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ConfusedMuse

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Got this in an email just now.. it's true. Take the time read the labels. yea i bought cantaloupe the other day, missed the taste.. came from Guatamala (sp) tasted dry, no flavour, yuck blech! I'll wait until they ripen in the farmers field down the road.
Why wait for the Government to exercise restraint ( hahahahaa) I will start today, will you?

FOR EXAMPLE THE "OUR FAMILY" BRAND OF THE MANDARIN ORANGES SAYS RIGHT ON THE CAN" FROM CHINA ." SO FOR A FEW MORE CENTS I BOUGHT THE LIBERTY GOLD BRAND OR THE DOLE IS FROM CAL. ALSO WATCH FOR PICKLES. AT LOT OF THE NO-NAME PICKLES COME FROM INDIA . BICK'S ARE FROM CANADA . WORTH THE SMALL DIFFERENCE IN PRICE. Another example was in canned mushrooms. No-Name brand came from Indonesia . Next to them were President Choice brand. Produce of Canada !! The P. C. went into my grocery bag.

TAKES FOREVER JUST TO BUY FOOD AND DO LABEL READING ! !

Are we Americans and Canadians as dumb as we appear --- or --- is it that we just do not think?

While the Chinese, export inferior and even toxic products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in North American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Obama Administration and the Harper Government for perceived errors.


Yet 70% of North Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended.


Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?


SIMPLY DO IT YOURSELF, AMERICA/CANADA !!


Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China ' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without. Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some North American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own. THINK ABOUT THIS, If 200 million North Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!! The downside? Some Canadian/American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory. The solution? Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. Most of the people who have been reading about this matter are planning on implementing this on June 4, and continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their North American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.

EVEN BETTER. . . START NOW !

Send this to everybody you know. Let's show them that we are intelligent Americans and Canadians, and NOBODY can take us for granted.

If we can't live without cheap Chinese goods for one month out of our lives, WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET! Pass it on, North America!!!
 
chefdennis

chefdennis

Veteran Expediter
Thats like "don't buy gas on weds" to protest high gas prices...what they don't buy on that day, they will buy the day after...fact is most people buy on price....why do you think "generic" brands have caught on...plain white labels minimal mandated info only....people buy them because they are low priced....and they don't really care where it comes from...sad, but true...
 
LDB

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I like the idea and I look at the "made in" information on products but some of them the entire selection is from China. That I don't like as much. I remember back when Walmart's focus and ad campaign was buy American and made in America. Too bad those days are gone.
 
A

aristotle

Veteran Expediter
I prefer to buy American/Canadian products. At the same time, I attempt to avoid products manufactured by union labor. Except for the beautiful Ford cargo vans(UAW), in which case self interest trumps principles, happily.
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
OK I guess you all missed that Mexico is also in North America?

I don't buy some of this. Canada is a foreign country, I own two foreign cars - Dodge products - that both were made in North America and I am typing on a foreign made keyboard reading a foreign made monitor which was made in Asia. So?

Without an understanding of economics, we are doomed to blame others for our own actions. We leave out the fact that unions (UAW, Teamsters, SEIU, and others) have in effect put us in the bottom of the "Oskar cycle" as I call it, which is we want stuff because our wages are too high and we need others to make it because we are too cheap. All of it needs to be adjusted again.

This has gone on for the last 120 years, the problem is we have it worst now because of our government and especially the tax system we have. No matter what we do, we can not get away with foriegn made products.

But let's blame someone, OK?

Let's start to blame China for dumping all those cheap things on our market. It is their fault that we have to be cheap, and use other money to buy more cr*p.

We can blame Mexico for those nasty enterprise zones and those farms that we get 40% of our food from. Yea those nnasty Mexicans have drugged the water forcing us to by Emerson appliances and Tomatoes.

If you want to buy US made stuff, then buy Smuckers. I think they are still US made.
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
PART 2.

The stupidest thing I have heard is the don't buy gas on wednesday thing.

See maybe some of you don't understand this but you have to think about the world oil market as one big BIG oil bucket. When we buy oil, we buy out of the bucket, not buy from one or two specific country.

Think of it another way.

There is a company where you can use wind power to power your home. You don't have to have a wind mill or anything like that. What they have are wind farms and these farms are connected to the National Electric Grid, which means that the guy in San Diego who is running his hot tub has access to the electricity that the wind mill is producing in Maine. The grid is a big bucket of sorts and what gets put in, is taken out somewhere else.

Oil is pretty much the same thing, Alaska crude is sold to Japan and that money is used to but Mexican crude which is used for our gasoline and diesel. The costs work out, because it is a bucket.
 
LDB

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
If one drives X miles per week, to/from work/school plus a trip to the grocer, cleaners and whatever else, it is going to take Y gallons of fuel to drive those miles at whatever mpg your vehicle gets. If you don't buy your fuel on Wed. you'll just buy it another day because you have to have the amount needed to cover the miles you must drive.
 
F

FIS53

Veteran Expediter
I think may are missing the point on not buying Chinese products. When a Chinese company goes after a contract to produce something they usually do a good job of making the product to specs. What happens later is where the problems are and that is the cost cutting and production savings in order to maintain price levels and up the profit margin. This is where we see the Chinese companies buying lower quality or wrong quality materials and going off specs and thereby maintaining profits. The Chinese have been hit with a few problems in that quality control is a multi-company thing and if one compromises then the entire chain is compromised. This is happening a lot over there. Another factor affecting things is the new skilled labour pool is demanding more money and to get qualified people Chinese companies have to offer more perks and wages. This cuts profits.

Basically somewhere along the chain they are cutting corners and this is what we as North Americans have to fight as our government isn't. We must enforce what we expect in quality in a product not only sold here but even marketed through a local company. Therefore it is prudent to cut our purchases of foreign products and help our locals out. Unfortunately in the technology world we are stuck with almost a completely foreign manufacturing system as we lost this industry years ago.
Rob
 
AMonger

AMonger

Veteran Expediter
LDB said:
I like the idea and I look at the "made in" information on products but some of them the entire selection is from China. That I don't like as much. I remember back when Walmart's focus and ad campaign was buy American and made in America. Too bad those days are gone.
Click to expand...

I'm a libertarian and don't like the idea of too many laws, but what if the law mandated that furren products be on a different shelf or section? That way, they'd stand out. Anybody who wants a furren product could still go over to the other shelf and get it, and somebody who wanted 'Murican or Canuck products could still get theirs.

Just delivered 3 skids to a plant in SC that's being closed and shipped to China. All those people will be on the unemployment lines at the end of the week. Sad.
 
C

ConfusedMuse

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Im not a cut & paste type,( guess I ate too much paste in kindergarten LOL) Im just joking people. But, I have to agree with some of you. IE reading labels, choosing products made better than others over price. AND it's true if company A produces a product that consumers like, consumers will purchase it, AND most consumers will and do spread the information to their family,peers,neighbors that yes productA is more expensive but, it's worth it, and that in turn boosts companyA's production and the ripple effect goes into play. I don't think that anyone missed that Mexico is in North America, Mexico produces good products, and China produces good products too. but if you want everyone in the United States, and yes, Canada too (some people here are both) to be employed then it is in your interests and theirs too, that we all buy as many products that we can that serve our purpose and our pocketbook that are manufactured, grown, built here with products that originate here too. It really is a no brainer just takes more time to read the labels but, your reading them anyways so you can keep up on your caloric,sodium,sugar, etc...
 
LDB

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Stores might find their sales of American made products increase if they clearly identify them and if those products have a better profit margin that would make sense to do even without any law about it.
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
Actually we discount Mexico a lot and equate it with China. Most of that BS comes from UAW style propaganda.

BUT the reality is, it is something we can't control and something of a cycle that happens often in our economy.

The solution was thought of back in the early 20th century with the FED and then again in 1933 with taking Gold off the market - both of these were to lessen the problems with differences in economies of the world and they failed.

We are at the bottom of the Oskar cycle right now, not the top. Our standard of living is too high and out of whack which means we have more money to by from outside the country. This is because of unions more than anything else right now. We can't produce the things people expect to get at a reasonable price - if we did we would have high inflation.

We won't come back to what it was like, we couldn't do that even 7 years ago because our manufacturing base has been reduced then but even more now. But more importantly we have less skilled people to do the work to setup the plants to produce the stuff. In addition to skilled labor, we have a lack of manual labor (I'm too good for that or I won't work for $X an hour).

Which ever way you cut it, our society isn't going to roll over for some cause or need. We as a country have already proven that it is about the consumer who wants cheap, not any loyalty to one country, brand or the workers (GM comes to mind).

I'm all for Buy US products but not but North American products. My loalty is with my country, not with anything else. BUT for that matter, even when we buy from say a "domestic" auto company, it is no longer three car companies but now includes Toyota, Honda, Kia because they seem to be more domestic than it does Ford, GM or Chrsyler. The latter still produce cars outside my country which makes the car equal to a car made in China or India.
 
Slo-Ride

Slo-Ride

Veteran Expediter
Greg ya got some good points and we cant change everything.
But as consumers dont ya think its time we try to keep our money on this continent when possible..There are allot of good products being produced here but some go for the 2$ off cheap plastic products that they end replacing in 6 months..
I agree with buying products off the N.American continents whether is Mexico,Can. or the USA..At least my money is staying here.(or so I think)

With Christmas fast approaching :)D) I say Buy American..
I feel it does start with me or us.
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
I think you are on the right track but miss an important point, where the money lands doesn't mean a thing - nothing at all - when you talk about Mexico or Canada, those are as foreign as Germany, Japan and China.

The money flows in and out all the time but it matters where the product is sold more than who makes it and where. When the product is sold, it produces revenue, taxes and profit but the problem is we already allow our manufacturing base to leave and a lot of people don'w care. Like the bailouts, they have produced a lot less than promissed, it would have been simpler to say let GM fall and then hand each worker some money.

But again we as consumers don't see the problem with the bailout - here are a few examples. GM who is taking our tax money, laid off Americans who produced that money, is using it to expand in the Chinese market where it the money will stay there as it expands for a number of years and may never return, even in the form of profits. Chrysler is no longer an American company, it was just briefly one but now again foreign owned and the money goes right back to Europe. I can't buy a Chrysler product but will a Fiat ... weird. Ford has the Ford Fiesta being produced in Mexico, Ford's money is sent there to retool the plant while Ford closed how many US plants. Even tough a portion of that money returns in the form of profits, a lot of that money that we spend on that product is used for taxes and for workers salaries which stays in a foriegn country.

See it doesn't matter, gas, Diesel, Wal-mart and all that means little until the consumer, the people buying the cr*p get smart and demand quality, which isn't going to happen because they like cheap things.
 
Slo-Ride

Slo-Ride

Veteran Expediter
I think consumers like the cheap prices and don't look down the road when they gotta replace that plastic flashlight again and again.. For some reason it doesn't seem to bother me to buy a product made on this piece of the rock (N.American Continent) as much as it does when I gotta buy some thing from abroad..

Your money smarts and world knowledge goes way beyond me and with that said,,
I aint trying to argue,I just agree with the Buy American idea and I do look for it..Wheter its Canadian Mexican or from here..

(Anyways I just got a nice run with no time ,,gotta go)
 
Jack_Berry

Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
Last edited:
Moot

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
FOR EXAMPLE THE "OUR FAMILY" BRAND OF THE MANDARIN ORANGES SAYS RIGHT ON THE CAN" FROM CHINA .

Mandarin Oranges from China? Who'd have thunk? Glenfiddich Scotch from Scotland? Say it aint so.

Once upon a time Minnesota had a Governor, often referred to as Governor Goofy. No, not the wrestler governor, the dentist governor. Governor Goofy had a great plan to revitalize the depressed economy of Northern Minnesota's Iron Range, where he was from. His plan was to build a chopstick factory in Hibbing, Minnnesota ("The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handle") and export chopsticks to Asia.

Apparently Asian consumers also read labels while shopping at Woo Mart. Upon discovering that the chopsticks were made in Hibbing, Minnesota USA, they decided to "buy Asian" and spent a couple of yen more for the "Our Clan" brand, Made In China chopsticks.

In less than two years and after losing millions of dollars the chopstick factory in Hibbing closed; "tangled up in blue."
 
Jack_Berry

Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
quite brilliant moot-ster. i laughed at the zimmermen references. hibbing of all places!!

i have no idea where my green suspenders are made. there is no "made in" label so i have to guess they are made here. they do a great job of keeping my crack from showing when at the j fuel desk(yes i saw one today.....bad image ....bad image.....mommy make it go away!!!)
 
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