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made in America

likemhotlikemhot Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭
edited November 2011 in General Discussion
OK heres a challenge, put more Americans to work, all you contractors, union or not, brothers helping brothers. It is time we pull together or we will continue to fall apart

http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_04vzdsr5/uiconf_id/5590821

cuz here's where we are headed

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In dark and bitter cold
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back.
For on the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.

The next man looking cross the way,
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes,
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use,
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store.
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without,
They died from ---THE COLD WITHIN.

Comments

  • likemhotlikemhot Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    In early 2010, somewhere high above the northern hemisphere, Mark Krywko decided he'd had enough. The CEO of Sleek Audio, a purveyor of high-end earphones, Krywko was flying home to Florida after yet another frustrating visit to Dongguan, China, where a contract factory assembled the majority of his company's products. He and his son, Jason, Sleek Audio's cofounder, made the long trip every few months to troubleshoot quality flaws. Every time the Krywkos visited Dongguan, their Chinese partners assured them everything was under control. Those promises almost always proved empty.

    As he whiled away the airborne hours, Krywko made a mental list of all the manufacturing glitches that had nearly wrecked his company. There was the entire shipment of 10,000 earphones that Sleek Audio had to discard because they were improperly welded, a mistake that cost the company millions. Then there were the delivery delays caused by the factory's lackadaisical approach to deadlines, which forced the Krywkos to spend a fortune air-freighting products to the US. Even when orders were produced on schedule, Krywko wasn't too pleased with the situation: The company always had precious cash tied up in inventory that took months to arrive after the prototypes had been approved.

    The headaches had finally become too exasperating to bear. And so, on that flight, he turned to Jason and said that he was done with Dongguan. "I can't do it anymore," he said. "Let's bring it home."

    Jason had been thinking the same thing.

    When the Krywkos returned to the US, they searched for a manufacturing partner with the tools and expertise to produce their earphones. They found one just a few miles away from their Palmetto, Florida, headquarters: Dynamic Innovations, a maker of ruggedized computers and other equipment. Sleek Audio quickly signed up.

    Today, a year since Krywko's decision to go against the offshoring tide, Sleek Audio has a full-scale manufacturing operation that can be reached via a 15-minute car ride rather than a 24-hour flight. Each earphone costs roughly 50 percent more to produce in Florida than in China. But Krywko is more than happy to pay the premium to know that botched orders and shipping delays won't ruin his company. And so far, the gambit appears to be paying off: Based on enthusiastic customer response, Sleek Audio is now projecting 2011 to be its most profitable year ever.

    For US firms, the decision to manufacture overseas has long seemed a no-brainer. Labor costs in China and other developing nations have been so cheap that as recently as two or three years ago, anyone who refused to offshore was viewed as a dinosaur, certain to go extinct as bolder companies built the future in Asia. But stamping out products in Guangdong Province is no longer the bargain it once was, and US manufacturing is no longer as expensive. As the labor equation has balanced out, companies-particularly the small to medium-size businesses that make up the innovative guts of America's technology industry-are taking a long, hard look at the downsides of extending their supply chains to the other side of the planet.

    "Companies are looking to base their decisions on more than just costs," says Simon Ellis, head of supply-chain strategies practice at IDC Manufacturing Insights, a market research firm. "They're looking to shorten lead times, to reduce the inventory they have to carry." When accounting giant KPMG International recently asked 196 senior executives to list their top concerns for 2011 and 2012, labor costs ranked below product quality and fluctuations in shipping rates and currency values. And 19 percent of the companies that responded to an October survey by MFG.com, an online sourcing marketplace, said they had recently brought all or part of their manufacturing back to North America from overseas, up from 12 percent in the first quarter of 2010. This is one reason US factories managed to add 136,000 jobs last year-the first increase in manufacturing employment since 1997.

    The US certainly isn't on the verge of recapturing its past industrial glory, nor can every business benefit by fleeing China. But those that actually build tangible goods should no longer assume that "Made in the USA" is an unaffordable luxury. Unless a company is hell-bent on selling the cheapest goods possible, manufacturing at home makes more sense than it has in a generation.

    China's big manufacturing advantage has been cheap labor, but wages-while still low compared with those in the US-have risen sharply in recent years.

    The heyday of offshoring
    Think of offshoring as a technology. Like any relatively young and successful innovation, it enjoyed a honeymoon period during which everyone scrambled to adopt it, lest they miss out on the gold rush. But now many companies are starting to grapple with this new technology's limitations.

    The core component of offshoring, of course, is cheap labor. In 2000, when Congress was preparing to vote on normalizing trade relations with China, political opponents of the bill gave their colleagues satchels containing three pennies-supposedly the average hourly wage for Chinese workers. That figure was exaggerated, but the spirit of the stunt rang true: US manufacturers couldn't possibly compete with China's blend of rock-bottom wages and rising technical savvy. Once the bill passed, the offshoring trickle that started in the 1980s became an unbridled flood.

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/in-early-2010-somewhere-high.ars?
  • likemhotlikemhot Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Periodically We see people say "get a Ford" or "Get Chevy" They're made in America.

    WRONG!
    4 of the top 10 'made in America' are Toyotas.

    TOP 10 VEHICLES WITH MADE IN AMERICA CONTENT
    VEHICLE/ USA CONTENT

    Ford Taurus 90%
    TOYOTA SIENNA 85%
    LINCOLN MKS 85%
    CHEVY EXPRESS 82%
    BUICK LUCERNE 81%
    TOYOTA VENZA 80%
    TOYOTA TUNDRA* 80%
    TOYOTA AVALON 80%
    HONDA ODYSSEY 80%
    CHEVY MALIBU 80%

    * The only pickup on the list

    Would somebody please tell me why I should support the United Auto Workers who support Communist politicians like Obama. I say screw em and their phony propoganda about 'made in America'.

    I say get the good stuff made in America by Toyota. They don't support Obama.
  • KSUmarksmanKSUmarksman Member Posts: 10,705 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    love it! [:D][:D][:D][:D]

    you know...I think we need a "made in America" list of our own... how about a sticky topic that people can add to right here on this forum?
    mods/admin, what do you think?
  • hk-91hk-91 Member Posts: 10,050
    edited November -1
    booked marked it. Will send out a link to a acouple buddies that build houses.
  • timinpatiminpa Member Posts: 2,250 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    such a good story, I only hope it catches on. we should take care of our own, and i think people would if the research was done for them (i.e. where to get products, how the cost compares)[^]
  • likemhotlikemhot Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    timinpa thats a real good point, IF SOMEONE WOULD DO THE RESEARCH FOR THEM, yep thats a big part of the problem
  • dav1965dav1965 Member Posts: 26,543 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
  • kumateliveskumatelives Member Posts: 2,609
    edited November -1
    sounds like communism,all give for the greater good
  • KSUmarksmanKSUmarksman Member Posts: 10,705 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by kumatelives
    sounds like communism,all give for the greater good


    but if you buy made in China poop to save yourself a couple bucks, you ARE supporting the commies
  • likemhotlikemhot Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I might be one of the most rednecked conservatives y'all ever met, but I still believe in helpin my fellow man. If ya dont like what ya got why do we keep doin the same thing for the same results and keep on beachin. Sounds like one of us is properly fed every night with a warm bed and plenty of foldin green.



    The logs held tight in death's still hands
    Was proof of human sin.
    They didn't die from the cold without,
    They died from ---THE COLD WITHIN.


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