OT Why isn't anyone griping about Chinese goods ?

A lot of them are assembled in China from Japanese parts. A lot of Japanese companies have been doing this for years; making the parts in Japan and then shipping them to Malaysia, Thailand and now China. Labor rates in Japan skyrocketed in the 80's and the more educated workforce wanted better jobs than assembly, so the engineers design the things, Japanese workers make the parts, and then they are assembled where labor rates are lower.

Sound familiar?! The Japanese started outsourcing before America did. But, in Japan's case, it was more because of a shortage of laborers rather than just another means of making shareholders happy...

Yeah, I saw that! Sounds good to me!!

Nothing is stopping you from drinking Scots whisky. Is the consumption of Scots whisky higher in the US or China, on a per capita basis? I bet the US, by far.

Or forcing you to drink box wine or cheap bear. Besides, you can't really buy bear. Only rent it.

The profits when you buy a Toyota goes to Japan, not the US. Plus, the Michigan-3 have, on average, about 75% domestic parts in their vehicles. The Japanese are a bit below 50% domestic parts. Domestic means US + Canada thanks to trade laws.

As Walmart and other retailers force suppliers to cut costs, the only way suppliers can make a profit is if they open up plants overseas.

You can buy cars that are mostly made in the US. You can even buy ones where the profit mostly stays in the US. And taxes are paid to the US gov't, not Japanese gov't. You can buy other things made in the US.

PS, if you are using a Dell laptop, it was made in Asia, Malayasia, I think.

And our trade deficit is way high.

On the other hand, the US unemployment rate is real low, like 5%. Manufacturing jobs pay less than high-tech jobs. And economic theory has it that we are better off letting third world countries manufacture the cheap stuff, and we do the high-paid work, like programming computers.

It's your money. You decide if you are better off supporting Toyota, with their record profits and ever growing factory system or GM, with the lowest sales in years and thousands of pensioners to support. But, Toyota also makes a better car, by all reports. They last longer and have fewer problems. So do you really want to support second rate GM or Fords?

It's complicated, isn't it?

Jeff

Actually, we may have been outsourcing longer. But, back then, we were outsourcee, not the outsourcer. As in, our labor was outsourced to England.

But, the Japanese may have been outsourcing longer. At least they were outsourcing before and during the second world war.

The least they could do is drink Kentucky whisky. Just as good. And besides, they don't know any better!

Jeff

I'm a Corwn Royal fan...love those Canadians!

Hey, that's ok. At least Canada is attached to the US. It is almost like

51st state. And they actually buy stuff from us. ;-)

And they speak real English (except in Quebec).

So enjoy the Canadian whiskey.

Jeff

Bwahahahaha! I sure do!!!!

In message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com, mack sprach forth the following:

Thank taxes, unions, and lawyers.

If taxes were sane you'd have a lot more disposable income. In fact, many families could afford to go back to one income, and kids would have a parent waiting for them at home.

If unions didn't live on political extortion, you'd pay a realistic price for cars and the economy wouln't be disrupted by strikes.

If lawyers would just all die you wouldn't pay 40% more for a ladder or

150% more for a doctor.

Sorry, Jeff; look at the Content Sticker for a Camry: 75% Domestic Content, 25% Japanese. The engines and the transmissions are usually Japanese. The rest of the car is 'domestic'.

Beleive it or not, this even applies for Camrys with a "J" (Final assembly point Aichi Japan) VIN.

And check the content sticker for a Matrix. A lot of the engines are made in Canada or the US, giving an even higher Domestic content...

I think Jeff is talking about the average for all Toyota vehicles, not just Camry's. The domestic content from some others is much lower (Lexus, 4Runners, Prius, Yaris).

Ed

It depends on the vehicle and where it is assembled. Actually, if you go to Toyota's website and hunt around the About Toyota part, you will see that Toyota makes enough engines in the US for about 1/2 vehicles they sell in the US.

I think the Matrix is essentially a station wagon version of the Corrolla. Ward's Automotive reports sales of Matrices with Corrollae (I love Latin plurals ;-) ). They're made in California at the NUMMI plant, I think.

Overall, various websites say that Toyota uses approx. 47 or 48% US or US/Canadian parts vs close 75% for Michigan 3 cars.

Jeff

Thanks for restating this in English for me. ;-)

I knew that... ;)

Fact is, more and more models are assembled in the US and Canada now. There is only a handful of Japanese made cars coming here.

Of course, some of those are big sellers; the Highlander, the Prius and the RAV4. Also, the FJ, but there aren't a lot of those, yet.

About 40% come from Japan.

The Prius is made in Indiana, too.

Jeff

What is this? We don't already do enough OT posting on a wide enough variety of subjects to suit you?

Anyway, I made the same sort of spot-check myself at Target the other day and, while I did find some US-made items, there were a lot of Indian, Pakistani and Chinese products. Enough to be profoundly depressing.

A colleague in marketing points out that there's a recent bifurcation of purchasing Some amount of purchases in a product category will be for a high-quality, higher-priced item. However, increasingly the consumers who used to purchase at mid-level quality and pricing head straight for the bottom and purchase low quality goods simply because they're the cheapest.

I suggested to him this isn't so much due to consumer behavior as it is due to, increasingly, consumer outlets offering only the least-expensive goods, regardless of the quality. This is certainly my experience at Wal*Mart. And Wal*Mart by itself is big enough to skew the curve. Since it is able to establish itself, de facto, as a monopoly in many rural areas, this leads to reduced choice for a large number of consumers (go cheap or go without).

In message news:45f6fa2a$0$16291$ snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com, DH sprach forth the following:

As I said, this is due to taxes, unions, and lawyers.

Taxes sap purchasing power. Unions make products unaffordable. Lawyers destroy industries and companies and jack up prices with liability insurance (for instance, 40% of the cost of a ladder).

One example you'd see at Kohl's & Target: women's clothing. Remember the old "Look for the union label" jingle from the ILGWU (International Ladies' Garments Workers Union)? How'd their mix of strikes, confrontation and socialism work out for them? They lost 300,000 members in a 20-year period. Don't see that union label much now.

Of course, Kohl's is named for the family of liberal Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin. And Target is headquartered in the state that sent Paul Wellstone to the Senate.

Blame taxation and its suffocating effect on purchasing power.

And of course the Internet has simultaneously had the opposite effect - making every good and service, of every level of quality and at every price point, available to everybody.

That's right, and if you don't care for OT posts, you can always ignore them, right?

That's just what I said - depressing and scary, as if the only things the US makes anymore is Kleenex and pink slips to mfg. employees.

Sure, there may be toasters like a DeLonghi model for a hundred bucks, and available at a high end store in a metropolis, but in my smallish (under

80,000) town, the local stores like Walmart, KMart, Sears, Target and so on would likely never carry such an item, and you wouldn't catch me paying $100 for a toaster anyway. But you can bet that if I found an American made toaster of quality for about $50, I'd sooner buy it than a Chinese model at $35.

There are some things I go for at rock-bottom price, usually things I will use only once, or once in a great while.

Then there are things I don't mind spending the extra $$$ for, (usually because I bought a cheap one and it was crap!) because I know it's going to get frequent use and I want something durable. That's really when I pay attention to the "made in" label!

I "LOVE" the Micro-processor controlled toasters! We need a computer to make toast?

It gets rediculous, doesn't it?!

Hmmmm....when did that start?!