American manufacturers' response? Move manufacturing overseas and continue to produce crap but cheaper crap.

If you are a capitalist or believe in the capitalist ideas then "Buy American" is both dumb and a violation of your claimed beliefs.

 

[initforme]

I'm not in the welfare business. Are you?

If the workers aren't making enough money then they should go find a job elsewhere.

However, those non union auto plants in the right to work states usually have a lot more people applying for jobs than they have jobs.

Yep. Because we want Americans working for less. How dumb is that? Dumber than dumb. With that attitude we wonder why things are amiss.