The Problem of Trying to Sell MADE IN USA

[Rob01]

LOL

 

[farmerjohn]

Been Thinking about this for a bit. Seems the problem is the trade treaties we have formed with the world and especially NAFTA. Our major industries have found that it is more profitable to build entire plants in South America and import them here, while Japan and Korean's major auto manufactures are building plants here. Cheap labor in other countries keeps cost down and the new plants built here are not bound by the standard wage structures already bargained for by the UAW. If a US auto maker builds a new plant here they are bound by contracts already in place.

Further, there are no more auto parts made in this country. You can't buy a new alternator or most other electrical parts made in the USA. We must find a method that takes away, the profit margin gained, by outsourcing from outside our boarders.

Further, what is gained, if we become environmentally clean and other countries, pay no attention to it. We lose the jobs and still the world is being polluted. We shut down the coal industry. Not only did we lose hundreds of thousands of coal related jobs, but other countries picked up the added industrial jobs that depended on coal for their manufacturing. The steel industry depended heavily on coal in their manufacturing process. They were forced to install devices to output less pollution. This was costly and added to the cost of steel here.

We started this process many years ago. First we gave incentives to companies who built factories in 3rd world countries in order to build up their economies. Well how did that benefit us? Then we imported outsourced products with no tax. Wow, that really helped our bottom line. We even loaned these folks enough money at low rates to take our jobs away. Sooner or later we will crash and burn and become a 3rd world economy. No country can sustain the entitlements given here without going belly up. Won't be long before we will need a wheel barrow to haul enough cash just to buy a loaf of bread. that is if you can find a bakery.

Sorry for the long rant, once I get started on a subject it consumes me.

That said it far better than I could, I turned 75 today and am in fair shape. Don't worry so much for me but hate to think about what my grandchildren will be facing. Thank you urbanrifleman for what you are trying to do...
John

 

[X-Caveman]

I’m pretty cynical by nature, but this hobby gives me hope for domestic manufacturing like no other. Sure, scopes are a tough ask, but if you want the very best in the world of any of the below, it’s likely made in the USA.

Barrels
Actions
Stocks
Chassis
Suppressors
Brakes
Bullets
Presses
Reamers
Chronographs
Steel Targets
Boutique/ specialty accessories like you & I make

Plus, we have the best gunsmiths on the planet to put it all together for us. I think we’re blessed.

 

[GeoffR]

I have been selling specialised communications/electronics stuff (in Australia and New Zealand) made in the USA for 25 years. Still do. It is still made in Minnesota and is of a quality recognised (both hardware and software) as superior to anything coming out of Asia in its field.

I have customers who have been burnt by the cheaper stuff and now purchase what I sell specifically because it is made in the USA. Unused PCB tracks are literally coated in gold. To stop corrosion of the tracks. I haven't seen that anywhere else.

It has been difficult at times because it tends to be more expensive. But to their credit the company in St. Paul has never succumbed to the temptation of shifting manufacturing or product engineering to Asia. Arguably this is paying off now.

 

[farmerjohn]

I’m pretty cynical by nature, but this hobby gives me hope for domestic manufacturing like no other. Sure, scopes are a tough ask, but if you want the very best in the world of any of the below, it’s likely made in the USA.

Barrels
Actions
Stocks
Chassis
Suppressors
Brakes
Bullets
Presses
Reamers
Chronographs
Steel Targets
Boutique/ specialty accessories like you & I make

Plus, we have the best gunsmiths on the planet to put it all together for us. I think we’re blessed.

You are 100% right about that!! Maybe we need more optimism, you made me feel better anyway... thanks John

 

[Downeast]

But we need "mo money" to buy "mo rifles and mo reloading stuff".

 

[Downeast]

One other factor is our standard of living. The standard of living for a common Chinese or Indian or Vietnamese worker is far below ours. They do not need 2 cars and a truck, a big house, a boat, A/C, a riding lawnmower, an expensive rifle with expensive glass, vacation leave, meat three times a day, and so on. Thus, they do not need to make $20 a hour to support their families and their lifestyle.
Now compare Japan to the USA. They both have about the same standard of living. Japanese love to travel and entertain and overall live a very urban lifestyle, much like our own city dwellers. Average Japanese income is about $38,000 a year and for an american, $40,000.

 

[rjtfroggy]

I'm reminded of the last days of Eastern Fine Paper Co., located in Brewer, Maine. Tankers from Norway holding 1000's of gallons of pulp would tie up offshore and pump it into the mill to make the paper. The reason? It was cheaper to buy the pulp and have it shipped from there, than to make it in a state that is 95% forest covered. Go figure!

Chris Mitchell

Smitty My mother is from Maine-Canada way up north where the border was just a line on a map, nobody new it or cared about it.
Some of her cousins worked for the paper company and the wood company and around fifteen years ago they told us how the state of Maine pushed the paper mill over to the Canadian side and the wood cutters were just about shut down because of the states refusal to work with the companies on taxes, where as New Brunswick jumped at the chance for the business to move over there. A mere 6 mile move with at the time an ultra modern new plant that kept an put people to work 24/7/365.
Result- paper is now made in Canada.

 

[jdh47]

How bout plywood and laminates make on ships off shore? our government working for us?

 

[urbanrifleman]

I’m pretty cynical by nature, but this hobby gives me hope for domestic manufacturing like no other. Sure, scopes are a tough ask, but if you want the very best in the world of any of the below, it’s likely made in the USA.

Barrels
Actions
Stocks
Chassis
Suppressors
Brakes
Bullets
Presses
Reamers
Chronographs
Steel Targets
Boutique/ specialty accessories like you & I make

Plus, we have the best gunsmiths on the planet to put it all together for us. I think we’re blessed.

Shooting bench kits. I am hoping to sell a few of these.

Just need more ideas.

 

[xring]

Maybe it's my imagination , but very recently I see a lot more stuff like T-Shirts , etc . in WallyWorld made not in China .......but elsewhere . One of the best winter coats I ever bought was made in Mongolia ( of all places ) , and that was over a decade ago . I am trying to buy as much non-Chinese stuff as I can ....... my choice ! I see and talk to a lot of Doctors ( you know the Mercedes crowd ) . Guess where they are investing now ( at least before Covid ) ? You're wrong ..... it's Africa .....Really CHEAP Labor .

 

[BronzeArcher]

I would love for someone to explain to me how a half blind guy can see better with an expensive scope. they are not corrective lenses. I cant even see the big E on top of the eye chart but I put my glasses on and have 20/20. a cheap or expensive scope makes no difference for me my glasses do

The eye chart is a static test under controlled conditions when you are only worried about one chart a fixed distance away.

More magnification with a clearer sight picture is the simplest explanation. The higher end scopes also make it easier to remove parallax and adjust the focus, windage, and elevation just right.

Shooting is a dynamic exercise with the need to both have the right hold and send it at the right instant - check last shot hit location, check wind flags, line up cross hairs, chamber round, watch wind flags until optimal moment - fine adjust on cross hairs - send it. Doing all that quickly and efficiently is easier with younger eyes - or if one does not have younger eyes, with a NF with 32X magnification than with a Leupold with 20-25X. A lot of the Leupolds with 1/4 MOA adjustments still require the slightest off-center hold in elevation. With 1/8 MOA adjustments, most shooters just hold to the vertical center and only hold off for windage.

Some things are better shown than explained. I'm really more of a fan of the $1k Leupolds than the $2k NF scopes. But I'd be lying if I said it isn't easier for my old eyes to shoot well through the NF. If I'm patient on a nice calm day, there's probably not much point difference. But when there's a lot going on and I need to send it at just the right instant, the NF probably saves me 2-4 dropped points over a 60 round course of fire.

 

[wagonman]

Shooting bench kits. I am hoping to sell a few of these. View attachment 1195384

Just need more ideas.

how soon could these be for sale? I need a set

 

[davidjoe]

I wonder what that emblem means.

 

[xring]

Skunkworks ? Question for Afret : Why are they not flying anymore and is that an SR-71 ?

 

[bowfisher]

IMO corrupt politicians are mostly responsible. US had one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Makes more sense for companies to move offshore and then import. Importation takes permission from the Gov't. Who controls the permission, who gives Favored Trade Status ?? And then takes " lobby " money to help them make their decisions ?? And then forms their own shell companies and gets to put their kids on foreign state run company boards, ie. Hunter Biden?? The same corrupt politicians.

One of the main reasons the leftist hate DJT, is that he is undermining their pyramid scheme that they have set up over the last 30 years. Fact.

Unbridled unions are also responsible, companies that could move to avoid being told what to do, did...unfortunately the most inefficient " company " in the US now is the state and federal gov't, stuffed with workers that can't be fired for basically any reason, can only be hired if they are the correct color and/or gender, but they keep getting pay raises and soaking the taxpayers...they need to be "out-sourced " IMO.

Thanks to the OP for trying, I appreciate it.

 

[whatwind?]

capitalism....you dont get to pick when you do and dont want free market capitalism....

 

[dc.fireman]

Many times, it is the American worker, who runs business overseas. I started at Bethlehem Steel at 18 years old There were 32,000 employees there, at that time. What hurt the mill the most, was the benefits bargained for by the unions. Every time a contract was nearing expiration, the mills worked everyone overtime to build up a large inventory. Then at settlement, came the layoffs, as there was too much stock and the increase in wages and benefits drove the price of steel ever higher. I left the mill at 21 and became a police officer because I could count on being paid Ever week 52 weeks a year.

Many were getting 4 and 5 weeks vacation and every 5 years everyone got an extra 13 weeks vacation. Then there was the guaranteed wage. If you were laid off for any reason, the company had to pay the difference between unemployment and your hourly rate. After unemployment ended, the company then was forced to pay you 100%.

Maryland built a bridge, "The Key Bridge, which overlooked Sparrows Point. You could literally spit off the bridge and land on their property. It was cheaper to use Japanese steel than buy from the mill.

It was the United States that built their steel mills, which were more modern the ours and could make steel much cheaper. This was done after the 2nd world war.

We reap what we sow.

I've been there several times... that place was HUGE - as big as some of the small sized cities in the upper midwest I've travelled through!

 

[AccelR8]

I read this entire thread with great interest. I was going to add my two cents on manufacturing but someone else already made the point so...

I will just add my two cents on optical quality and aging.

I needed a spotting scope to see bullet holes at 200, 300 and beyond. I had no spotting scope because I had only recently started shooting in earnest. Needing to make an economical choice, I researched. I just wanted to see bullet holes. I didn't need (I thought) a top quality scope.

Well, maybe I shouldn't mention a brand name but it's Italian...the 20-60x100 scope was new to the US market and the reviews were fantastic. 5 star. Highest recommendations. Comments like “so bright, sharp, high resolution...equal to scopes costing many times as much.”

I ordered one. I could not have been more disappointed. Despite the 100mm objective lens, on anything other than a bright sunny day it is dim and washed out. I cannot see bullet holes in paper beyond about 150 yards, certainly not at 200, on any magnification. But, I can see them easily with an old high quality target scope at 18x. I can see the spotter on the target as well at 200 with the naked eye. The image is of course bigger in the scope, but the resolution and contrast is horrible. If the sun is not shinning directly on the target, forget it.

Leaves me with a problem though when shooting service rifle with or irons a 4x scope...the spotting scope is not of much use across the course. I usually manage to borrow a scope but it would be nice to have my own.

My point is, yeah for me in my 60's, optical glass quality makes a really big difference. Maybe those guys giving rave reviews of the spotting scope were all in their early 20's, I don't know.

 

[urbanrifleman]

how soon could these be for sale? I need a set

Few weeks I hope. I can put them on the website but I don't have any painted yet.