You know I would not be adverse to buying foreign goods if they were
playing on a level trading field. You have all these companies selling
their goods out of their home country for a great deal more then they
sell to the customer overseas. Some good examples of these are Honda,
Suzuki, Hyundai and Rolls Royce. And foreign traders are not the only
guilty parties. See our own drug industry. You can go to Canada and buy
the same, identical drug for up to 75% less then you pay here.

All the goods produced by these firms are sold overseas for much less
then the domestic price. The goods are dumped into the American consumer
pool and snapped up at "discount" prices.

What exactly is a "discount price"? Is the item worth less now then it
was last week or across the street? No at all. A discount price is
arbritary, as value is not absolute.

I wonder how many of you realize the markup from raw material to retail?
How much does it cost General Motors to make a $27,000.00 Chevy Impala?
How much does it cost to make a $10,000.00 1 carat diamond ring? How
much does it cost to make a $1.09 bottle of Coke? The answers will shock
you!

I will post them tomorrow after a short discussion.

Capt. Frank

NOYB wrote:

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...


I'm really curious if a large enough percentage of people would in

fact

pay a little more for an American made product if that differentiation
were made evident.

I would. However, historically, the answer has been "no". It's not

just

corporations' profits driving corporations overseas...the consumer's

desire

for the lowest priced good is driving 'em away.

What do you suppose would happen if they knew that not all consumers are
looking for the lowest priced items at all times? You already know what
happens if the manufacturers DON'T have this information, right?

Or, I suppose you could take the Dave Hall approach and do nothing,

because

your efforts might not work.


I used to be under the belief that corporation's tax breaks and write-offs
ought to be set at a level that's indirectly proportional to the amount of
their product that is manufactured overseas. The higher the percentage of
goods made overseas, the lower the level of write-offs. For example, if 80%
of their product is made overseas, then they lose 80% of their usual
corporate write-offs. In order to make things "fair", the same rules would
have to apply to foreign corporations selling goods over here...but it'd
have to be done via a tariff...and that's the problem. Tariffs don't work.
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff was a disaster that only served to prolong the great
Depression.

It seems that the Dave Hall approach of "doing nothing" might be the only
answer. Sure, it's going to hurt in the short term...but I believe in the
long term, things will even out.