Absolutely Unacceptable

[marinevet]

I have only flown Annin flags since I put up my flag pole in 2001...............made in America......but I don't know about where they're material comes from..........not a cheap flag.........

 

[sparkyvega]

We all want cheaper pickups, don't we? Ever heard of the chicken tax? This is how our "Representatives" continue to keep cheap imported pickups from flooding our market. It doesn't matter what we want, it's the "Representatives" who decide what products get imported into our country for consumption.

Not to make an issue of it, but we largely did it to ourselves by demanding the lowest possible price from wherever it came. That's what made Wal-Mart and put thousands of small town stores out of business. But, we got lower prices. We should be careful what we ask for as sometimes we get it.

 

[Phenix]

I’m afraid you will have to accept it. It is just the way it is… and it will never go back to the way it was.
If you wanted to buy American every time, that means all the mining would have to be done here all the manufacturing everything.
The reason we can post on this forum from our cell phones is because of the global economy… which involves everything that we do.
The market controls everything and we are generally way better off than we would be if we just didn’t follow the trends.
You could just buy American, but you would have way less because everything would be more expensive.
We are living better lifestyles today than we ever did, and that is purely because of technology and the global market.

I like the old stuff, but that is just me. My sentiment is with the OP, but that is just emotion.
Someday I see myself with a 1956 Chevy, and 1956, Gretsch 6120 and a 1956 five screw pre 29..

They do not make any of those things like they used to… but in fact, as a guitar player, I can tell you that the Gretsch is of today is way better built and more accurate than it was back in the 50s. The tolerance is, the quality control back, then was not what it is today at all..

Smith & Wesson seems to be the opposite by all accounts, but I wouldn’t know because I only get the old stuff.

What is a Gretsch?

 

[Model29-26.5]

What is a Gretsch?

This one right here is from 1956.
Chet Atkins model.
Of the era.
A 1956 Chevy..
There is a certain style and aesthetic to the things that came out around that era. Mid-century modern. With clothing, furniture, and a lot of things..
Kind of like art deco of the 20s. Regardless of what the product is, there was a certain aesthetic to it, whether it was architecture or something else.
The 50s had that.

1956.

 

[tlawler]

I have only flown Annin flags since I put up my flag pole bin 2001...............made in America......but I don't know about where they're material comes from..........not a cheap flag.........

Reading Annin’s history, it appears they source their materials in the U.S.

 

[Bevo84]

What is a Gretsch?

 

[22hipower]

We all want cheaper pickups, don't we? Ever heard of the chicken tax? This is how our "Representatives" continue to keep cheap imported pickups from flooding our market. It doesn't matter what we want, it's the "Representatives" who decide what products get imported into our country for consumption.

I suppose so but isn't it we who select those "representatives?" If we don't like what our representatives our doing it is our responsibility to change them, is it not?

 

[Kardiak]

A different country, but in the same vein of concern over buying from our enemies, I really like my Caniks, Tisas guns seem to be quality as well as other brands made in Turkey.
Sometimes they have been an ally of the USA, other times not.
I was reading just this morning that they have a goal of reviving the Ottoman Empire, that doesn't bode well for our Western values and culture.

Well here in America the DSA is trying to implement communism or at a minimum extreme socialism. Empires come, empires fall...we are the modern day Roman Empire, which eventually fell. I hope we get our **** together before we follow suit. /cheers

 

[damnesia]

This will be unpopular... Made in America doesn't mean what it used to. I'm not saying do or don't buy things made in the US. If the quality is good, I'll buy American first. But because it says Made or Assembled in America, that no longer means it's quality. As an example, I'm very glad I switched to driving Toyota vehicles.

 

[biku324]

Well here in America the DSA is trying to implement communism or at a minimum extreme socialism. Empires come, empires fall...we are the modern day Roman Empire, which eventually fell. I hope we get our **** together before we follow suit. /cheers

Hogwash. Just like 'no new wars,' fiscal responsibility and on and on. Never assume that lying liars won't lie to their believers.

 

[KetsugoJohn]

It would be double the price if it were made in the USA even with the idiotic tariffs...

 

[Brownie0486]

One of the most reliable bmw motorcycles is their F series using a Chinese made motor in the Loncin factory.

 

[Jakerin]

I have well over a dozen S&W knives. They're a great knife for the money. It doesn't matter where they were made, because Smith & Wesson receives the profit from the sale. They're an American company.

If you're that worried about it, take a look under the hood of your "American" car. You'll be hard pressed to find anything that was made, and / or assembled in this country.


View attachment 900834
View attachment 900835

Have you got one of these? I can shave with it.

 

[Travis Montana]

We all have our pros and cons for purchasing USA made goods. For some of us, I am one, I will pay a little bit more for a USA made product. That is just me and it is just in me to support American workers, if possible, over foreign. When I say "If possible." there are some things that are just not made in the USA anymore.
When I am on Amazon I click the Made in USA button to start my search. Was at Farm and Fleet last month looking for a belt. Went through the rack and on about the 10th one found one made in the USA. Into the basket it went. When the NRA or Pheasants Forever have a fund raiser I look at where the product is made. Overseas I just do not participate in that one. Not all parts are from the USA but my Ford truck was built here. When doing any mechanical work I go to the supply house to get USA made pipe and fittings -I only purchase Zoller pumps - no Menards. Most of the time the extra cost is not more than a beer at the local brewery.
Being a firearm forum I will add that I love my Benelli. I could go on about the Italian, Spanish, English, Turkey, Japan, etc. made firearms. We love seeing that London, Birmingham, Italy, Miroku, etc. stamp on the barrel. I admit I do own a few but still in favor my USA made, past and present, firearms.
We debate the point if USA products are better and last longer. Some yes - some no. Some products have to be made to compete with foreign. So do they last longer or better quality. Maybe not but I feel they are not inferior to their competition - and they have that Made in the USA sticker - by American workers.
Back to the thread topic. I carry a Benchmade knife.
​

 

[Patriot Precision]

Where exactly has the OP been the last 50 years ?

Bounced around the tropics for a while, spent a few years in the Middle East, but eventually made it back home.

 

[Oldsalt66]

Fearing China's Army is kind of silly. Their one child only deal wrecked that system and they are a bunch of spoiled brats. The Vietnamese defeated them twice in the 70s easily and the Indians made fools of them. China itself is apparently a showpiece wreck as poor construction of everything is turning into one disaster after another. When the Three Gorges Dam fails and it it will, China will be wrecked from one end to the other. I'd suggest watching "The China Show" on You Tube for a while. Two guys who lived there and tell the truth about that mess. China excels at making precision cranes and heavy machinery, guns when they want to, but most everything else is pretty much sub-par. Their sub-division houses start falling apart within 3 years and projects are built without flood control. They spell corruption with a capital C. Americans are now reading labels and this covers food and consumer products. Vietnam make high quality consumer products, they care, China doesn't. It is a classic example of a crime not seen never happened...

I don't "fear" the Chinese military, but neither do I want to support it either whenever I can help it, nor do I wish to underestimate the capabilities of an enemy.

Those CHICOM MANPADS that are allegedly being smuggled into Iran in order to kill Americans?

https://www.google.com/search?q=chi...rceid=chrome-mobile&source=chrome.ob&ie=UTF-8

I don't want to willingly pay for them; especially by purchasing American Flags or flag decorated items.

 

[Oldsalt66]

BTW: it's a complete fallacy to believe that the import of Chinese goods is a decision based on consumer, rather than corporate, choice.

My daughter owns an import/ export company and shocked me with the information that more than 90% of all wedding gowns, at all price levels, which are sold here in The United States, are actually manufactured in China.

"I want to buy a wedding gown that's been made in China" said no American bride ever.

 

[Travis Montana]

Where exactly has the OP been the last 50 years ?

Let us know how long it takes to get your foot out of your mouth.

 

[Number1gun]

Let us know how long it takes to get your foot out of your mouth.

How does the op being that out of touch with reality equate to a verbal foul ?
It is a post with no basis in real world commerce.
Akin to “old man yells at clouds” for clicks.

Like it or not.
The majority of manufacturing left the U.S. long ago.
It’s not new !

 

[Lt.Donn]

I don't even want to speculate on what our grandkids will be enduring in 20 years . . . . .

I just hope they have 20 years

 

[Oldsalt66]

I just hope they have 20 years

The World Economic Forum:

 

[bwickens]

View attachment 900546So we're shopping the other day when this catches my eye. An American flag covered Smith & Wesson knife honoring America's Heroes. I grad one immediately. I flip the package over, as I always do, and am shocked to find a tiny little MADE IN CHINA under the bar code. Now, i'm new to the Forum, but not to Smith & Wesson. I have 20+ Smith revolvers and im proud to own them. This might be it though. Let's celebrate American heroes by sending our money to China. It was around $30. I put it back. If it was $50 and made in America, I would have bought 4 to hand out to people I consider American heroes. Absolutely unacceptable.

If the shareholders can harvest enough profit from the sale of branded Chinese "gear", the company MIGHT be able to devote more man hours to things like QC.

 

[sparkyvega]

So true, but those "Representatives" we elect often don't seem to represent us, do they...Dems, Repubs (RINOs), they're all the same. They don't represent us, they only represent themselves and their power and pocketbooks.

I suppose so but isn't it we who select those "representatives?" If we don't like what our representatives our doing it is our responsibility to change them, is it not?

 

[Sigma Fanatic]

It is an unfortunate sign of our times that, I suspect, will work to our eventual detriment in the future. Or rather, the young people's detriments, since most of us will not be around to suffer their foolishness. I pity them, but it gets a little harder and harder each day.

Tom

It’s like 250th anniversary and general flag motif guns that are made in Turkey. It’s an insult that they try to sell that crap to us.

 

[Denverd0n]

So true, but those "Representatives" we elect often don't seem to represent us, do they...

Yeah, but for some reason we just keep reelecting them. Even in a really "bad" year for incumbents 70%-80% will still be reelected!

 

[38magnum]

Oh they're gonna be cannon fodder, that's a given. It might take a little more than 20 years but it will happen one way or the other. Now as for China, that's a bit more complicated. It's not JUST Communism. China's history and our history have been joined at the hip, kind of awkwardly at that, for most of 200 years or so now. Same with Japan, Korea, and most of the other Asian countries. But primarily China. Think railroads, ships, trade routes, and such. Then and now it all starts making more sense. It was never really truly an easy relationship, and probably never will be. The Chinese, and indeed most of the Asian countries, are just culturally....devious at times in ways we just never would think of. Trademarks? Patents? Huh? Royalties? Pfft. Labor laws? Ha!
I think you can kind of see where I'm going with this sort of stuff. They have a true hive mentality and we don't, but our idiot yoots think it's the way of the future.

I could go on for HOURS about this but by the end I'd be clubbing yoots, err I mean baby seals, left and right upside the head out of anger, and getting a little tired in the meantime, so I'd just have to stop and catch my breath before I could resume the clubbing again. Yeah, that bad.

What would General Stilwell have thought of all this, I wonder? Old VInegar Joe, he spent 34 years in China and got to know them better than probably any American before or since, from the regular 'coolie' (yes I know, that's an anachronistic term, but it was what they used back then) all the way up to the Generalissismo aka Chiang-Kai-Shek, who Stilwell derisively called "The Peanut" and later on became the Nationalist leader of present day Taiwan after the Communists took over the mainland in 1949. Stilwell by then was long in the ground, the victim of stomach cancer in 1946 and a demand by Chiang to FDR that led to his final recall from China in 1945, which indirectly led to his own loss of the Chinese mainland.

So yeah, it's kinda messy alright. And that's the thing. I know we don't normally discuss international politics here, but I do think it's reasonable to agree that there's one side that agrees that China is NOT our friend and must be dealt with as such with the greatest of caution and the firmest possible hand and the other side is just a bunch of dumb ignorant yoots and old fools who did their bidding and groveled at their feet. I think you know who I refer to.

Tom

Everyone knows the old saying "dont trust a greek that wants to give you a wooden horse statue"

the greeks got the idea from the chinese

 

[Tubatoad]

The big problem for me is that the purposefully made the packaging to match other brands like Buck and Kershaw that put the American Flag across the packages of their American made knives. They wanted you to think it was American made.

Some years back I bought a straight razor (a.k.a. cutthroat) branded "Master USA" on one side, made in china on the other. Won't take or hold an edge.

 

[phil2707]

I don't even want to speculate on what our grandkids will be enduring in 20 years . . . . .

This one right here is from 1956.
Chet Atkins model.
Of the era.
A 1956 Chevy..
There is a certain style and aesthetic to the things that came out around that era. Mid-century modern. With clothing, furniture, and a lot of things..
Kind of like art deco of the 20s. Regardless of what the product is, there was a certain aesthetic to it, whether it was architecture or something else.
The 50s had that.

1956.
View attachment 901129

Ouahh !!!!! This Gretsch is really wonderful !!! And yes, the 50's made so much amazing stuff. Cars, for instance...when i see an old 50's or 60's car in a movie, i always ask myself: what have we done? Why ? Look at the cars now!!!

I bought my leather jacket and gloves at Harley Davidson St Paul Minnesota around 20 years ago. At this time, the money change was very interisting for us in France, and the shipping was cheap. When i received my jacket and gloves, i could not believe my eyes!!!
It was made in Mexico!
I still have it and i still wear it. It's good quality and well made but i was very surprised and disappointed.
Now in France we no longer produce anything. China is everywhere. When rarely it's not China, it's north Africa or south Asia, sometimes east Europe...
If you add the heat and the migrants, you have the end of our country, way of life, gastronomy, etc....
I stop writing because it's not a forum for that. Sorry.

LONG LIVE SMITH &WESSON!!
(Made in.....?)

 

[steelslaver]

Just remember that it is capitalist that are responsible for the fact that most of the things for sale in America are imported. Better profit margin importing goods made with cheap foreign labor than from paying Americans decent wages and investing in the needed infrastructure. Cracks me up that a lot of those
saying *buy American made" are invested in companies that profit off imports.

 

[Truckman]

Yeah, but for some reason we just keep reelecting them. Even in a really "bad" year for incumbents 70%-80% will still be reelected!

Term limits: one term in office and one term in prison......Ben