Way OT Chinese made American Flag

[Tin Falcon]

Guys:
We see Chinese Imports everywhere. We go to Wally world and the like it is there we go to flea markets and there is lots of it. Most of us own Chinese import tools and accessories.
I saw something yesterday that bothered me. I was at Rough & Tumble in Kinzers PA at the Time of harvest show . There was a dealer selling the typical cheap junk import tools . looked like old stock Harbor Freight got rid of. O K nothing I have not seen before . But what bothered me was a guy buying these Chinese import American flags. Is nothing sacred. I know we still make these here.
I have a flag displayed in my front window it has been there since shortly after 09-11-01 it was made by these guys http://www.annin.com/ the same folks that made the one on the moon. shouldn't an American flag be made in USA by Americans?
TIN Falcon
USAF Reserve retired

 

[wareagle]

The bad thing on this is it really isn't the Chinese's fault. Someone stateside placed an order, and the Chinese just filled it as they would anything else.

Sometimes I really wonder where we are heading!!

 

[lugnut]

Waregle's right it's not the Chinese's fault, We have sold our soles to them and I'm afraid much more. Sad :cry:
Mel

 

[Tin Falcon]

The other thing that irked me is when I was still in the Air national Guard I was issued a new set of steel toed work boots made in china. Urrggh.
I know economics is a big part of it. If a US company set up shop in NY City and employed a hundred Chinese workers and paid them a meager wage of say $.25 an hour plus fed them a couple bowls of rice a day and gave a cot to sleep on it would be called a sweat shop . if caught there would be heavy fines. Everyone would be appalled.
If the same company rents a factory in Shanghai and makes the same product under similar conditions it is considers cost savings and good business.
Tin

 

[tattoomike68]

I went to a tool sale satuday at the VFW. we did not buy anything but we saw made in china about 1,000 too many times. talk about Irony!

If we want cheap china stuff we go to walmart or get it from pubishers clearing house.

Im sure most of us can size up an item by eye and lookit it over good and know a good deal when we see it.

We never buy American flags made in China but I do wonder what the poor Chinaman who makes them all day long thinks. he knows where his job comes from and im sure other folks over there do too.

 

[wareagle]

If we want cheap china stuff we go to walmart or get it from pubishers clearing house.

My memory isn't the proverbial steel trap, but if I recall correctly, even Wal-Mart has sold their sole to the Chinese as they used to have the "Buy American" policy. I bet Sam is turning in his grave to see where his company is today!

 

[compound driver]

HI
I go to steam shows most months here in England (note England not UK) Every one has rows of tool stands selling tools made in China and India. I cant blame the Chinese or the Indians there making money to put food on the table like we all do. It just seems odd that a country like England with such a history of engineering can end up selling it all away and buying in from every one else.
Im proud of my country im proud of its history (for the most part) but im certainly not proud of the way we have gone in the last 20 years.

By the way I still wear the same American flag pin I bought the morning of 9/11 and that was made in the USA.

Cheers Kevin

 

[sidecar_jon]

I have a shed full of cheepo Chinese junky tools! And some of them no doubt bought from the very Steam Show stalls that Compound points out. My dad had to save hard for a power drill, now i bought a circular saw just to trim one door, it was about £4 dearer than buying a hand saw. The fact is that over the last years Uk and America became pure consumers and not manufacturers. And that was a planned thing... someone voted for it!

 

[sidecar_jon]

I should add that im not the flag waving sort, but me and my son stood in silence for 9/11 by the river in truro, and in the building opposite dozens of builders did the same on the balconies and that made me feel proud too.

 

[compound driver]

HI

I can understand the cost thing i did the same with a belt sander bought from B&Q (kind of like Home Depot). I gave 14.99 GBP for it and did the job it was bought for. The part that gets me is I make things for a living I machine bits not unlike the workings of a belt sander and I wouldn't want to machine a roller for 14.99 let alone make the entire machine.

The consumer thing drives me wild. I drive my Durham and North Yorkshire down the street and two questions get asked almost every time "where did you buy that" and "how much did it cost". My stock reply is I made it myself and 3000 plus hours thats where and how much.

No one seems to want to try making anything here in the UK or very few people atleast. I own an 8 year old computer a TV thats almost as old and a workshop full of 1950's machines all my prized posessions I made myself and im happy being like that.

Cheers Kevin

 

[sidecar_jon]

Well no one want to pay for anything to be made, hell i don't want to pay for it either! One of my favourite tools is a rusty par of callipers bought from one of them junk stalls at a Steam Fair, when i dissolved the rust its stamped 1941 and its beautifully made. Some where while bombs fell someone was taking care to make something nicely.

 

[rake60]

That's a pretty touchy subject for me so I'll try to behave.

We walk away from our $18/Hr jobs and buy something from WalMart
for $15 that you know took at least 2 hours to manufacture...
Then we complain about imports.

I get a little perturbed about developed nations complaining about what
the developing nations are doing to US. Does it take American jobs?
Of course it does! But, it also creates state side jobs. The dock workers
handling ship traffic are as well, if not better paid than the manufacturing
jobs that were lost. It's easy to become single-minded if a job lost is in our
own field, but in a global economy there is a larger picture.

OK, I'm kicking my soap box back under the couch.... Again.... :wink:

Rick

 

[sidecar_jon]

One shouldn't neglect a group of people of which i am one that though probably lacking a lot of skill (though not always) make up a lot of ground with enthusiasm .... dare i call my self an artist!

Also i should add in this sleepy tourist area, we build and repair ships, build yachts, make photographic films and papers (you will have used them, they even supply to prominent American manufacturers), bake the best pasties in the world, Mine tin(just starting to do again anyway), make kit cars.... etc.. all is not lost!