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Why can't I buy a toaster made in the USA, even if it is off a highly automated line? Because it's still cheaper to make in manually in China. Even if it's au

by madengr 10y ago

Why can't I buy a toaster made in the USA, even if it is off a highly automated line? Because it's still cheaper to make in manually in China. Even if it's automated, it will still be cheaper to automate it in China.

philipkglass 10y ago
Does this help? http://www.b4usa.com/tag/toaster/ http://www.b4usa.com/tag/toaster/ I've bought quite a few things made in the USA (or other countries with decent worker and environmental protections, like Italy, Germany, Japan...) that other people seem to usually get from China. Anecdotally, I've noticed that people who will talk about how Grandma's toaster or washing machine lasted forever and it's a shame you can't buy something like that today are not willing to budget for it like Grandma did. Grandma spent a lot of money on her appliances in 1950, whether you want to adjust by consumer price index or just look at (e.g.) the ratio of minimum wage to sticker price. Are you willing to spend thousands of dollars on a washing machine, to match relative buying power and prices from the middle of the 20th century? If so, you can still find appliances that are built like a tank, built by workers paid decent wages, built in factories that don't just dump all their trash into the nearest river. But if you want to buy a toaster that lasts a long time, is made in the USA, and costs only a little bit more than the Chinese toaster, yeah, I agree that is hard to find. There is good stuff still available at the high end. The low end has gone a lot lower.
- chiaro 10y ago
  Yeah, on the other hand prices really have dropped much more than quality. I'm ten years strong on a toaster I picked up from Target for (and I can remember this, for some reason) $12.
city41 10y ago
Depends on the product. Some products could be automatically created in the US, then sold with "Made in the USA" on them, boosting their appeal.
pipio21 10y ago
Interesting that when I was living in China, I could not buy there things manufactured in China!! I had to go to US or Europe in order to buy them and them move again to China with it because most factories directly export what they manufacture. Automating something in the US or Europe is probably cheaper than in China because of the educated people there is much better prepared than in China. The huge difference is in basic commodities cost. China is so huge and dense(great basic markets) but with great fluvial communications(cheap transport), cheap energy from coal, and growing immensely. Most of the US is sparsely populated by comparison. The industry hubs are not as enormous as in China.

by madengr 10y ago

philipkglass 10y ago

Does this help? http://www.b4usa.com/tag/toaster/ http://www.b4usa.com/tag/toaster/ I've bought quite a few things made in the USA (or other countries with decent worker and environmental protections, like Italy, Germany, Japan...) that other people seem to usually get from China. Anecdotally, I've noticed that people who will talk about how Grandma's toaster or washing machine lasted forever and it's a shame you can't buy something like that today are not willing to budget for it like Grandma did. Grandma spent a lot of money on her appliances in 1950, whether you want to adjust by consumer price index or just look at (e.g.) the ratio of minimum wage to sticker price. Are you willing to spend thousands of dollars on a washing machine, to match relative buying power and prices from the middle of the 20th century? If so, you can still find appliances that are built like a tank, built by workers paid decent wages, built in factories that don't just dump all their trash into the nearest river. But if you want to buy a toaster that lasts a long time, is made in the USA, and costs only a little bit more than the Chinese toaster, yeah, I agree that is hard to find. There is good stuff still available at the high end. The low end has gone a lot lower.

chiaro 10y ago
Yeah, on the other hand prices really have dropped much more than quality. I'm ten years strong on a toaster I picked up from Target for (and I can remember this, for some reason) $12.

city41 10y ago

Depends on the product. Some products could be automatically created in the US, then sold with "Made in the USA" on them, boosting their appeal.

pipio21 10y ago

Interesting that when I was living in China, I could not buy there things manufactured in China!! I had to go to US or Europe in order to buy them and them move again to China with it because most factories directly export what they manufacture. Automating something in the US or Europe is probably cheaper than in China because of the educated people there is much better prepared than in China. The huge difference is in basic commodities cost. China is so huge and dense(great basic markets) but with great fluvial communications(cheap transport), cheap energy from coal, and growing immensely. Most of the US is sparsely populated by comparison. The industry hubs are not as enormous as in China.