Thanks alot China


Mingo Assist

Mingo Assist

re·sus·ci·tat·ing the EL
:mad:

Couple of days ago I decided to go to the local Salvation Army and Goodwill to see if anyone stopped off and donated some things I could use on the layout.
I dont mind going to either location because 1 I can help out those who help others and 2, I get really great deals on things.

Welp this came to a complete HALT..
I went in and noticed the area in which both places places items such as models, toys, trains etc etc has been completely removed by the commanders order due to the lead issue that recently happened in the toys from mattel and etc.

THIS MAJORLY P me O

Is anyone else ran into this in there area ?
 
Oh, I had not thought of that. A local store had a train set for the last few months, and its gone now... I wonder...
 
Perhaps it's time to just stop buying China made goods. Impossible at best, I know, but if you can do without it and it's made in China, Then Do Without It. Try to find another product, preferably one made by an American "Owned" company. I don't mean just US companies, that goes for Canadians too. We're all North Americans. Made in the Home country is Great. Made by a Home country company is Good. China, Hong Kong, Singapore is Not Good.

I do without a lot of things because they're made overseas. I drive a Ford not toyota, and Ride a Harley Davidson not honda, own a Colt not baretta, Goodyear Tires not bridgestone, and even though my RCA TV is made overseas, RCA is still an American based company, the lions share of the profits come back to america.

Send business the message. They sent these jobs overseas for cheaper labor but did NOT pass on this cost savings to us as lower prices. They could move manufacturing back here and still keep the prices where they are. All it means is a 5 digit bonus at years end instead of a 6 digit bonus for them.

Oops? did I poke a bee;s nest with this?

Scoot
 
I wonder how many of the diecast vehicles I've been buying for the past year also have this lead issue? Probably some so I won't start licking them now. :)

As usual in the United States, our response to small hazards is panic while real hazards, like traffic deaths, hardly even make the news.
 
Printer said:
...Ride a Harley Davidson not honda...


Scoot
Click to expand...

Scoot;

An old friend in Mobile has this on a T-shirt. Told him I want one too!:D

"There are two types of motorcycle riders in the world..."
"Those that ride Harleys and those that wish they did!"

I like it!:D;)
 
Printer said:
I drive a Ford not toyota
Click to expand...

Funny. That Ford (not necessarily yours) was probably made in Mexico, while that Toyota was manufactured in the United States. Funny how that works out.

The market dynamics of the automotive industry have shifted so much that, in many cases, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, and many foreign-brand cars on America's roads are now more of an "American" product than Ford or GM. (hecho en Mexico). And, unlike Detroit, these companies actually have a future 10 years from now. Good riddance, I say...
 
They call Harley's 2 wheel Corvairs here.

My Chevy Prism is actually a Toyota Corolla funny thing though it's still an American made car (California) made by American's ,delivered to Michigan by American's,sold by American's,owned by an American (card carrying Cherokee,me) but it's still a foreign car -go figure.Oh yeah,I forgot serviced by Americans.

Funny story ,to me anyway.Chevy dealer I bought car from had a Toyota dealer next door ,where said Chevy dealer bought replacement parts for the Prizms.I wanted to buy the Toyota available ground effects kit for the Corolla ,Toyota parts guy informed me the Corolla parts would not fit my Prism.:D The Chevy parts guy went next door and bought them for me .Oh,and he saved me money on the deal.

Now to get back to trains ,said Prism is my train show transportation and hauls our TTRAK layout.:D
 
I'm driving a '93 T-Bird that was assembled here. My Brother-in-law still works at the Rouge Plant. My H-D 'corvair' is a '64, my brother-in-law rides a '48 panhead. Still running strong. Where are the '48 honda's or kawasaki's? Even the '64's?
I have a friend who went to work for the Jap plant in Tennessee. They wanted him to sing the company song and do jumping jacks before his shift. He quit and went to work for Saturn.
When they own us, they dictate to us. Yep we build 'em for the foreigners, we haul 'em for the foreigners, we sell 'em for the foreigners. The foreigners get our dollars and we get to do what they tell us to do.
Ford holds 51% of Mazda stock. so Mazda is a division of Ford. So is Jaguar, Land Rover and others.
My Mother spent 22 years at Chrysler in the Highland Park Offices. My Dad 20 years at Ford Rouge. I was raised to believe that we need to keep our own money at home. I survived the 40% unemployment of the 80s and see that we're headed there again. If not Unemployment then underemployment. where you can't afford to buy the thing you sell. I almost said thing you make but everything seems to be made in China.

Now as for trains? When does the FEC start buying Japanese rolling stock or Chinese motive power. ;-)

To each his own but I for one will not by foreign products if I can help it. I'll do without some things that aren't necessary. I realize that in a global market I have to buy Chinese or Foreign Junk in many cases, but if I have a choice????

Scoot
 
Printer said:
the Jap plant in Tennessee.
Click to expand...

I won't even begin to tell you how offensive this term is... it is a racial slur. For shame. I know you are above that sort of thing.

Back to the topic, it is indeed entertaining to see you applying a 1970s/1980s mentality to the complex multinational networks that exist in this highly globalized world. In this new world, the products you buy that you THINK are "American" are not, while many "Jap" products you despise are actually American. How many people are being laid off at GM and Ford versus how many new hires are occurring at Toyota America?

And you forget that American car companies are in decline because they have been horribly mismanaged, at every step failing to understand the consumer market. Instead of delivering quality products with high fuel efficiency, what does GM do? They introduce the gas-guzzling Hummer in an age of skyrocketing gas prices, and continue to shove monster SUVs down our throats all the while promoting an unsustainable lifestyle based on driving an oversized vehicle that gets 20 some odd mpg highway.

Who would have thought, back in the 1970s, that Toyota would become the largest and most prosperous automotive company in the world, while GM would be a dinosaur on its way to extinction? Detroit brought its own demise upon itself, and it truly deserves whatever happens to it.

Lastly, Detroit's ultimate demise will be a severe wake-up call to many American businesses, in a host of industries, that they had better get ontop of their game and start becoming innovators again, instead of watching their market share vanish to foreign competitors who continually outwit and out-strategize American companies every step of the way.

There is certainly a major crisis in this country, and blind patriotism will do nothing to change the course of our country for the better.

But I'm not here to argue, and it's hard to revert this forum topic back to trains since it had very little to do with trains to begin with!
 
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Scoot Saturns are made in Brazil as well, I know this because my company uses a small saturn motor for boats. Not really that good of an engine.
 
Oh, and you said nothing of many American cars being made in Mexico, while many Japanese cars are made in the "good ol' U.S of A"!
 
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Mingo Assist said:
hmmm. layout .. trains...layout... trains....your right.

i apologize
Click to expand...

I'll try, here is a photo colage I made with train box labels (mostly) and an American flag I recieved at a 4th of July parade.

MadeInChina.jpg
 
Well, I'll stop here then. But I think we're failing to see the big picture. I don't want my grandchildren carrying Chinese passports or bowing to Chairman Mao or the Emperor. It CAN happen here.

And Political Correctness is just Tyranny with Manners.

At least the Flag is displayed right. Upside down as the International Sign for an American in Distress.

my last post in this off topic thread... ***whoopee***
Scoot
 
I think you are missing the point here gentlemen . We are controlled by big buisness . We do not control our destines !!
 
No matter how much people hate foreign made stuff everything electronic you touch in a one day has some sort of foreign made parts in it. Think about all of those silicon chips in your computer or phones or TVs. Most of those are made in Hong Kong, Korea, etc.
 
Yes Nick, that is true, but all of that stuff used to be made here and much of it is still designed here. I believe the real threat comes from the imbalance of trade not the fact that it is made somewhere else. Other countries are allowed to have huge import tariffs on American goods while we only tag on a token amount to imports to theoretically even up the competition. Well, if there are no American plants, there is no competition.

You guys may laugh at this all you want, but I encourage you to look/search "The New World Order". No, this is not paranoia or science fiction, just something that needs to be in the back of your mind. Even the History channel has ran a series on it and former President Gerald Ford slipped when he mentioned, the then, uncommon term. Is it possible? Think about it. I think that I will shut up about it or the men in black may show up at my door.:eek: ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(conspiracy)
 
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I'm not laughing at that, but I believe we shot ourselves in the foot on the whole sending work over to another country. We did this by having people in some of the BIG 3 plants that work simple jobsand wanted to get paid +$25/hr and people wondered why these companies were going under with unions wanting their lowest assembly workers getting paid $25/hr or better. And I do know this for a fact from a few family friends that worked at these plants and what their jobs entailed.
 
Yes, thanks China! The toys we like to play with are cheap because they are made by people who don't live in the United States. If our toys were made here, they'd be very expensive, because the people making them would expect to be paid a fair wage for a day's work (and I'm fully willing to support that). I don't mind paying whatever price for my toys because they are something I get satisfaction out of playing with, just as I don't mind paying for a round of golf at a nice golf course. If I pay more, it means I get fewer toys, but that's okay. I have plenty already and I can keep busy with what I have.

I don't know if I'm supporting a dictator by buying Chinese-made toys (I'm not familiar enough with their current form of government, and frankly I don't care to know much about it), but I know on some level I'm supporting terrorists by buying oil (since much of it comes from areas rife with terrorism). And plastic is derived from oil, so I guess my plastic toys are supporting bin Ladin, too.

Now, health concerns are one thing. Clearly, the paint used to decorate a certain production run of toys was dangerous on some level. I think there's a reason to get rid of those dangerous toys. But, if you're worried solely about the economic and political trappings of playing with toys, how are you having fun playing with your toys? There are far bigger problems to concentrate on, in my humble opinion. My solution: I don't worry about it.
 
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Ah heck, Ryan, we have passed "the lead in toys" to solving the woes of global economics.:D

Nick, I had a neighbor that worked for Delphi-Harrison (GM) and made $23/hr putting parts in a box. That's nothing, your man in the brown van that delievers your train goodies averages over $60K/year.:eek:
 
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