So. How do you all feel about EVERYTHING you install now, being Made in China?

[bullheimer]

Well, i'll tell you, I am pretty PO'd about it!! I don't like ANYTHING from there, but food and Kenpo.
Yesterday at Platt i asked for some Industrial 20A recepts. They gave me Hubbells finest! Made in China. I said keep them. Let me have Leviton. They might be made in Mexico, but at least it is not China. Leviton's recepts, GFI's included: Made in China. So i went to Lowes. Went to get Cooper devices: Made in China, all recepts and all GFI's. Might as well be buying light fixtures!

How can i refuse to install things from China, when NOW EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING comes from there? I do NOT want to WARRANTY a house full of Chinese CRAP for one year knowing there is NO QUALITY control over there, or most anywhere else that US companies outsource to now. SQUAT.

Can I complain to my State contractors board, telling them i can't warranty a new house for material anymore? Can my idiot of a Kongressman/woman, Senator, ANYBODY DO ANYTHING? I CANT STAND BUYING ANYTHING FROM CHINA AND NOW THERE IS NOBODY LEFT THAT MAKES ANYTHING IN THIS GDAMNED STUPID COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:rant::rant:

AND OH BY THE WAY!!! THE PRICES WERE NOT ONE CENT LOWER!!!

 

[iwire]

This is a direct result of contractors shopping by price.

 

[The Smashing Electrons]

Economic realities

Economic realities

Once you get past the great china firewall (you need a business) you find that the costs of there products is "staggeringly" less than anything that can be made here. To complain about this is to not understand economic realities.

 

[Sierrasparky]

This is a direct result of contractors shopping by price.

When was the last time you had a client that said money is no object. Spend what ever you think or need. :happysad:

 

[sparkyrick]

Its corporate greed. Make everything cheaper, charge the same price as before, retire a millionaire.

 

[jaylectricity]

I couldn't care less where they are made. You know humans need jobs over in China, right? We all gotta eat. If your competitors can warranty a year on Chinese products so can you. If they can't, then why are you?

 

[under8ed]

We are making a comeback, and it is expected to get better. Rising wages elsewhere & increased transportation costs are leveling the playing field. Charleston has been seeing this first hand. Boeing built an assembly facility here recently and now plan to expand & build another model here. Daimler Chrysler has also just announced they will soon assemble the Sprinter van here too. Now is the time to let corporations know this is important to us and more of the same may happen sooner. This Google search on US competitiveness returns optimistic results..
https://www.google.com/search?q=US+manufacturing+becoming+competitive+with+China&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[Sierrasparky]

I couldn't care less where they are made. You know humans need jobs over in China, right? We all gotta eat. If your competitors can warranty a year on Chinese products so can you. If they can't, then why are you?

1 warranty claim can cost you the profit on the entire job. We are not the manufacturer yet we are eating our costs to replace their junk. It would be one thing if we were being paid the labor on their junk products.
Can't wait to see the repairs coming in from LED's.

Anyone remember the movie "Tommy boy" the quote I can take a dump in a box and put a guarantee on the box, but it is still a pile of CRAP!.

 

[bullheimer]

happy to see we have some card carrying Communists on the forum. Competition had something to do with this? Really? Cooper and Leviton HAD NO COMPETITION. Other than each other, and with NO PRICE DROP, how is it going to be an economical advantage.

as for Humans needing jobs over there in China? Seriously? Am I supposed to give a damn about jobs in China? Hate to burst your bubble, but them HAVING OUR jobs is what this is all about. YOU like China, YOU buy their products. YOU want them to have a job, DON'T complain to anybody. YOU want to feed them? Send them a TV dinner. I asked for your opinions tho. didn't think i would agree with everybody. You prove it.

If Leviton sold out first, and prices were cheaper, then Cooper had to follow suit, you might have some kind of argument, but when both of them go together, (and i'm not certain they are not both owned by the same company) then the argument doesn't hold any water. Its all about corporate greed. and the stupid stock holders that don't realize they are throwing away US jobs. and btw, does anybody know about the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement they are trying to sneak by right now? even MORE US jobs getting thrown away? Do you guys see what Detroit looks like now? Pretty soon the whole country will look like that. And what if COMMUNIST CHINA, who still, as far as i am concerned, is our Enemy, decides to stop trading with us? why, we wont even have the toilet paper to wipe our own butts with.

Like all of your drills and saws now. All milwaukee and Ridgid tools are made in china because the chinese bought them (one other too i can't recall). As far as i am concerned, those in the US that allowed this to happen should be hanged for treason. Its one thing for me to buy Chinese because i HAVE to, it's quite another for me to buy it because i want to so some THIRD WORLDER can have a job.

 

[Sierrasparky]

The problem is nobody cares unless something happens to them and then it is too late. :?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Once you get past the great china firewall (you need a business) you find that the costs of there products is "staggeringly" less than anything that can be made here. ...

And the quality matches the costs.

 

[electrofelon]

Give me a break bullheimer, Ill be you are like most other people. You complain now but faced with paying X vs 3X Ill bet you go for the X most of the time. You enjoy cheap goods every day just like me and everyone else. Its like the follks who complain about gas/oil/coal and all that. Complain complain, but 10 bucks they stop complaining and would vote for that pipeline when faced with rolling blackouts, gas rationing, or driving restrictions.......

 

[romex jockey]

We all have to warranty to some extent , tail light guarantees are bad for biz

That most resi electrical materials are made in 3rd world sweat shops makes this somewhat problematic

For ex. lighting fixtures.

The difference in $$$ between foreign and domestic is a bid breaker , most lighting allowances end up being foreign made imports .

So we simply contract around it all. Your choices, your purchase, your warranty.

~Comrade Romex Jockey~

 

[edlee]

I don't have feelings about it....it's just the way it is with the world economy now. Very political!

I hear our high-tech industry is doing well. Engineers are in demand.

I care more about things like the 4-yr drought in California, ISIS and who's going to be Prez in 2016.

 

[mike7330]

http://youtu.be/wwmOkaKh3-s

 

[gadfly56]

Here's something on a smaller scale. My wife buys the boys' shoes at Walmart. Fifteen or twenty bucks a pair. Typically they last 4-6 months; a year would be a miracle. They always fail the same way, the upper starts separating from the sole right at the toe. No amount of "Shoe Goo" or any other adhesive is effective in making a repair. She rants and raves. I point out that when I was their age, my mother was at the local Florsheim outlet where you were waited on by a salesman, paying that much for my shoes, 50 years ago. And they'd last a year easy, if I didn't outgrow them. Now, 50 years of inflation would see those shoes at $100 easy. But now, you don't even have the option to get a high quality boy's shoe even if you wanted. All there is, is crap.

I'll pay more for many things if I have some assurance that more money = higher quality, but I've been had on that score as well. Went through a pair a year of safety shoes from Iron Age, supposedly a good brand. Over a hundred bucks a pair. Soles would crack right where the toes bend within 4 months, and I'd try to nurse them along until the sides blew out. Went to Sears and got a pair for forty bucks, and they'd last 2-1/2 years.

 

[Fulthrotl]

This is a direct result of contractors shopping by price.

everyone shops by price, including some of our customers, to see if they can get it done cheaper
by someone other than us. and usually they can. so they do.

that being said, i don't shop at home unless i have no choice.
and i don't like buying material and tools. i wasn't aware that
there is not a single thread gauge in all of china until i started trying
to use stuff they have threaded. it doesn't fit, and oftentimes is garbage.

it all comes down to peasant skills and a peasant mentality. and we are building
a peasant society, one failed fitting at a time. semi skilled peasants with mediocre
skills at best, installing shoddy, poorly fitting equipment.

i think it's great. it gives the people i don't want as customers anyway, someone
to turn to and try to chisel $28 off of a $600 bill.

and i'll take my chances with my skill set, and work ethic against people charging
a third of what i charge, for work.

 

[infinity]

I know we're all passionate about being American and America but this thread is veering towards the political side and will be gone if it continues to move in that direction. Also a reminder about the language, construction site language is not permitted here.

 

[Ponchik]

IMO, there is no way around china made stuff.

You can raise your price, include in your price a cost for extended warranty. First year is FREE then we charge $XXX for extended warranty.

BTW, now days it does not say "made in China" it says "made in PRC" People republic of China. Still the same garbage.

 

[ptonsparky]

Years ago my wife started buying blouses at brand z because it was so much cheaper then Sears. The quality was lower and I warned her about the long term results. She brushed it off. Now she complains about the quality available. Hmmm.

My wife also teaches 6th Grade. She uses "Jurassic Park" in her Reading class because it touches on so many things the kids are learning about through the year plus they love it. She warns them that some of the language is a bit crude, but that most likely you would not say "shucky darn" when a T-Rex suddenly appears.

I appreciate the civilty that is maintained on this site but sometimes "shucky darn" falls short.