On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:27:06 GMT, "Bob Crantz"
wrote:

It is truly American to buy the best product available for your money,
regardless of where it came from. That's capitalism and freedom!

Anything else is tribalistic jingoism.

Amen!

Agreed.

As one who ran manufacturing operations and is now unemployed as a
result of globalizaition, I have strong feelings on the subject.

Open competition is good. The consumer should be given a choice
between quality and cost and determine what value means to him.
Problem is, todays CEO's are taking away that choice.

I had the last domestic operation in my industry and the most
repected product. My product cost approximately 15% more than the
competition which was all Chinese and of questionable quality. My
business was growing because many continued to make the choice for
quality. Corporate decision to consolidate my location and outsource
about 70 percent of my business to China shut me down. It was pure
greed coupled with junior achievement management. I was making money
and growing but it is like the goose that was laying the golden egg.
Lets kill the goose and see where the gold is.

The results of this brilliant strategy. Sales are lower, profits are
lower, that reputation that had been maintained for 75 years is fading
at a rapid pace, 350 good people are out of work, the consumer of the
product has no choice but to accept poor quality because that is all
there is. The Chinese in this type of manufacture use processes that
were used in the '40s and '50s in the U. S. Batch manufacturing with
lots of set up breaks going from one junk machine to another. Casting
processes with individuals compacting sand by stomping on it in the
molds.

The brilliant strategists - when it became apparent what they had
done, sold the group and are still there to wreak havoc again.

The Japanese car makers competed honestly, basing their process on
Demming's, an American, system of statistical process control. Demming
went to the U. S. companies first and got laughed out of their
offices.Today, most U. S. Companies have adopted similar systems.
The Japs forced this and that was a good thing. U. S. cars are better
by far today than they were 25 years ago. The Chinese are bringing
nothing to the table but indentured servitude labor. A communist
Country that only takes care of the rich brokers who get the advantage
of that cheap labor.

My $.02 worth

Frank