How much would you pay for a product made in the US vs China
Here's the problem; with the Chinese product, you can't trust that the material is the same, that the manufacturing is the same, and even if the product is the same, you're still undercutting all the other US-based suppliers (*assuming that this is truly an apples n' oranges comparison).
Material might be the same, but everybody from the guy at the quarry digging up ore to the guy at the raw-material plant refining it to the guy at the warehouse to the guy selling the stuff, none of them are feeding the family on YOUR dollar, even IF the product is identical in every single way.
The US engineer didn't make any money. The QC guy didn't make any money. The book keeper didn't make money. The CEO didn't make money. When the business closes, even the Janitor stops making money.
Even further, when you buy from China, that shipping to you....people on our side are paying most of it. Thanks to century-old trade agreements, we're paying the shipping on LOTS of imports, and that's how Chinese companies can sell Buy It Now crap on eBay, shipped to your home, for a dollar. So, now the postal service is losing money, and all the people up and down that chain, too. Mechanics. Delivery people. Even the Janitors.
https://reason.com/2019/11/11/american-taxpayers-are-subsidizing-ultra-cheap-shipping-from-china/
The US has standards that protect those people (and you), we have accountability for fraud, we have protection from domestic counterfeits to protect all those jobs AND consumers. When the Chinese lie and rip you off, the wing falls off your airplane and the people that did it....not held accountable. Think about the lead in the paint on your kids' toys. Is the money worth it? The poison in your cats' food? Is the money worth it? The chemicals that we banned here because they cause cancer but are still in use there....Was the money you saved worth it when you look in your wife's eye's during a chemo treatment?
I'm lucky, I am in a financial position where I can spend money to buy the American option, and if it's EVER possible, I do. I only weigh the cost if it's a USA (or at least non-Chinese) product versus same.
Why?
Because I've had friends that sent designs to China to get made, and then after 6 months when they asked where their product was, they were directed to a website where they could buy the product they designed. In that particular case, it was a circuit board for a project that only he cared about, it had NO commercial value what so ever, but that's how the cookie crumbles.
I'm not so poor that I have to suck up crumbs off the floor.
And I'm damn sure not so foolish to send money to people that have actively labeled me their mortal enemy.
Here's the problem; with the Chinese product, you can't trust that the material is the same, that the manufacturing is the same, and even if the product is the same, you're still undercutting all the other US-based suppliers (*assuming that this is truly an apples n' oranges comparison).
Material might be the same, but everybody from the guy at the quarry digging up ore to the guy at the raw-material plant refining it to the guy at the warehouse to the guy selling the stuff, none of them are feeding the family on YOUR dollar, even IF the product is identical in every single way.
The US engineer didn't make any money. The QC guy didn't make any money. The book keeper didn't make money. The CEO didn't make money. When the business closes, even the Janitor stops making money.
Even further, when you buy from China, that shipping to you....people on our side are paying most of it. Thanks to century-old trade agreements, we're paying the shipping on LOTS of imports, and that's how Chinese companies can sell Buy It Now crap on eBay, shipped to your home, for a dollar. So, now the postal service is losing money, and all the people up and down that chain, too. Mechanics. Delivery people. Even the Janitors.
https://reason.com/2019/11/11/american-taxpayers-are-subsidizing-ultra-cheap-shipping-from-china/
The US has standards that protect those people (and you), we have accountability for fraud, we have protection from domestic counterfeits to protect all those jobs AND consumers. When the Chinese lie and rip you off, the wing falls off your airplane and the people that did it....not held accountable. Think about the lead in the paint on your kids' toys. Is the money worth it? The poison in your cats' food? Is the money worth it? The chemicals that we banned here because they cause cancer but are still in use there....Was the money you saved worth it when you look in your wife's eye's during a chemo treatment?
I'm lucky, I am in a financial position where I can spend money to buy the American option, and if it's EVER possible, I do. I only weigh the cost if it's a USA (or at least non-Chinese) product versus same.
Why?
Because I've had friends that sent designs to China to get made, and then after 6 months when they asked where their product was, they were directed to a website where they could buy the product they designed. In that particular case, it was a circuit board for a project that only he cared about, it had NO commercial value what so ever, but that's how the cookie crumbles.
I'm not so poor that I have to suck up crumbs off the floor.
And I'm damn sure not so foolish to send money to people that have actively labeled me their mortal enemy.