[orange, proud]
I’m willing to pay more for products MADE IN THE USA because I’m a based patriot who wants to SUPPORT REAL AMERICANS
[green, accusatory]
OK then how about supporting american workers by paying them a living wage?
[orange, dismissively shaking their hands while having a look of absolute disgust on their face]
NO
[the comic is squished into a funneling triangle shape for some reason]
Certain companies have tried this in a heads-up fashion: offer both the USA made option and one made overseas. The catch is the one made in the USA is 3x more expensive.
0% of people bought the USA-made one.
Source
One challenge is that the lifestyle that people have come to expect is only affordable by outsourcing production to other countries for slave labour prices.
People want 7 pairs of running shoes, to own every kitchen and garage gadget possible, and to buy little items as pick-me-ups every few weeks. There would be an outcry at children picking our food for 3 cents a day or indentured servants making our clothes if it were visible, but these services are shipped far enough away that most people can just smile and enjoy their new $30 shoes without seeing the abuse. And if you tell them about it, they say they are poor too, which is the equivalent of covering your ears and screaming “la la la la la” to avoid processing it.
The few Made In America products with a 200% premium over the overseas competition I am aware of are not short on customers.
Of the many, many, many, “66% off from the factory” overseas products out there, almost none reach American retail shelves without a markup that gets them within 25% of the price of their “locally”-produced counterparts.
Your “certain companies” set-up those consumers to fail, in order to convince share-holders that their brands wouldn’t suffer from off-shoring production.
You should try being more selective with your sources.
Name one.
Could I interest you in a https://www.jjgeorgestore.com/the-smarter-scrubber/
admitedly, I’m not certain that they’re not short on customers he made them a few years ago and they’re still being sold, could just be backstock
Okay that’s pretty cool, still yeah idk if i can afford that when i can buy a basic scrubber for two bucks.
Agreed, but his bit about scrubber wire coming off and getting swallowed has made me strongly consider buying one of these.
Absolutely not. No normal people are buying it. People dedicated to buy in the USA were.
All those components he purchased were at the best possible price they could give him.
We don’t have enough manufacturing capability anymore to have internal competition. We can’t compete against china so we don’t even try.
The owners and stock-holders get the lions share and we’re left paying $2 for a $0.10 bolt.
We get it, you’re the bottom of the triangle. That a flex where you’re from?
I dont even know what flex means lmao im too old for that stuff
I’m probably older than you, or at least my adult children still answer the phone when I call and I’ll almost-certainly spend time with any grand-babies when that day comes.
“Out-of-touch” isn’t the flex you think it is either. Oh, and “flex” comes from workout-culture - its probably older than either of us.
Okay well have a nice day
Destin from the YouTube channel Smarter Every Day had a hand in the creation of this. Is a great video highlighting the dire situation of US manufacturing.
https://youtu.be/3ZTGwcHQfLY
That dude always creeps me out. Something about him always feels uncannily fake.
“one”
I think you’re missing my point. It’s not that “people don’t buy American, even though it’s more expensive.” I’m saying that when done in a heads-up way, Americans will nearly unanimously choose the lower cost option instead of buying American; not because it’s American, but because it’s cheaper. Out of the examples of Redwing boots and Lodge cookware, how much cheap, disposable trash is purchased instead of the highly durable, more expensive goods?
I understand this is “hand-wavy” and I do not intend it with snark: my sources are literally every big-box and online retailer inventory sheet in the US, especially at America’s largest retailers; Walmart and Amazon to name a few.
Also, I would say that companies in nearly all cases benefit financially by offshoring of production. Their sales may take a short term hit, but any decrease in sales is vastly outweighed by hysterically larger profit margins.
My point is that cost is the driver, not moral stance. I’m also not judging. Looking at the average income in the US vs GDP, it’s entirely understandable behavior.
I also don’t want to piss you off, but you seem upset. Is it fair to say that you prefer to buy American? If so, good for you. We should pay all workers what they’re worth, Americans included. This comment is on a cartoon, brother. I’m just saying “yes, and…”
Bro it’s literally presented as the same fucking product why would anyone pay $100 more for the same fucking product??
You’re regurgitating pro-corporate, pro-offshoring talking-points as if they justify lying-to and manipulating consumers. That’s not just saying “yes, and…”
You quoted someone-else’s yes-and, and picked a particularly-shitty someone to quote. You could have just taken the L, but wasted 5 paragraphs to wrap-up with “but oh btw, this is all meaningless”.
I prefer to buy local yes, but I’ll take Canadian, Mexican, or anything made in South America as close-enough to “Made in America”. As it is, there’s a great many (quality, price irrelavent)products that won’t reach me from those places, couldn’t tell you if quality versions are even still made in the Americas today, what with logic like yours deciding the supply-chain behind closed-doors, but I can get them from any number of SE Asian countries by way of my local Big-box.
If I’m going that route, I prefer to cut-out the middle-man -I’m no stranger to alibaba/ali-express, and all sorts of niche sellers around the globe, except:
As you say, I often don’t have the budget for quality, origin be damned. End-up having to modify or retrofit things I buy instead. If I’m lucky, they last long enough for me to obtain better versions, probably used. Local second-hand does just fine when Local-made is unobtainium, and has the virtue of not enriching the big-box stores that try to put everything smaller out of business.