Rethink our purchases..

[Audiochem]

:( Check out this article...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml

How did China end up with all our money??? Around 4th of July, my daughter's preschool teacher asked them to bring in a toy made in the USA. I COULDN'T FIND ONE!

We might want to start rethinking our purchases, although I've also found that sometimes there is no option other than foreign made.

Sorry...just had to get that off my chest.:confused:

[John Purser]

Over the last 27 years we've stolen over $12 TRILLION dollars from the next generation with no intention of paying it back. :eek:

I think it's a little past the point of worrying where we buy our teddy bears.

John

[Audiochem]

So...are you agreeing with me???

Anyway, I was referring to reconsidering all purchases. This is on the advent of future Chinese autombiles coming to America. We have to start somewhere. Believing that it's too late certainly won't correct the problem, but I understand your point.

[John Purser]

But pointing out that there's no point in fixing the roof when the dam has broken. Yer gonna get wet no matter what.

And I think this thread is in the wrong forum. Perhaps the admin could move it?

[HellRhaY]

as JP said, too late.

if americans would take jobs the mexicans are doing and would all agree to a salary cut by let us say $4.00/ hr, THEN we will have all things made in america again.

[stupidjet]

a white person rather work in a mall folding clothes for 7 bux an hour than work construction/landscaping/factory making 10 plus..
we are the ones who drive this country...we choose this road.

i blame unions for the auto industry...

[surfchunker]

It's not the unions that killed the Auto workers but the americans buying them ... the goverment for letting them flood us with it and them using child labor, foreign goverment subsidizing them ..... and no tarrifs

The only american made toy I know of is the Slinky

[John Purser]

you're simply wrong. There were a lot of very complex interrelations that lead to American economic ascendancy from post WWII to the 1970s. And we've managed to ignore, remove, delete, or despise them all in the last few decades.

We're now in a global race to the bottom, there are no brakes that I know of, and god help the winner.

In 1960 one blue collar high school graduate wage earner EXPECTED TO work 40 hours a week and make enough PAY FOR his house, two cars, stay home wife, and raising and EDUCATING their 4 kids.

Do you know ANYONE that describes today?

In America today we work longer and harder to get less than any other modern nation. Really.

We also have the the worst and most expensive health care and the least economically mobile economy of any modern nation. Really.

The businesses that ran to the Mexican border slums are now running to China and India because the cost of living is to high in the Mexican slums. Really.

Folks, the dam has broke, the flood is coming, there aint no ark, and it's gonna get bad. IMHO.

Which is why I'm begging someone to delete this thread and let's get back to talking about fishing.

[HellRhaY]

fishing....you think we can fish in china?:D
i think mexicans are better fisherman than chinesse.

just weighting my options on which country to move to.:D :p

[F I LetsGoFishin]

fishing....you think we can fish in china?:D
i think mexicans are better fisherman than chinesse.

just weighting my options on which country to move to.:D :p

Is that saying they catch more fish or just that they are more ethical about it.

[Hurricane44]

you're simply wrong. There were a lot of very complex interrelations that lead to American economic ascendancy from post WWII to the 1970s. And we've managed to ignore, remove, delete, or despise them all in the last few decades.

We're now in a global race to the bottom, there are no brakes that I know of, and god help the winner.

In 1960 one blue collar high school graduate wage earner EXPECTED TO work 40 hours a week and make enough PAY FOR his house, two cars, stay home wife, and raising and EDUCATING their 4 kids.

Do you know ANYONE that describes today?

In America today we work longer and harder to get less than any other modern nation. Really.

We also have the the worst and most expensive health care and the least economically mobile economy of any modern nation. Really.

The businesses that ran to the Mexican border slums are now running to China and India because the cost of living is to high in the Mexican slums. Really.

Folks, the dam has broke, the flood is coming, there aint no ark, and it's gonna get bad. IMHO.

Which is why I'm begging someone to delete this thread and let's get back to talking about fishing.

Wow, you've got a pretty bleak outlook, are you alright or do we need to put you on P&S suicide watch?

I mean d@mn, what the hell are you spewing :confused: ? Where are these 'facts' coming from :confused: , really? Don't just write crap on here to panic others, give your opinion on what needs to be done to correct the situation, jeezz. I'm sick of hearing all the alarmists comments, quit your complaining and do what you can to fix the situation or offer up solutions.

Back to the original comment, buying products made in the U.S. is getting harder and harder. Almost everything in retail comes from overseas (mainly Asia), but there are items that are made in the U.S., you just have to work to find them. If more people cared, or were taught to care, about where their money goes after Walmart or Kmart, perhaps we could help curb some of this problem.

Cheers, Cane44

[VICIII]

"The world is flat"
I was told about this book and have yet to read it... But I was just talking to someone about this topic and was getting this book. I am told it is a great read on this topic. Here is a Wikipedia on the book..

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is a best-selling book by Thomas L. Friedman analyzing the progress of globalization with an emphasis on the early 21st century. It was first released in 2005 and was later released as an "updated and expanded" edition in 2006.




Overview

Friedman suggests that the world is "flat" in the sense that the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries are leveling. Friedman recounts many examples in which companies in India and China are becoming part of large global complex supply chains that extend across oceans through a process called offshoring, providing everything from service representatives and X-ray interpretation to component manufacturing. He recalls seeing such major American companies as Dell, AOL, and Microsoft using Eastern teleoperators who are paid much less than their counterparts in the West. He describes how these changes were made possible through intersecting technologies, particularly the Internet, fiber-optics, and the PC.

Friedman lists ten "flatteners" that have leveled the global playing field:

* #1: Collapse of Berlin Wall-11/9: Friedman attributes the collapse of the Berlin Wall as the starting point for leveling the global playing field. The event not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. (11/09/1989)

* #2: Netscape: Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by scientists (8/9/1995)

* #3: Workflow software: The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved. Friedman believes these first three forces have become a “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration.”

* #4: Open sourcing: Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon "the most disruptive force of all".

* #5: Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, cost-effective way.

* #6: Offshoring: Offshoring, the manufacturing equivalent of outsourcing.

* #7: Supply chaining: Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river, and points to Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.

* #8: Insourcing: Friedman uses UPS as a prime example for insourcing, in which the company's employees perform services--beyond shipping--on behalf of another company. For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.

* #9: In-forming: Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Friedman.

* #10: "The Steroids": Personal digital equipment like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over IP or VOIP


In addition to Friedman's ten flatteners he also offered the concept of the triple convergence which created a new, flatter, global playing field.

* CONVERGENCE I: Up until the year 2000 the ten flatteners were semi-independent from one another. However around the year 2000, all of the flatteners converged with one another. This convergence could be compared to complementary goods, in that each flattener enhanced all of the other flatteners; the more one flattener developed, the more the global playing field was leveled.

* CONVERGENCE II: After the emergence of the ten flatteners, a new platform had to be built in order to do business. Businesses had to begin collaborating horizontally as opposed to vertically (top down method of collaboration where innovation comes from the top). Horizontalization meant that companies and people had to start collaborating with other departments or companies in order to add value creation or innovation. However, the convergence occurred when horizontalization and the ten flatteners began to reinforce each other. In other words when people began to reorient themselves and their businesses to new technologies the world flattened a little more.

* CONVERGENCE III: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries such as: China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia that followed a Soviet economic plan began to open up their economies to the world. When these new players converged with the rest of the global playing field, they added new brain power to that field. Therefore, the convergence enhanced horizontal collaboration across the globe. In turn, this convergence was the most important force in shaping politics and economics in the early twenty-first century.

[John Purser]

Yep. Flat world. All digital. Little upheaval to begin with, then smooth sailing.

Friedman might want to mention that he married SERIOUS money so yes, he's going to have smooth sailing over these "little upheavals". And despite all his rosy predictions it's still a race to the bottom.

You can do a lot with your IPOD, but you can't make steel girders with it or sew cheap clothes.

Still, Friedman's one hell of a salesman.

[VICIII]

yeah the book can't be perfect for everyone but I think I will like the info that it produces.
I believe that if you do not take in account that some "World Econcomy" will happen with different countries being strong at different catogories. Low cost labor countries will produce, High tech countries will come up with high tech stuff for the world, and if you don't find out what your good at you will get left behind. I guess you should look at what we as a country can beat the rest of the world at and do it.