How Important is Made in the USA?

[Chilly807]

Most new products I buy are a compromise at best. I like to buy North American made when possible, but the quality has to be there, it has to be supportable long-term, and the price can't be outlandishly expensive in comparison.

Case in point.. I just finished shopping for a post hole digger (phd). Speeco was the cheapest (Chinese and not great quality), Green Manufacturing was decent quality, and made in US except for gearbox, same with Woods and Land Pride. I'm not sure where the Land Pride gearboxes come from, but I doubt they're North American.

In the end I got a good used Kubota phd, made in the US (I forget the company name now).

If I had bought new, it would have been either the Woods or the Green Manufacturing first, the Land Pride was just too expensive, and the Speeco wasn't on the table at all.

My gear has to hold up over time, if it doesn't I might as well buy the premium one in the first place. I have to be able to get parts easily, and it can't break the bank. If I can get that made in North America, consider it sold.

I think the saying goes, " The bitterness of poor quality will remain when the sweetness of low price is only a memory".

Sean

 

[mjncad]

I guess communism trumps socialism.

Communism and Socialism are essentially the same thing, except for Communism achieves its goals through totalitarianism and brutality. Socialism achieves its goals by taxing people into poverty, then giving back a portion of what they stole from you.

 

[turbo36]

I'd respond to that but I have to go dump my used oil in the pond, bury the old batteries in the ditch, threaten to fire any employee that won't work thru lunch (for no pay), tell the geezer to put another band-aid on it and stop complaining about the blood, and send off another letter to my represetative thanking them for artificially depressing the value of the dollar.

:

thumbsup:

 

[Builder]

I would pay 10% more for made in USA or probably Canada for that matter. I find Canadian made equipment (Arctic snowplows, Schulte mowers) to be excellent quality, too.

YES get it made in USA. I'll pay 10% more, especially if you include the shiny foil USA flag label on a nice paint job!!!!

PLEASE avoid Chinese. They are killing us, our children, our pets. I bought a Chinese made vice. While pounding on the "anvil" one day, the steel cracked. I was shocked to see the vice was only steel on the outside. The inside was a core of dried body putty!!!! LOL

 

[sweettractors]

Can anyone tell me where the steel comes from that USA implements are made from ? I don't think we make much anymore? Hope it is not one of those deals where China buys our scrap steel and refines it and mixes it with their Junk steel and sells it back to us. I know that a lot of the USA made implements don't have the basic structural integrity that the older implements had a few years back. Ken Sweet

 

[Hawghauler]

I just bought a Korean Kioti 41 hp. Are there American made rigs in this size and weight? Would the price difference only be 10%? I would cheerfully pay 10% to 20% more for American iron American made. Between our government mandidating and taxing, and unions demanding ridiculous wages, our American made products are rarely only 10% more and our industries stopped competing years ago. You can't fire a bad employee, every thought deed and action by an American business is taxed into oblivion. Thank God we don't get as much government as we pay for. Darn it I vented.

 

[Builder]

Can anyone tell me where the steel comes from that USA implements are made from ? I don't think we make much anymore? Hope it is not one of those deals where China buys our scrap steel and refines it and mixes it with their Junk steel and sells it back to us. I know that a lot of the USA made implements don't have the basic structural integrity that the older implements had a few years back. Ken Sweet

So true. My neighbor has a York rake probably made in the 70's. Weighs a TON. My new woods landscape rake isn't near as heavy built and it's the heviest version they build. They call it "Cat-2". I think it might be more like a glorified cat-1, but so far it has held up.

He also has an older IH 548 tractor. It's ~60HP. My M-7040 is 70HP. His IH looks so much heavier built than my "larger" Kubota. Steel is thicker.

My next tractor will without a doubt be an older piece of IH or Deere that's real "American iron". I can live without the bells & whistles and prefer the heavy "arse" feel of older American equipment. No wonder so many guys hold on to these pieces and fix them up. Buddy of mine has a Deere 4420 (I think that's the number) he loans to me to batwing a field. It's so heavy built compared to new stuff.

I attribute foreign made equipment being lighter built to the rising cost of shipping. Lots of foreign made tractors & implememnts end up being sold here. The cost of shipping is considerable. If they make a tractor that is 25% lighter than an American version that has very little shipping cost to the American buyer, they can ship more units cheaper and be more competitive.

Love the older Deere & IH machinery & older American made implements.

 

[Raindem]

I don't like paying for that kind of stuff either!

We are not a big box store, and do not have those types of problems. Since we are family owned (in business since 1946), and not listed on some stock exchange somewhere, we can stay lean and mean, and everyone that works for me EARNS their paycheck. No big white collar bonuses here.

If our own line of implements we produce cost a 5% or 10% premium, you can bet your bottom dollar that it was spent to make the product 20% better, not to just increase our profit margin. We would rather make our customers repeat buyers . . .

In that case you would have my business.

 

[Raindem]

This is an interesting statement, are you saying that if a USA product costs more it must be due to socialism? If that were true, then the reason Chinese products costs less must be because of Communism? I guess communism trumps socialism.

The reason USA product costs more is because of our high standard of living, if you and I were willing to live at the same level as the Indians and Chinese then our labor would cost less and our products would cost less.

I don't know what you do for a living but I can guarantee I could get done just as well and cheaper in China.

I am saying that the higher cost of U.S. made products is due to the higher costs of manufacturing here. If the cost is higher because the materials are better, or the worker is more skilled and deserves a higher salary, then fine I'll pay it. But if the cost is due to burdensome government regs or union shakedowns then I won't.

I'm not sure about your communism vs. socialism comparison. The Chinese do have an unusual mix of capitalism in there which I think blurs the distinction.

 

[Raindem]

I'd respond to that but I have to go dump my used oil in the pond, bury the old batteries in the ditch, threaten to fire any employee that won't work thru lunch (for no pay), tell the geezer to put another band-aid on it and stop complaining about the blood, and send off another letter to my represetative thanking them for artificially depressing the value of the dollar.

You forgot to club a baby seal.