Penn Reel's Movin on out

[FormerUser]

This has been a long time coming.

Penn simply couldn't compete with companies like Tica and Okuma economically
speaking and couldn't match the quality of companies like Shimano.

It will be a shame to see the Z series reels disappear.

[pmueller]

Unfortunately for Penn, I really beleive alot of their market was from folks that wanted to buy an american product. One would have tought that they could have kept some sort of american product line going, just to keep that reputation alive. I guess time will tell.

[Fishpart]

I can't say for sure, but it looks like Corporate America will be chasing cheap labor around the Globe for a while. It was South Korea in the 80's, NAFTA (Thanks Billy from AR) in the 90's and now companies are moving manufacturing from Korea and Mexico to China to get cheaper labor............I'm sure if West and Central Africa had any infastructure we would be right there, shipping would certainly be less than from China....

The only way we can compete is by taking labor out of our manufactured product.

We all need to vote with our money and avoid Chinese product whenever possible.........

[pmueller]

Your right on there. From a business perspective, I'm sure they feel there is no other choice. They are taking off the table the very reason why they had so much customer loyalty.
The only way they could capture the market they may loosel would be offering a high end reel( high perfomance reel) at extremely competative price.

[JohnR]

But when this dissolves the lower and middle class, and they stop purchasing products becuase their buying power is gone, who will but product regardless of where it is made? When the US turns into an 80% services nation, who here will have the money to buy these services? Will the foreign markets buy enough of our services to effect the trade imbalance? No. Devalue of the dollar? Budeget over runs? Over simplistic yes, but there is a real underlying problem and we as a nation are shooting ourselves in the foot.

In the 80s people said America as a nation had eclisped itself and we went on the decline. Technology pulled us out of that slide and brought a rise in America - what's the next big thing? What will fix the current slide?


Ooooops - soap box, I'm sorry...

[Steve K]

A lot of people fail to realize that we now live in a global economy. The strength of the US economy is directly affected by economies around the globe. If you go out buy something made in Korea, where does that money go? It goes to people who can now buy US goods and services as well goods from around the world. When countries like China suddenly have money to spend on infrastructure and modernization where are they going to turn? Probably to the US.

The sending of jobs overseas is going to continue as long as there is an imbalance between the wages of countries. When China becomes too expensive, then the lost cost manufacturing jobs will be sent elsewhere. The American consumer has huge part in this by supporting places like Walmart who demand very small margins from the companys where it buys it goods. These companies have to send work overseas to compete. How many reels do you think Penn sells at Walmart? Stop shopping at Walmart and Target before you criticize corporations for sending work overseas.

This is not a topic that can be easily discussed in few paragraphs but I hope that you understand what I mean.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by Steve K

When countries like China suddenly have money to spend on infrastructure and modernization where are they going to turn? Probably to the US.

But China is now developing the tools and internal knowledge to do this on their own so while they will reap some of the harvest of the immediate in the jobs growth they will also be able to fuel much of what they need in the future on their own. Now even if they do buy services from us, how many Americans can be employed in the service industries that will be supported by money coming back in from China? Network Infrastructure? They have ripped off half of Cisco. PC Systems? They bought IBMs PC division. Granted - we ave them beat in software so if you work for Oracle you are probably OK. Operating systems? They're learing Linux

The sending of jobs overseas is going to continue as long as there is an imbalance between the wages of countries. When China becomes too expensive, then the lost cost manufacturing jobs will be sent elsewhere.

All of our manufacturing jobs and those of Europe combined cannot employ the vast base of labor China has on the cheap. And if enough did, what is to say that they will buy from Boeing for 10% more than a subsidized product from Airbus? Not to mention that China is spending big bucks on developing aircraft systems (for example) on their own

This is not a topic that can be easily discussed in few paragraphs but I hope that you understand what I mean.

Agreed

I just fear that the middle class as we have traditionally known it is going to falter. Not enough internal jobs of sufficient quality to keep Americans employed. When Dell ships several thousand call center jobs (services is that next? )to India and Pakistan and release thousands of marginally skilled people, - where are they to work? What square peg do they occupy in the pyramid of American jobs? When they are asking about your desire for fries or apple pie, where has their contribution into the economy gone? They can no longer afford to purchase the services that are the new underpinning of the American economy...

Now once all the "Services" jobs go over to these countries that have developed beyond manufacturing, what's next?

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by JohnR

But when this dissolves the lower and middle class, and they stop purchasing products becuase their buying power is gone, who will but product regardless of where it is made? When the US turns into an 80% services nation, who here will have the money to buy these services? Will the foreign markets buy enough of our services to effect the trade imbalance? No. Devalue of the dollar? Budeget over runs? Over simplistic yes, but there is a real underlying problem and we as a nation are shooting ourselves in the foot.

In the 80s people said America as a nation had eclisped itself and we went on the decline. Technology pulled us out of that slide and brought a rise in America - what's the next big thing? What will fix the current slide?


Ooooops - soap box, I'm sorry...

I agree with you 110 %

I can tell you what China is doing with their $$ they are buying all of our natural resources, and extending us tons of credit... 20 years from now you might as well call us the united states of China.