American ingenutiy

The thread below about fabricating a muffler and Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose shows American ingenuity. Along the same line watching American Pickers and seeing the ingenious quality things that were made here in the past I wonder, besides electronics is there any great quality products invented and made here anymore? For instance is there anything coming from big box stores that will be worth "picking' 75 years from now?

I'm afraid it is becoming an oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp", "adult children", or "wilderness management" to name a few.

There's been some things on the news about young 14-15 years old boys coming up with new useful stuff.

Kind of different, but similar. I was hearing on the radio yesterday about break throughs with diagnostics in the medical field that would save lots of hassle, and millions of dollars. All bottled up by gov't. red tape. And I suppose in combination with some big money.

Today we have the think or should I say most have the think that you buy it you use it it break you throw it away and buy another new piece of junk. I have yet to find one single thing made now days that can compare to how well things where made say 30 plus years ago

Comemorative plates. Sometimes know as a redneck 401k.

Basically I agree with you. On the other side My 2010 pick-up is far ahead of the 39 chey I drove for almost 30 years. Creature comforts Gas tank under seat aircondition safety (air bags) to name a few. Hopefully we are seeing a return to made in America thinking. Did take some looking to find American made pliers and small cresent for carrying in American made bib overalls. American made is out there , just have to look real hard. Thankfully seems as agricultural folks are leading the way wanting more quality and American made.

Ah bu did you know more of a Toyota car is made in the U.S. then your pick up is?? Also is it likely that your 2010 truck will still be on the road say 30 years from now?? My truck is a 1980 Chev and while it is not the best truck on the road it is payed for and has been payed for for years and it keeps going

Us savvy rednecks have a collection of all the State 25 cent pieces in our 401K's.

Dave,
Being in that line of work, we do indeed have jumbo and extra jumbo prawns (shrimp). Size is determined by the count of shrimp/prawns per pound. Prawns start out in brackish water and finish up in freshwater while shrimp are totally marine (salt water).
Prawn Farmer

Bought a pair of Made in USA shoes from Fleet Farm almost 2 years ago. They are rough now and only used for on the farm work, but the pair of walmart, made in china, shoes I bought to replace them are shot at just over 2 months. So it looks like I'll be looking for another pair on Made in USA shoes again soon.

gtractorfan,

I don't know about the quality and durability of the stuff that they are making, but there are manufacturing plants all over Middle Tennessee.

I live about four miles away from a GM assembly plant that started out as a Saturn plant, and now manufactures ofther GM products. We have plants making tires, auto accessories, musical instruments, cast concrete products, loading dock machinery, and scads more things. There are help wanted ads in the paper nearly every day for welders and experienced fabricators.

I guess we don't have the mega plants like used to be located in the mid-West, but there's a lot of "Made in America" going on around here.

Tom in TN

Yes, as someone who trained as a chef in his younger years, I understand that such a thing exists. "jumbo shrimp" is still an oxymoron however.

Yep, all fifty of them are worth twelve and a half bucks..

You are correct my 2010 will not last like the older ones in many ways. The drive train will far outlast the electronics. Also I have lost the ability to keep it running as if it fails I have no chose but to have a shop with all the scan tools . Interesting you point out the paid for part as just today two young lads were working with me. One who I have been around for 4 years has an older car. Owes no one saver till he can pay cash. The other has a much nicer pickup, complete with payments. The two were discussing money. The so called frugal one told the younger : just keep working for the old man , pay as you go will ruboff on you too:Made me feel good.

Toyota assembled in US not made in US big difference. Majority of profit goes to japan! Just sayin.

did not know i was being observed.

One of my favorite quotes - from a titan of American industry.

“What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do something about them”
Henry Ford

Designed in Japan, engineered in Japan, tooled in Japan, Accounting in Japan, parted in japan.......but made in America (in just 14 assembly hours) by low wage, unskilled ;aborers who are eligible for American food stamps.

Now our colleged educated kids are working at Starbucks, and rent-a-car companies.

But we won!

Yep. America the new source of cheap unskilled labor, willing to work for minimum wages and no benefits. What is their alternative? Our leaders sent it overseas 20 years ago.

Thanks for that info...I learned something today.

Wonder if all that manufacturing in Tennessee has something to do with the lack of interest in Unions down there? Warning to Tennesseans- we used to have a lot of good high paying jobs up in Michigan until the Unions ruined them, don't let it happen to you.

(quoted from post at 15:56:13 11/02/13) You are correct my 2010 will not last like the older ones in many ways. The drive train will far outlast the electronics. Also I have lost the ability to keep it running as if it fails I have no chose but to have a shop with all the scan tools . Interesting you point out the paid for part as just today two young lads were working with me. One who I have been around for 4 years has an older car. Owes no one saver till he can pay cash. The other has a much nicer pickup, complete with payments. The two were discussing money. The so called frugal one told the younger : just keep working for the old man , pay as you go will ruboff on you too:Made me feel good.

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Wilson, you can buy a scan tool setup that is a software/hardware package and hooks up to your PC. Cost about 130 bucks. Don't take many trip to the shop for a scan to pay for it.

Edd in KY: Check your facts. We have been outsourcing sense WWII ended. We sent troops to China over 110 years ago to protect American missionaries and American business interest. This isn't a 20 year old problem. And the politicians didn't send those jobs overseas, the consumer did in the drive for cheap goods on the store shelves. Sure some jobs were sent overseas in the last 20 years because of the EPA and OSHA, but not as many as disappeared due to consumer demand.

Rick

American consumers sent it overseas years ago by buying cheaper foreign products, while going on strike for higher wages. Hypocritical union members complaining about scabs but jumping at the chance to do cash jobs on the side, and bragging about buying cheap imports. They"ve never been the brightest bulbs on the tree.

American consumers could not have purchased imported goods unless our government allowed it to be imported. Those nations don't allow many American imports into Japan or Korea or China....including beef, and rice...and especially cars and trucks.

How about fair trade?

Gee, my 2008 is payed for and has been for years. Does that mean it will last for 40 years?

Step on the hood of that 2010 and see what happens then step on the hood of the 39. The 30 was belt to last. The 2005 Chevy I drive won't be around in 20 years it bends some place new every month in the bed. And all the plastic drys out and starts braking. Just my thoughts nothing against you

Ya one of the lucky ones. Few people who own a car say 2008 or newer have it payed for.

(quoted from post at 07:20:03 11/03/13) American consumers could not have purchased imported goods unless our government allowed it to be imported. Those nations don't allow many American imports into Japan or Korea or China....including beef, and rice...and especially cars and trucks.

How about fair trade?

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Edd the thing is our government didn't/doesn't tax like items they way other countries do. Why? Because Mr/Mrs/Mz voting public, consumer wants cheap products.

Why do you think companies like Toyota build factories in the US? Because during the Carter/Reagan recession when the "buy American" kick was in full swing, those companies were trying to avoid the proposed taxes that would drive their prices up to the point where they couldn't be sold in the US. The only thing our politicians did was pass a fair trade act that would tax a product like that only if the country of origin's government subsidized that item to make the price artificially low. Too bad they didn't do that with food products.

Rick

Actually American companies wanted to move prodution overseas so they could make products with cheaper labor and bring them back to America and sell them at a higher profit. They lobbied congress and got it approved piece by piece..slowly. Consumers loved it because the prices were lower.

Turned out it was very short sighted. A double/triple whammy.

Eventually so many jobs were shipped overseas that the American middle class took a big hit and purchasing power and thus sales fell drastically. Final whammy...all those middle class tax payers... now out of work, quit paying taxes...and WENT ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND FOOD STAMPS.

Tax inflow ceased and then turned into government program outflow. Equals deficits.

Check the laws. American consumers can not buy imported products unless the government allows them into the country. And our borders are pretty wide open.

The Chinese and Koreans would like to buy American made goods....but they can not..mostly due to tariffs and import restrictions by their governments.

You do not have an accurate understanding of how trade works. If they could have shipped anything they wanted into America...why did Canada and Mexico need NAFTA?

(quoted from post at 19:46:08 11/03/13) Check the laws. American consumers can not buy imported products unless the government allows them into the country. And our borders are pretty wide open.

The Chinese and Koreans would like to buy American made goods....but they can not..mostly due to tariffs and import restrictions by their governments.

You do not have an accurate understanding of how trade works. If they could have shipped anything they wanted into America...why did Canada and Mexico need NAFTA?

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Edd, long before NAFTA was passed Stewart Warner was having their gauges made in Taiwan and packaged in the US. Tonka move all of their small assembling to Mexico before NAFTA. By the late 70's no TV's were made in the US except one and that one was only assembled here, again before NAFTA. I remember as a kid in the early 60's transistor radios coming Japan. Toyota, Datsun (Nissan), Honda and Subaru were all available in the us, before NAFTA, as was VW, MB, and BMW plus more. In the 80's many Americans were yelling at our politicians to raise tariffs on imported goods to preserve US jobs. No one listened. All this before NAFTA was passed. Big point of contention was Japan subsidizing cars and trucks made in Japan to make them cheaper on the American market. People in general wanted that stopped or tariffs raised to bring them in line to what they would have cost without the subsidies. Heck even Platex was in the game, cutting bras in NYC then shipping them off shore to be sewn together then returned to NYC for packaging in the late 70's. Actually in the last 20 years EPA and OSHA rules have done more to move manufacturing off shore than anything else.

The politicians refused to do anything about it because the American consumer was very happy to be buying at lower prices. They were not about to have to defend themselves for making the cost of consumer goods go up. Some companies tried to keep manufacturing here but the consumer would buy a similar product for less that was made overseas. The companies were left no choice but to move those jobs off shore to compete.

Yea, sure NAFTA has increased the US trade deficit but it wasn't law until Jan 1, 1994. We started importing goods that could have been produced in the US long before that. Most people want to blame NAFTA because they are familiar with it. Before NAFTA there was a fair trade agreement with Canada in place.

Heck we been importing electronics, machines, optics, clothing and more sense right after WWII was over, long before NATFA reared it's ugly head.

But if the consumer refused to buy imported products the companies would bring manufacturing back to the US as fast as they could. So bottom line is that jobs moving off shore are more of a consumer driven thing than anything else. Now you and I know that people will never go along with that and will continue to buy whatever is cheaper and makes their money go further.

Rick

OK. You do understand it. Most people on this forum do not do any in-depth analysis of anything. I will respect your opinions far more in the future.

However, our trade partners carefully restrict imports into their countries and keep getting elected. Maybe if some politician explained that those cheap T shirts come at a terrible long term price (like no jobs, Fed. deficits, no employer healthcare), we could have some realistic laws.

(quoted from post at 07:39:14 11/04/13) OK. You do understand it. Most people on this forum do not do any in-depth analysis of anything. I will respect your opinions far more in the future.

However, our trade partners carefully restrict imports into their countries and keep getting elected. Maybe if some politician explained that those cheap T shirts come at a terrible long term price (like no jobs, Fed. deficits, no employer healthcare), we could have some realistic laws.

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Edd, I never said there was anything fair about NAFTA. And yes our trade partners are not fair. If we placed the tariffs on like goods many items would no longer be attractive to the consumer or else they would reduce what they charge on our goods to the point where we would export a lot more.

Our politicians are guilty of a lot of things but jobs moving off shore is more based on the consumer


Rick

Maybe if some politician explained that those cheap T shirts come at a terrible long term price (like no jobs, Fed. deficits, no employer healthcare), we could have some realistic laws.

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They DO explain it, but the people listening fall into two specific categories:

1. They do not believe a word that the politician says.
2. The concept is way over their heads and they are unable to grasp it.

(quoted from post at 09:37:17 11/02/13) Ah bu did you know more of a Toyota car is made in the U.S. then your pick up is?? Also is it likely that your 2010 truck will still be on the road say 30 years from now?? My truck is a 1980 Chev and while it is not the best truck on the road it is payed for and has been payed for for years and it keeps going

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One thing people who brag about their old pickup miss - For thier one 1980 pickup that's still running, there's 3,000 of them that already got crushed. The odds that a new pickup will be running 30 years from now is about the same...

Shoot that is my newer pick up I also have a 1965 Ford 1 ton that still runs and has under 81K on it but I am not bragging I am pointing out a fact

Seems funny to me that I see all these people claiming that their Toyota is so much better than American branded cars and trucks. Yet when I'm driving I see far more old Ford, GM and Chrysler vehicles on the road than I do Toyota, Nissan or Honda. In fact I haven't seen an early 80's Toyota, Nissan or Honda in quite some time.

The facts are that most vehicles made today will easily go 200,000 plus miles if taken care of even with all of the modern electronics.

As far as American ingenuity look at most high tech stuff. It's designed right here in the good old USA. Smart phones, computer technology, med tech, almost all of it comes from here. Unfortunately, it's then produced overseas.

Rick