I couldn't care less, I buy for quality and price, if it does what I need it to do at a price I'm willing to pay, I buy it. The U.S. needs to be able to compete in a world market, artificially picking inferior tools at higher prices just because of where they were put together is foolish.
Certainly I wouldn't buy an inferior product just because of it's country of manufacture, but there is also more to life than cheapness.
I don't want to live in a country which sinks to China's level in environmental policies, lack of labor protection and government enforced one-child-per-woman laws. Isn't there something fundamentally wrong with forcing women to have abortions if they are about to have an unauthorized second child?
I'm all for commercial competitiveness, but it is not possible to compete price wise with a competitor who has a much lower set of safety, environmental, intellectual property and human rights standards.
John
They have more than four times the population of the US in the same land area. They have trouble feeding all the people they have. Further, they are not and have never been a Christian nation or a nation that owes any part of its heritage to any religion that is part of the heritage of Christianity, so no, on no count is it wrong for the Chinese to require women who have been so irresponsible as to become pregnant in violation of the law and common sense to have abortions.
Much else that you percieve as "wrong" about the way China treats its population is the result of having more people than they have work for.
I seem to recall the same complaints being made about Japan 40 or so years ago. If you want them to act like they're in the First World you have to pull them there. Boycotting them is just going to delay the day.
I'm not a Christian either, so I don't see what that has to do with this.
You must realize that not all laws are just, eh? Legalized slavery in the US was never just, although it was legal.
John
So if you are not a Christian then what is your basis for the allegation that abortion is wrong?
Quite possibly the forced aspect of it, I'd guess.
If it's not morally wrong then why is the forced aspect of it wrong? The women know the law.
I just know I'm going to regret touching my toe into a religious diversion, but abortion is not a Christian issue.
You have to be a Christian to be against abortion? If you are non-Christian are you automatically pro abortion? You're smarter than that.
I am retired earlier than I had wanted to be partly as a result of woodworking machinery moving to china.
About 350 very good, experienced, productive friends and collegues are similarly positioned or are working below their skill level as a result of moving product to China. These "greedy, slothful" individuals were making a pure killing at an average of $13.50 an hour with an average experience level of 25 years.
While working the transition of the product to china, I got to see first hand the differences in the component quality. I got to see cast iron that ranged from 145 to 225 brinnell hardness replace iron that ranged from 195 to 205. I got to see pilot lot after pilot lot that never was machined to statistical capability, and final the powers that be turn their heads and use it anyway. I got see literally every batch of finished product from China reworked before it could be distributed. I got to experience missed deliveries, emergency air freight shipments, orders constantly on quality hold, and these things added to the shipment costs, warranty costs that tripled, and the overhead required to" manage" chinese purchasing, I got to see that those anticipated "savings" never really materialized. Maybe some day.
Yesterday, I installed a kitchen sink and after spending the time to install the brand new strainer basket (from China) I got to take it back out because the threads were bad and would not hold the tailpiece nut. In my life seems like this is at least a weekly occurance on some defective chinese component. I'm slowly learning to test every brand new chinese component before I use it to save time. Now many times I buy it, open it in the store, test it and only leave the store with it if it is good. Saves the trip back.
You can probably guess where I stand on the matter. If I have a choice of a product that is made in the U.S. or any other country of origin that has proven quality, I'll buy it. Many times there is no choice.
I never had a problem with the Japanese grabbing market share in the automobile business. They did it the right way, that is they made a higher quality product and sold it at a fair price which resulted in value. That's not the case on most things from china.
Frank
Fine, give me the basis on which one non-Christian religious denomination opposes abortion and a source for their official statement on the matter.
AFAIK, each religion has some sort of precept against the killing of innocents (what their definition of "innocent" is may be a little convenient for them and not so much for somebody else, but don't think anybody counts the unborn in that group)...
There are quite a few folks w/o much strong connection to any organized or formal religion who find the practice for "casual" reasons or as "morning after" birth control as repugnant on general principles irrespective of others' viewpoints as well.
Some tools are needed immediately for a specific job with an intended "one time" use (A). Others are considered useful with a foreseeable use over time, but no immediate need/demand/requirement. (B). Then there are those you will use regularly with some hope of precision and "repeat-ability." (C) Of course there are those tools that are cheaper to replace than sharpen/repair given the intended or experienced frequency of use." (D) Lastly(?) there are tools you just want to experiment with to see if the investment in the FEIN version might be worth the 10X price differential over the chink rip-off. (E)
When you are on a tight budget, you might find the one-time biscuit joiner from HFT will get you through the project, allow you to learn about the tool generally and the important and superfluous features to should you ever decide your craftsmanship warrants a fine version of the tool. The subsequent time(s) you go to pull it out will hint at the need for a quality replacement - e.g. can you find it, recall where you put it as much as will the ease of use, repeatability and the finished work.
Those eight-dollar 4" Grinders can clean a weld as well as the $50 Sears model for a fellow with a dusty Arc Welder hidden in the dark recesses of his shop. But might not prove cost-effective for a welding shop with a fancy TIG, arc stabilizer, etc.
A good link belt and sharp blade will go a long way toward making theat Craftsman table saw a "gem."
My grandfather's expression "'tis a poor workman that blames his tools," holds true today and watching that fellow on PBS ho uses
1700's versions of tools (including a foot-operated scroll saw!) should prove that point.Its a balance of budget, craftsmanship and need in my view and the geo- political angle is nice cocktail talk, but impractical and unlikely to kill NAFTA etc.
I understand where you are coming from. The one sentence that really stick out is: "I got to see pilot lot after pilot lot that never was machined to statistical capability, and final the powers that be turn their heads and use it anyway." I have a problem with a company doing that.
I'd realy like to know the answers to so many questions when companies decide to go overseas. Profit, of course, is a big motivator, but there are many "what ifs".
The US built tools have to compete with other major brands, such as Jet and Grizzly. In the end, what is the real cost difference when you back out the emergency air shipments and re-work? What happens to the company reputation when quality drops? What happens if the US manufacturing is kept in place, but at a reduced capacity because some sales are lost to the cheaper competition? How many people are willing to spend $xxx more for brand D knowing they have superior quality of a machine built by experienced craftsmen?
Edwin Pawlowski wrote: ...
Not nearly enough, apparently...
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Why would one have to be a Christian to recognize that a life is being taken by the act of abortion?
Uh, you missed their taking over the entire consumer electronics industry.
In other words you don't have any statement of principle from a non-Christian religion that is as clear and unambiguous as Pope Paul VI's "We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. "
I object strongly to the use of force in this regard. What could be more anti-choice than forcing a woman to have an abortion? For some reason you keyed in on the word abortion in my post and missed the far more important word FORCED.
I don't buy the simple minded cultural relativism arguments at all. Some things are simply wrong. Infant sacrifice to appease the gods, for example. I could care less if a given culture has practiced it for thousands of years and if the practice is codified in law. It is still wrong. Ditto for slavery.
As far as China goes, the fact that something is lawful or unlawful doesn't have much moral standing at all. China has never had a democratic government and it's laws are enacted and enforced by a government which at it's root is a military dictatorship. Thus any argument for something being ok in the context of China because of China's laws of the moment has no principled foundation. You don't even know that a given law expresses the majority view of the "culture" because said law is enacted without any hint of even the consent of the majority.
John
" It is quite clear from a variety of sources that abortion has been severely disapproved of in the Buddhist tradition."
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