seems to be a little overreaction here and let's keep in mind this is not Unfriendly Politics.
The word "Chinamen" immediately brings to mind a picture of lots of small sized people in big coolie hats
working hard some place, and rarely for themselves...usually on our railroads.
There's a lot of history here and you can't ignore it.
History however is very different than today's manufacturing realities, some would say the worm has turned.
Travis could use the term Chinese manufacturing and make this all go away. Might be a smart thing to do, don't personalize
this and fear monger. But also know your politics, China is a communist country and perhaps a lot of folks have forgotten
what that means. Communism now blended with capitalism in what has been an incredible success story.
Successful because Chinese manufacturing gave us exactly what our product buyers wanted, super low price points to
scoop the market. Huge market for bottom end, it's just not us as a group I think I can safely say.
And I think I do remember EA importing some Chinese goods in the beginning. Pretty hard not to.
I owned a franchise Radio Shack for five years and sold a huge amount of Japanese electronics. Where else were you going to get it?
Back in 80's Chinese manufacturing successfully copied enough foreign goods to start ramping up production, but we bought it. Remember that, if you want a goat,
blame Walmart and even Tractor Supply. Blame all the big chain stores who actually bought all this often to the exclusion of a US or other country options.
I went to Lowes to buy a small box of nails and nothing said made in USA. Most came from China. Bought heavy deer fencing. Made in China. No other choices.
I'm glad EA and other companies give us a choice. And if we don't want to all work for a foreign conglomerate, we'd better ramp up our own capabilities and stop complaining about other countries. Sure they had/have unfair advantages. Beat them in the market some other way.
When it comes to copying, we need to be real here.
I guarantee you EA had competitor's equipment to analyze, and try to improve on.
Any smart company that builds anything will always closely follow "what else is out there".
Ask yourself, if EA's hydraulic rear blade was the exact same price as the same spec/weight Landpride one at your Kubota dealer,
which would you buy?
You have to have either a product or price advantage, without one or the other pretty hard for Sales to make headway.
EA I'm pretty sure wants to be every bit as good as, or even better than, the OEM choice, and then add a price advantage, plus
a little come on like some free shipping. Seems like they've done that very well. And the reason they are backed up in production
is the simplest of all, demand exceeds supply. It's all good as long as folks are willing to wait. If you need to plant in a month, you can't
wait two months.
:laughing: since it was UPSable 
