Made in China ... I'm pissed !

yeah, north america is such a high cost location, american companies can't afford to operate here...

the point about writing your representatives is so that they /don't/ think it's ok to just keep selling you out. "don't buy" is no damned good when you have no options available.

How right you are. I should have been more aggressive in my inquiring about the country of manufacture. It is, without a doubt, my fault for getting stuck with these Chinese tires. I only posted to let others know what's up with the "made by Cooper for Pep Boys" tires. The choice is yours.

I don't fault you. So you got Chinese tires. What if they work for you? I appreciate your concerns. Check your next tires before you buy.

Like I said, let us know how they work out for you. My preference is to buy American but if that option isn't available then what can you do?

How many "representatives" have you written regarding this issue?

What do you have, two Senators, multiple people in the House of Representatives? Or did your write other "representatives"?

Can you provide dates you wrote them and who your wrote?

And did you get a response?

that option is still available - for the moment. people need to make their voice heard on this. don't lose your options through neglect or apathy.

case in point: sears still sell american tools because they listened to their customers. they considered selling out like everyone else, but they did customer surveys and learned that if they /didn't/ sell american, there would be no reason for anyone to buy tools there any more. and sears management had the balls to put their customers first, not wall st.

same for snap-on. same for mac, etc. fact is, people /do/ buy american if they're not being jerked off over the price, and/or are getting value for money.

er, don't you know? did you stay awake in civics classes at school? or are you just so apathetic you neither know nor care?

i've written to my congressional representative and both u.s. and state senators, multiple times. and i've never failed to get a response.

some responses are form letters, others are more pertinent to the specific points i've raised, but no response has failed to acknowledge the topics on which i've written, so they are being read, at least by someone who has bothered to makes notes sufficiently to be able to cut and paste.

now, get off your ass and do something. you're sitting in a mighty glassy house for someone trying to throw stones about the dates of my personal correspondence which you know i'll never tell you.

It was available, and that's what I thought I was doing. As I said in a previous post, the same tire brand was made in U.S.A. and that's what I thought I was getting. Anywhooooo .... enough said by me ... did what I wanted to .... let people know that Pep Boys tires, "made by Cooper", an American company, aren't made in the good old U.S.A .... Bye

\Ok, Mr. philosopher, smoke another joint and, be the commander in chief and tell us all how it should be,

Although most of the retail store crap people buy happens to be made in China,

"The United States remains by far the world's leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 - nearly double the $811 billion of 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China factories, the United States generates $2.50.

So what is made in the U.S.A. these days?

The United States sold more than $200 billion worth of aircraft, missiles and space-related equipment in 2007, and $80 billion worth of autos and auto parts. Deere, best known for its bright green and yellow tractors, sold $16.5 billion worth of farming equipment last year, much of it to the rest of the world.

Then there are energy products like gas turbines for power plants made by General Electric, computer chips from Intel and fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Household names like GE, General Motors, International Business Machines, Boeing and Hewlett-Packard are among the largest manufacturers by revenue.

Several trends have emerged over the decades:

The United States makes things that other countries cannot. Today, "Made in U.S.A." is more likely to be stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go inside other products than the televisions, toys, clothes and other items found on store shelves.

U.S. factories still provide much of the processed food that U.S. households consume, everything from frozen fish sticks to cans of beer. And U.S. companies make a considerable share of the personal hygiene products like soap and shampoo, cleaning supplies and prescription drugs that are sold in pharmacies. "

Problem is, it'll take several years to find out if they are decent or just crap.

Remember back when Lee Iocca tried to convince buyers that the Chrysler/Dodge transmissions of the early 80's were not the problem Consumer Reports predicted?

Did many of them pass 100k miles before needing significant repair? (Hint - they were crap, as CR predicted.)

If you want really cheap crap - but Haier. Their products are about as crappy as one can purchase.

that article, wherever you got it, is a disappointing blend of woefully over-optimistic ignorance and carefully chosen weasel words.

to go through the list; yes, we "make" aircraft and missiles, but these days, that word should be accurately chosen as "assemble". as you may know from reading about the boeing 787 dreamliner debacle, boeing decided from the start that production was to be outsourced. parts are made in brazil, japan, india, germany, italy, canada, [etc.] and yes, china. and the discontinuity has caused so many problems, without direct manufacturing control, boeing have had major problems. some of which they have only been able to address by taking production back in house. duh.

john deere, yes, they make agricultural equipment here, and mostly american component sourced, but they still end up using parts from china.

aircraft engines? sure, we still make some. but it's crazy - for things like the predator, you know, the cutting edge military pilotless drone making news in afghanistan, it's powered by the rotax engine from austria. the global hawk engine? rolls royce. not that i have a problem with austria or the uk, but wtf are we doing relying on foreigners for our military spy planes for??? unbelievable.

computer? well, i don't own an all american made computer, and unless you're using something like an old ibm at, neither are you. intel may make a few prototypes here, but the bulk of their production is offshore in places like malaysia. dell, hp? not a chance.

textiles? just kidding! sorry.

processed food? well, here's a good one for you. we may grow pistachios here, but they're processed in china. seriously - if anyone can explain the sense in shipping nuts thousands of miles to china, then shipping them thousands of miles back again, i'd love to hear it.

chemicals and pharmaceuticals? well, chemicals is something we do well, and do right. and do here. [anyone saying that we offshore for environmental reasons needs to think about this - we /don't/ offshore the high tech production that goes into our chemical industry, even though a lot of it is highly toxic and environmentally challenging. this is so it doesn't get ripped off.] even the bulk low value stuff. but even so, we're increasingly using precursor chemicals from china. the p.e.t. polymer for soda bottles for instance. [nasty stuff.]

Some other way.

It appears you don't believe assembly is part of the manufacturing process.

Granted, very few items are probably 100% made from 100% USA made components, but that doesn't mean nothing is made in the US.

Have Breakfast this morning? The toast most likely came from a local / regional bakery, the coffee beans came from Columbia, they were probably ground & roasted within the US and the cereal was made in a Kellogg's, Nabisco or General Foods plant. The packaging (plastic & glass containers plus cardboard boxes) likely were made in the US from US pulp & chemicals. The furniture you sat in / ate off of could very well have come out of North Carolina. The Bosch stove top could very well have been made in New Bern NC as well as the washer & dryer used to clean your clothing. If you stopped by the self laundry, the Speed Queen washers & dryers were made in Ripon, WI. Whirlpool still makes many items in Findley, OH (dishwashers), Refrigerators (AR) and ranges (MS).

Granted, most textile products are imported, but the Polartec in your coat was made in Malden, MA, the carpeting in your house likely came from Dalton GA and the denim in your jeans could very well have been made at one of the Cone Mills plants in NC. Springs Mills is another large manufacturer with dozens of plants through the Carolinas, as well as Milliken. American Apparel in Los Angeles is a large vertical manufacturer of jersey T shirts. about 25% of New Balance shoes are made in the US. Snapper is 90% made-in-US lawn mowers (Toro 85%).

Granted, many components of cars come from overseas, but Goodyear still makes 90% of their tires in the US, Glode Union in WI makes batteries for Interstate and Johnson Controls makes a slew of products in the US for automotive assembly. Tell the employees at Pratt & Whitney & GE that they are not manufacturing anything in the US.

Take a shower today? Your hot water heater could very likely have been made by A O Smith in SC (and shipped in a corrugated box also made from corrugated kraftboard also manufacture in the US.

Channel Lock still makes 100% of its tools in the US, just as Wright Tool in Barberton, OH (wrenches, sockets, pliers, chisels, tool boxes, etc). Pylon windshield wipers are made in the US (Anco & Tricor are made in Mexico). All Toyota engines for Tundra & Tocoma are made in Huntsville, AL.

Martin makes 95% of its guitars in the US, both Selmer and Gibson make 100% of its instruments in the US

As was pointed out, much of the every day crap sold in retail stores likely comes from China, but there's still a lot being made in the US.

As for PET, I can't think of a safer way to make a container. It's essentially inert and a lot safer than cleaning out glass bottles for recycling and a lot more environmentally friendly than the high energy requirements for making & transporting glass. Yes, more and more PET is being imported, but most is still US made plus most all the bottles are made in the US.

and the list can go on and on .............

I think the reason for Boeing's outsourcing is not entirely their constant push for lower costs. It is often dictated by potential buyers of Boeing planes as a condition for sale. Well, at least Boeing has not yet set up a complete assembly line in China as Airbus has with the A320 model. This is like a death wish on the part of Airbus because it helps China to develop her own commercial aircraft industry undercutting Airbus and Boeing in price. So who will have the last laugh?

cardboard, if recycled, is more likely comes from china. all that paper you set aside for recycling alongside the garbage? gets sent to china for processing, then sent back here, often printed and ready to go as a new package. glass containers? same [but see below]. plastic packaging? same.

dude, you're /way/ behind the times. the n.c. furniture industry has been annihilated in recent years.

you are correct in that, in as much as they're assembled here, but like the auto industry, those guys get their controllers, motors, wiring harnesses, steels drums, etc. made in china first.

made from chinese polyester.

unfortunately, same deal. "made in" is usually "assembled in", and does not address the source of the components.

so why are we buying spy plane parts from austria and uk???

the heat exchanger and the controls and the copper pipe is all most likely made in china. see above.

and snap-on, and craftsman, and vaughn - that's why i buy them. but irwin, owners of the vise grip brand, recently sold out to china. and they kept their prices the same and have the temerity to call them "original". i've already bought my last pair of irwin vice grips.

my accord was made in marysville, oh. isn't it bizarre that japanese companies can manufacture in the u.s. but u.s. companies can't?

and fender's squire guitars is made where?

you're right and wrong on that. recycling glass is a waste of freakin' time for exactly the reasons you state. however, more cheaply recyclable though it may be, p.e.t. has other issues and it shouldn't be in the food chain at all.

increasingly not so. and p.e.t. packaging films used for those clear shiny bags and vacuum formed cartons are made in china.

p.e.t. is an endocrine disruptor and implicated in the diabetes epidemic. stay away from it. the drinks industry will tell you otherwise because the clear, shiny, CO? impermeable plastic is great for sales. but the f.d.a. doesn't allow that material to be used for storage or intra-industrial containers for a reason. the only rationale the p.e.t. producers and big soda companies have been able to use to get that stuff approved for the retail channel is it's alleged "short term usage". again, stay away from p.e.t.

could not agree more - airbus are being retarded.

though i have to say, i don't think there will be many buyers for chinese-made aircraft. losing a tire or a compressor is one thing. losing avionics, a wing or blowing the cabin pressure at 30kft - that's a whole different story.

Bottom line is obvious that in YOUR mind, unless something is made 100% in and from US materials, it's not part of the US maunfacturing process.

By that (very narrow minded) definition, I give up. Obviously it's an all or nothing situation.

Hint - That's been long gone for many, many , many years.

Even back in the 50's -60's when textiles were commonly made in the US, components of the process such as the dyes were often imported, so even back then hardly any US textiles / apparel were truly 100% made in the US. I would not be surprised if some component of cars were imported as well.

Heck - I'm betting the copper used in the wiring was probably imported, nevermind any natural rubber that may have been used, etc