Clothing left behind in US manufacturing resurgence

[Command-Z]

Blaming the government for any of this is like getting mad at the puppet when a ventriloquist insults you.

[EmbellishAthletics]

The government has tools they can use to throttle it all down.  Simple as adding some heavy import taxes on the goods and services being done overseas and then that forces the prices up and defeats the purpose of going overseas anyway.

BUT...I do agree....the government shouldn't have to do that.  The American people should step up and refuse to buy it. 

[EmbellishAthletics]

I will give you a real life example (irrelevant compared to the seriousness of the events) but relevant to the discussion.  I had a customer call me from a booster club and ask if I could print 24 flannel shorts for her because they were 4-6 weeks out on delivering printed goods.  She said they were going to charge her $3.00 a piece to print them and would I match it.  I said yes.  I printed the shorts, one color white ink and she came and picked them up.  A couple days later she sends me an e-mail and said she told another printer about the shorts and he said he would have done them for $2.63 and THEN she ask if I would refund the $.37 cents per print since the other guy would have done them cheaper.

Now to give you some background on this particular lady.  Her husband is an accountant, works out of their $300,000.00 house in the same neighborhood we live, has a lake house on one of the premier lakes around here...yada yada yada.  She doesn't work or should I say a stay at home mom who happens to be in charge of the spirit wear for the booster club.  Beats down all of the local printers on price.....and she is proud of it.  Goes from printer to printer until she gets the lowest price. 

I would have no problems telling this lady exactly what you said in your post and then sending her off with a "go to hell".

Alan that is exactly what I told her (not in those words) but I said I would not even consider refunding her money and that she should take any and all of her business elsewhere in the future because we would no longer print for her.  She never responded and she is no longer in charge of the spirit wear.  It is still common in our area....we are moving on from them.

None of them understand economics.  They don't understand the benefits to their immediate local community to keep as much business local as possible.  They don't understand sales tax, property tax and job creation.  They don't understand the more jobs, more people, more taxes.....in a sense it is just pure ignorance.  I personally hate to believe people are ignorant and chalk it up as the ME ME ME ME ME ME society.

[Command-Z]

The government has tools they can use to throttle it all down.  Simple as adding some heavy import taxes on the goods and services being done overseas and then that forces the prices up and defeats the purpose of going overseas anyway.

BUT...I do agree....the government shouldn't have to do that.  The American people should step up and refuse to buy it.

Yes, but those tools, which used to be in place, were dismantled by pressures from the very industries that profit form their dismantling by politicians whose campaigns were funded by these same industries.

Imagine if the NBA's richest players were allowed to change the rules. Imagine if Kobe was allowed to run down the court without having to dribble the ball and score points in whichever basket he sunk the ball into. That's what our "free market" has become.

I apologize for going political here, but it's hard not to. Look up the word "plutocracy."

And yes, I agree, we should refuse to buy it, but remember, that label that says where the item is made is only there because the government says it has to be there. Industry would love to be able to put "Made in USA" on everything whether it was made here or not... the food industry is fighting such labeling right now as we speak. In fact, you can put "Made in USA" on items not actually made here... for instance items simply assembled here from parts made elsewhere or items made in territories held by the US but not subject to our laws, like the Cayman Islands.

[royster13]

If anyone thinks unemployment rates are bad now, please wait a couple decades.......More machines and less people to make everything....Consumption is driven by folks who have money to spend......More machines means less people with incomes to support the economy......

[inkman996]

If anyone thinks unemployment rates are bad now, please wait a couple decades.......More machines and less people to make everything....Consumption is driven by folks who have money to spend......More machines means less people with incomes to support the economy......

They have been saying that since the fifties.

[Command-Z]

If anyone thinks unemployment rates are bad now, please wait a couple decades.......More machines and less people to make everything....Consumption is driven by folks who have money to spend......More machines means less people with incomes to support the economy......

They have been saying that since the fifties.

Yes, and they've been saying it at least since the invention of the Jacquard Loom in the early 1800s. According to fact or legend, workers, angry that the machines would destroy their livelihoods, would throw their wooden shoes (sabots) into the machinery to destroy them... (sabotage). One of these was a (probably fictional) young lad named Ned Ludd... where we get the term "Luddite."

True, technology will eliminate many jobs, but it also creates them. Children in school today will have jobs that don't even exist yet, using technology that hasn't been invented yet.

[royster13]

Back when corporations did not hoard their money, that was true.....But no longer IMO....