Chinese invasion ?

[UFB Fabrication]

Every day I get multiple emails about all kinds of crap from China. LED, Led message centers and in the past few days substrates like MDO HDU foam PVC and plex. Also seen a few for actual signs.

Folks the job you save may be your own. Buy American if possible please folks !

[Erik Sine]

Heh, I thought this thread was going to be about the 2012 ISA Expo. Sorry.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[UFB Fabrication]

Heh, I thought this thread was going to be about the 2012 ISA Expo. Sorry.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well I am sure its as bad this year as well. When I was talking with Carl at Computerized Cutters, the blighters were setting cards down to photograph with lines that I am sure the were measuring his machine to copy. I am sure anyone else that had any kind of design worth stealing is already being copied. Well .....copy this ! (rude hand gesture)

[Snoochie]

Every day I get multiple emails about all kinds of crap from China. LED, Led message centers and in the past few days substrates like MDO HDU foam PVC and plex. Also seen a few for actual signs.

Folks the job you save may be your own. Buy American if possible please folks !

God Bless you my American brother. This is a sore subject with me and I couldn't agree with you more........

It pisses me off when "Made in China" is on the label of the multitude of crappy products that are shoved down our throats. I buy only Klein tools for my personal use even though they are more expensive. Made in Chicago, Illinois USA.

A family member, a short while ago,got back from Iraq and I have another serving in Afghanistan and guess what, not one Chinese soldier is there standing shoulder to shoulder with our servicemen.........not one. All they do is fuel mischief around the world and our fine upstanding "Multi National corporations based in the USA kiss their hind ends on a non stop basis to make a cheap buck.

You got it right my friend, buy American where possible. Demand more products are made here in "Our" country.The next job lost could be your own........

Dominic

[UFB Fabrication]

With Google as you friend or search engine of choice you can find stuff made in the states. I found some clothing mfg and even a nice local running shoe company.New Balance is made in the good ole USof A. I read also a company is getting ready to sell US TV's. Same goes for cars insist on a American assembled owned car. Yes a bunch of companies assemble cars in the US but profit engineering and so on goes elsewhere.

Sorry I could go on.

[Snoochie]

With Google as you friend or search engine of choice you can find stuff made in the states. I found some clothing mfg and even a nice local running shoe company.New Balance is made in the good ole USof A. I read also a company is getting ready to sell US TV's. Same goes for cars insist on a American assembled owned car. Yes a bunch of companies assemble cars in the US but profit engineering and so on goes elsewhere.

Sorry I could go on.

Hey, you kicked me like the proverbial "Missouri Mule". I forgot to add that all my vehicles, both business or personal, are either Ford or Chevrolet.

You can keep those "Rice Rocket" cars and stick em where the sun don't shine.

Continued success to you and your company. Likewise to all those on this board. Sorry to rant, but I am a firm believer in "Made in the USA"' And like something a family member always tells me. You can outsource and build just about anything in a foreign except one thing.......... A United States Marine.

Dominic

[tdewitt]

How many of your local school districts offer entry level trade classes on campus? I was fortunate enough to go to our school district when the offered woodworking and automotive, they however had dropped welding 2 years before I was eligible to take it. Then 1 year after I graduated they dropped woodworking and automotive. Said it was much less expensive to operate with out these classes. Now if you were to walk through that school and ask any of the kiddos what a circular saw was they tell you it was a saw used to cut circles DUH! Like totally!

So this is where we need to start in my opinion, get some trades back in our schools. Then our kids will be at least able to change their own engine oil and fix the front door when the thing is sticking because the mexicans that laid the foundation used shotty practices and now the house is settling!

[burkeenterprise]

It's not just products that are invading us ANY time you call a teck company you get India, Phillipines, or if your lucky Mexico. I now always insist on talking to someone in the USA and have for several years. The one sticking point is computer anti-virus companies it can take days to get an American on the phone

[SignQuarters]

How many of your local school districts offer entry level trade classes on campus? I was fortunate enough to go to our school district when the offered woodworking and automotive, they however had dropped welding 2 years before I was eligible to take it. Then 1 year after I graduated they dropped woodworking and automotive. Said it was much less expensive to operate with out these classes. Now if you were to walk through that school and ask any of the kiddos what a circular saw was they tell you it was a saw used to cut circles DUH! Like totally!

So this is where we need to start in my opinion, get some trades back in our schools. Then our kids will be at least able to change their own engine oil and fix the front door when the thing is sticking because the mexicans that laid the foundation used shotty practices and now the house is settling!

Working in woodshop, metal shop and machanics was awesome when I was in school. I actually got to build, furniture, dust pan, dinner bell and work on my own car. How to opporate small power tools has benefitted me my entire life. These things should be offered in school.

I am all about the built in the USA. You are correct, the job you save may be your own if you buy american. There is something so completely annoying about calling two weeks after buying something for some technical support and finding your self transferred several times, between people that don't speak english and can not help you.

The LED sign manufacturer I work for, ,manufactures all but a couple of components in the signs we sell. I stand behind that. I can walk into the plant, and watch americans working to support their families. It is not an assembly plant. They are actually manufacturing. It is something to be proud of.

[Sharon Toji]

When I was on our local school board back in the early seventies, I was also the Board President of our local Regional Occupation Program (ROP). I really believe in the ROP program, but now it doesn't receive enough funding (just like our community colleges, which are also starving for funding), and has long waiting lists. I also taught cooking in junior high school, along with academic subjects (because I had 12 years of 4-H -- thank goodness, and a mother who taught me how to do all that stuff), and two of my sons took automotive and electronics classes.

I went to graduate school in Germany, where they have a fantastic apprenticeship program that many kids benefit from. I even saw apprentices working in gas stations, being carefully trained in everything from customer service to typical repair jobs, and knew people who apprenticed as silversmiths, and potters, and every other possible kind of vocation and craft. This gives people who don't want either a technical (like engineering or medicine), artistic (like conservatory or art school), or academic (university) education a real opportunity to become skilled and ready to work. It's frankly much better, in my opinion, than the union apprenticeship programs, which are limited to just a few trades, and subject to nepotism and other abuses. Our system also throws people into for profit technical schools that charge huge fees, and often don't really provide much for the money. Young people get stuck with loan payments for years, and still may not be qualified for jobs.

Although I value my own university education, which was excellent, and want everyone who has an interest in academic subjects to be able to pursue one for a reasonable fee, regardless of their background, I also equally value all the crafts and trades that are so necessary, in my opinion, to our community if we are not going to just be a nation of fast food servers and scam artists. I want us to be able to make things, and repair things, and invent and design things that we can use and sell, even to other countries. Germany's success today relies a great deal on the fact that they are still an industrial country, and they make things for export, things that, on the whole, work well.

I'm already seeing a few instances where even custom ADA signs are being imported from countries overseas. Someone has a connection in another country, and actually finds it's cheaper to send art files by email over there, and have the signs shipped here, than to hire American workers. I find that criminal, especially when they are being installed in American schools at taxpayer expense!

Frankly, I'd much rather see us legitimatize immigrant workers here, and have them paying taxes here, and buying their daily purchases here, than see companies saving money by shipping jobs to other countries. Those foreign workers don't spend a penny here in this country, nor do they pay any taxes here. Thank about it!

Sharon Toji

Edited March 17, 2012 by Sharon Toji