Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
So, paying a machinist pennies an hour (assuming he's not a convict working for free) as opposed to whatever the going rate for a skilled machinist is in Tulsa (figure a minimum of $15/hour even in a non-union shop) doesn't warrant a price drop? 
I'm sure the guy pouring castings in Tokyo is also making a decent wage, too--probably comparable to what an American was making at Penn casting reel bodies.
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While that much is true, and VERRRRY SAD, what is also true is the flip side of what's NOT happening in China. One of the primary reasons they can offer lower mfg costs is because they have no standards to measure up to. Here we have OSHA, BBBureau, Industry watchdogs, and one of the biggest impacts to many companies' bottom lines is the way the insurance conglomerates of the "Good Ole US of A" have been fleecing corporate Amercia and driving our economy for decades.
Ever since The Great Depression, the employer driven insurance and bennies system has been moving towards the place where we are now. The Program is simply NOT cost effective to the bottom line. Over there, the CEO's can finally realize/recoop some real fiscal profit and begin to establish some real net worth. Do we know how close they've come to going under while trying to provide the "Best Damn Reel in the World"? Does anyone honestly think that the good People of Tulsa want their jobs, product, their "niche" being niched in China?
While it is entirely possible to produce good reels on foreign soil, and I'm all for China becoming a capitalistic society.....................
In the process it does NOT make sense to me to cut the NUTZ right off of our domestic workers because our insurance and benefits pkgs need to be rethunk. Likewise, if the foreign manufacturers had to compete fairly and measure up to the current American Standards of fair wage, insurance, workman's comp, breaks every two hours, unions, quality control standards, enuff VP's to retool the whole line, etc. etc., then I think that we would find many of our jobs return to American soil.
Perhaps the silver lining is that on the other side of this current economic trend, ownership~management~labor could sit down and negotiate terms that would lead them all to higher profit margins and long term employment practices.
I don't blame VS for trying to leverage their position, ZEBCO is somewhat to blame because without demand......; but this whole concept of moving labels overseas has been prevalent
and profitable for sometime now, and it SUX!! It
is very sad that we can't seem to figure out how to correct the workplace, so that we can restore US dominance to the world marketplace.