Does the USA need more socialism or less socialism?

[Alex_northern_germany]

I try to buy local, German, European and American products when I know they are good. I own a Weber grill, for example. But even there I could not honestly say that every part is 100% made in the USA. That is exactly the problem with modern supply chains.

With many products the choice is no longer simply “domestic-made vs. Chinese-made.” Even if the brand is American, German, or European, parts and components may come from all over the world.

And yes, I also think it is very bad that so much production was moved to China simply because it was cheaper. I criticized that already 20 years ago. A country should not give away too much of its industrial base just to save a little money in the short term.

So yes, consumers played a role. But corporations, retailers, investors, trade policy, and supply-chain decisions played a much bigger role long before the customer picked up the $2 pancake flipper.

The customer sees the final shelf. He does not design the global supply chain behind it.

The American consumer played a major role in our jobs and industry going to China when they stopped buying $4 pancake flippers "Made in USA" and started buying the $2 pancake flippers "Made in China".

For the most part we've been hoisted upon our own petard.

 

[EdwinAMartin]

Still, it was American citizens at the checkout stand that back what you say with their pocketbooks.

So just do away with the all the bennies and freebies, and the prices go up to competitive levels. REd China practices dumping, but nobody wants to enforce the laws against that, since they don't affect billionaires, especially the Amazon and Walmart ones, who make a killing off of it and then have their 'Foundations' pay shills like Milton Freidman and Robert Bork to write up a lot of propaganda nonsense exalting it.

'I.e. support REAL free markets.

 

[Kruska]

I try to buy local, German, European and American products when I know they are good. I own a Weber grill, for example. But even there I could not honestly say that every part is 100% made in the USA. That is exactly the problem with modern supply chains.

With many products the choice is no longer simply “domestic-made vs. Chinese-made.” Even if the brand is American, German, or European, parts and components may come from all over the world.

And yes, I also think it is very bad that so much production was moved to China simply because it was cheaper. I criticized that already 20 years ago. A country should not give away too much of its industrial base just to save a little money in the short term.

So yes, consumers played a role. But corporations, retailers, investors, trade policy, and supply-chain decisions played a much bigger role long before the customer picked up the $2 pancake flipper.

The customer sees the final shelf. He does not design the global supply chain behind it.

Production/manufacturing was NOT placed to China to make cheap products.

But outsourcing production - especially those brands who didn't even have a production in Europe, and e.g. the USA, that according to specifications and quantity - could be bought in China far cheaper occurred in parallel at a massive scale. And these buyers - switched to outsource from China to even cheaper producing countries from 2005 onward to e.g. Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India etc., etc.

Those foreign investors setting up manufacturing plants on their own or via. JV's simply looked at a HUGE market - with 1.4 Billion consumers. And surrounding markets (around 500 million consumers) that could be covered via a plants based in China.

That production, investment, and labor costs - initially - until 2005 provided a huge return, is understood. There are no laws in Europe nor Germany that could be used to restrict private companies as to WHERE they invest. Unless those countries being on a UN sanction-list.

Almost ALL European and US companies in China - never had experienced plant managers, GM's or CEO's that actually understood Chinese laws and the business mentality - and therefore "stupidly" or "ignorantly" sold out European engineering to Chinese companies.

FYI - I lived and worked in Asia - foremost China, for almost 35 years.

 

[Ringo]