reducing the cost of labor

Give it a rest, hypocrite. You're using a cheap chinese made computer to spread your crap and lies while spouting union BS.

Are there any U.S. made PC's? Computer's having all their components manufactured in the U.S. ?

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

Guess it comes down to what you would call corporate greed and power vs. what some of us would call Organized Labor greed and power. The pendulum tends to swing both ways. /mark

I'd hate to tell 'em but that has been true for ever and ever. The first IBM PC's monitor (labeled IBM) was made in Taiwan and I remember my TRS-80 had chips in it that were made in Malaysia.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

Well maybe those destined for the NSA. If I was running the CIA or NSA, I sure wouldn't use off shore computers.

Wes

Where are you going to buy them? NO ONE IN THE UNITED STATES MAKES ALL THE REQUIRED PARTS. They haven't for decades. Even IBM and DEC used foreign made parts in their computers. IBM owned factories in Malaysa and other out of the way places that didn't have the strict regulations, like the EPA in the United States.

What about consumer greed and power -- you and me and Millwright Ron? What do we look for first, the price tag or the country of manufacture?

The cheerful slave labor (typically young Muslim girls who they put up in dorms and supply with chaperones in places like Penang) is probably a lot more of a draw than any apparent laxness of environmental regulations.

Is that why IBM was called "Big Blue"?

"Big Blue" was called that because the cover panels on all their computer equipment was blue,unless you special ordered another color. Sometimes the companies I worked for bought used equipment and once or twice we got a red box or a yellow box. You could buy new blue panels if you wanted all to match.

Paul

WHOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay. Way to go Ron. Bring back the Smoot-Hawley tarriffs of the

RWL

Hey, that's not fair. Because you're probably using a cheap Chinese made computer to spread your crap and lies while spouting anti union BS too. In your case I'm sure of it.

Hawke

There is a big difference though. When the pendulum swings to the side of unions regular working class Americans get more of everything and it improves their lives and helps the whole country. When it swings over to the side of the corporations the only ones who benefit are the company management and stockholders. They then live like aristocrats while ordinary people see their lives get a lot worse. Kind of like it is right now. So tell me, which way is better for the most people?

Hawke

The Asians impose punitive tariffs on our goods and it doesn't seem to have hurt them at all. In fact, they are kicking our asses. Maybe if we had brains we'd copy them. We would say we're all for free trade but then have protectionist policies just like Japan and China. We're not smart enough to do that though and will continue having our asses kicked. And we'll complain a lot.

Hawke

What's your point birdbrain? You and Ron spout the 'Union, or else' BS, yet you use Chinese equipment. I never claimed not to but then, I generally use used systems, built from salvaged parts. That means I didn't buy mine, but you paid your Chinese owner.

It is difficult to believe that you are as naive as you appear to be. Your statement "the only ones who benefit are the company management and stockholders. They then live like aristocrats while ordinary people see their lives get a lot worse" is almost unbelievably uninformed. Have you never heard of CALPERS? One of the largest stockholders/investors in the world with some $236 Billion invested. I suggest that you Google "CALPERS" to discover who/what they are and who the shareholders that benefit are. Hardly aristocrats, Then, perhaps, you might wish re-word your post above.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

The fact is that most Asian countries import very little from the U.S. But you are correct that there are high import duties in most asian countries, with the exception of Singapore, where duties are so low that it is effectively a duty free port.

The reason that they are "kicking our asses" is simply that they manufacture goods at an attractive cost and thus "sell" more goods then they need to "buy".

In Thailand for example, nearly all the imported goods are either raw materials or luxury goods while they are the main manufacturer (world wide) for Toyota and Isuzu pickups.

The real answer is that the U.S. has priced themselves out of the world market.

Let me give you one simple example: I buy Zestril, a medicine for hypertension, in Thailand, for the equivalent of US$ 12.90/30 tabs. I saw it advertized on the Internet, for sale in the U.S. for $48.00/30 tabs. The same medicine, made by the same people, in the same factory. Does that give you a hint why the U.S. is losing business?

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct email address for reply)

You can buy a new Dodge pick truck up in the USA. One assembled in Mexico,one assembled in the U.S. and one assembled in Canada. All three sell for the same price. So I say spend your money where you make it. Buy built in the USA.

Millwright Ron