Jobs Lost

[mtkawboy]

I read that GE is moving its whole operation to China. Apparently 5 million profit isnt enough for them. Obama hired the CEO of GE and out him in charge of getting more jobs in the US so that was his answer. Im going off a 67 1/2 year old memory here so I may be a little off on some of the facts concerning it but they are moving for sure

[wobblywalrus]

We seem to be in a permanent recession in this part of Oregon.  Depression is a more apt term.  Somehow we need to bring our industry back home.

The strange thing is that foreign companies are building plants here.  All of our Toyotas are made here and the Continental tires on one are made in Illinois.  The soy sauce we use is made by a Japanese company in a plant near our house.  The overseas folks think we are good workers.  Why are the american companies leaving?     

[Ron Gibson]

LABOR  and  LEGACY  costs.

Ron

[55chevr]

Interesting. GE was the biggest employer in the Mohawk Valley. Now known as the rust belt.  We all have a hand in this and some blame.  Everytime we buy a Chinese made POS we contribute to unemployment in the US and help raise fuel prices ... this is the latest Chinese crap to come to the US.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?pagewanted=all

[836dstr]

I went down to the local Albertsons market the other day and was thinking about doing some seafood for dinner. I picked up some frozen salmon fillets and frozen scallops. Both were from different companies and double packaged. The inside package was vacumn packed with no markings at all. The outer packaging was marked (in small print) "Product of China". I guess I need to start looking at the lables a little closer.

I sent an E-mail about this to a number of people ("Buy American"!) and I got a response back from a friend that retired on the Kona Coast on the Big Island. He was doing a little home improvement project using round lava pavers. He didn't have enough to finish so he went back to the stone and rock place and was told that they were on back order from China. These people specialize in counter tops and have all sorts of stone saws. Obviously obtaining the lava raw material should also not be a problem in Hawaii!

So there we go, importing lava products into Hawaii. Go figure.

Well enough of my rant.

Tom

[wobblywalrus]

A question.  Some of my LSR parts are made in Australia and I order stuff from England.  There is a hefty customs duty I must pay to the US government to get this stuff into the US.  Do the folks importing all of this third world stuff into America have to pay the same duties?       

[55chevr]

It depends on recriprocol trade agreements. Countries that the US shares most favored nation status basically charge the same duty on imported US goods as the US charges for theirs.