Made In The USA For Real

[Woussko]

Please try to think hard and then post about a product that really is all or mostly made here in the USA with parts made in the USA and be a company where most if not all stock holders live in and are citizens of the USA. Think of even little small companies and what they make for sale. Then please post about them. Please remember that many products may be sort of USA made but have parts from all over the world. Let's not count them for this. Please keep this to TOTALLY made or 95% plus made here.

I'm going to try hard to locate and post links to letters from CEOs of small companies sent to The Federal Trade Commission regarding the false/incorrect/deceptive use of "Made In USA" on products and/or packaging.

[BadgerDave]

Anything grown or raised on BHD's farm is USA made.

[Woussko]

Anything grown or raised on BHD's farm is USA made.

As a wild guy known as DC Topcat would say "And, That be for KOTTT-TON PIKKK-ON SHO" It means without any doubts at all.

[gear junkie]

new balance sneakers

your question is not 100% realistic. For instance, toyota tundra are american made with mostly american parts but it's a japanese company. It does support american workers. Ford-american company-shipped the production of it's F-150 to mexico, supporting mexican workers. Which is better? Depends on your perspective. This is a global economy and every nation depends on each other for success.

Have you every seen "made in america" on the travel channel? hosted by the guy that played cliff in cheers? Good show.

[Josh]

How about the RIDGID Wrench. I dont know where the powder coat is made though :rolleyes:

[Woussko]

I wonder where the iron ore comes from and where the steel mills are that Ridgid gets their steel from. I'm pretty sure the Ridgid hand tools are far more real USA than most other brands. As for things being partly made here, they don't count. I really need to start over and state that I'm looking for things that are totally made in the USA from raw materials and parts that originate in the USA and where the companies are totally owned and operated by USA citizens. Now I'm really getting nit picky.

I'm sure that lots of hand made custom items would qualify to wear "Made In USA".

What got me started is that some companies will have the city and state of their headquarters on the label and or box, but they don't say just where the product is made. Take it apart and it's really from all over the world. It's true about countries having to rely on each other, but I can't stand the idea of supporting child slavery somewhere when it's totally based on evil and greedy people.

One thing that's all USA is "The Woussko Hut" whereby the trees that were cut grew on USA soil and the wood from them never left the state. Thus I think it's safe to say it was made in the USA and I can account that all labor was by USA citizens. Well, maybe it should be hounds in this case. :o rather than people.

[bench dog]

Forrest saw blades are made in NJ but I have no idea where they source the steel or carbide from.

[garager]

Everything I build is American built. Even most of the products I use are made in the USA. :D

[Gene Bickford]

Yes to New Balance shoes. They are a stones throw away from me. Annual tent sale coming up soon:).


Bad one is Dexter shoes. I worked a temp job there once, as an order picker.
Part of my job was to take cases of shoes out of the boxes that had Chinese writing all over them and put them in boxes that said Made in USA.

[Frankiarmz]

new balance sneakers

your question is not 100% realistic. For instance, toyota tundra are american made with mostly american parts but it's a japanese company. It does support american workers. Ford-american company-shipped the production of it's F-150 to mexico, supporting mexican workers. Which is better? Depends on your perspective. This is a global economy and every nation depends on each other for success.

Have you every seen "made in america" on the travel channel? hosted by the guy that played cliff in cheers? Good show.

Tough question and topic. I buy New Balance but the tag says Made in USA from imported materials. I agree that we are part of a global economy but I don't know how well the success part is going to play out. We have an enormous trade deficit and a couple of years ago President Bush wanted to take some action against imported steel and was more or less threatened by foreign nations and he backed down. Maybe I'm missing something but I can't understand how we can import so many of the goods we use, lose so many jobs, pay these extreme prices for fuel and food, and still turn the economy around? Made in America is a nice show but it would be shocking to see a show "Use to be Made in America".

[tinmack]

A guy told me once that they imported frozen fish from Asia, processed it, added a tomato/cheese sauce, repackaged it, and could then note it as a Canadian product. I assume it is the same for other items, both in the USA and in Canada.

As far as New Balance, I remember a pedorthist telling me 10 years ago or more, that a lot of New Balance manufacturing was done offshore. Pedorthists/podiatrists/etc. used to love New Balance because of rigorous production/proper width fit. Hell, all I wore, both sneaker/boot/casual shoe 15 years ago was New Balance. All that changed. They have their different-width line of shoes, but they also have a standard width line that shows up in your mall-type, retail athletic shops.

Bottom line, the fit just isn't what is used to be.

Raw materials produced and assembled to a finished product is VERY hard to find in North America, probably impossible on mechanical/electronic stuff..........

[NHMaster3015]

Winchester, Remington, Mossberg, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Thompson Ctr, Dan Wesson, Ruger, any others?

[VASandy]

Victory Motorcycles are Minnesota, I believe. That being said, I'm sure there's a lot of offshore-sourced items on the bikes. Since it's the same company that makes Polaris 4x's, I'm sure Polaris has a good content of US-made stuff.

Harley-Davidson is the other US bike manufacturer. I do believe there's probably more offshore-produced items on HD bikes than Victory. You'd have to actually go through the factories to figure out what's coming in from other countries to figure out the content, though.

In the computer field, just about ALL of the circuit boards are made overseas. Even the cases are mostly Japanese or at least Asian in origin. IBM, HP, all have lots made in Mexico. Dell, too, has a bunch of Asian-sourced materials. Even Sun (midrange server manufacturer) uses a lot of offshore-based items. Mostly this is because the manufacture of circuit boards is an incredibly bad environmental industry.

Intel and AMD do have a lot of US-based chip factories. There's even memory being made right here in the US. A good amount of the USB memory sticks are US in origin. Crucial, I think, is one of the major vendors of US-made memory products. Hard drives are another story. Western Digital does make a good amount in the US, but I'm not sure about others. Then there's the question of materials sourcing. Who knows where the iron and substrate materials come from?

We've lost the major steel markets to overseas because of various factors. One of them is environmental pressure on the ore companies and refineries and smelters. There are still some steel manufacturers in the USA because of quality issues. A lot of the steel from offshore isn't made to the same quality standards as some of the end-users require. US military ship manufacturers are one example of companies that source US made steel. However, the Koreans and other Asian countries are finding newer and better ways to smelt steel. It's this innovation that the US is lacking.

We're now firmly in the "Information Age." We still have to have manufactured products, and our factories should be able to make things for US markets. Our big export at this point is information. Software to store and query information. It's a new world, and one that won't come easy for us.

[Big Dog]

Rib-eyes and T-bones...

[Woussko]

As best as I know, Allen-Edmond shoes are still either all or mostly USA. Sadly Red Wing is getting some parts of their boots made in China now. There used to be lots of USA shoe and boot companies, but they for the most part are history. John Deere tractors are mutt dogs anymore made from parts all over the world. Caterpillar is the same way. No telling what's on the inside.


Edited on 4/16/08 because I went apeus and put stuff on this post that never belonged here.

[Gofor]

A pleasant surprise for me was finding that Buck Bros has a line of chisels that are Made in the USA. They are definitely superior quality to their china made line (and also more expensive, but still quite affordable). Good chisels.

Go

[VASandy]

Leatherman is made in Oregon, isn't it? I'm pretty sure their stuff is US made. And Buck knives still makes a good amount of their product in the US.

[Frankiarmz]

Sorry, but this whole thread is very depressing. When we have to scratch our heads to come up with an answer to this question we are in trouble. Global economy my butt, we have lost too much to other countries and gained a recession as payment for out shortsightedness. Open your minds and carry this current economic situation down the road a year or two, do you really see an improvement?

[gear junkie]

Open your minds and carry this current economic situation down the road a year or two, do you really see an improvement?
So what's the solution?

[JTROANOKE]

Good Luck on finding truly American Made products. The cost of doing business in this country has driven it all away. If other countries had to pay their workers what is standard and customary in this country, or hideously overpaid (think steel or automotive), and comply with reasonable environmental standards, it wouldn't be cost effective to ship it here from halfway around the world. Taking steel as an example, it is so heavy that if all else were anywhere near equal, the shipping weight would kill it. But when the labor is $2/hr or less, and waste disposal is as easy as digging a hole,suddenly the margin is there to pay the freight bill. There is no way we can compete with union steelworkers at $40/hr and stringent environmental compliance laws. Same thing with Automobiles. If the automakers paid prevailing wage for typical industrial assembly type jobs instead of the Union contract wage, we could compete with the rest of the world. And if workers just did what needed to be done instead of worrying about whose job description it is a part of, we would all be better off and the jobs wouldn't be leaving this country.

[VASandy]

This comment is probably going to get me in trouble but here goes anyway!

I used to think the problem was unions demanding higher and higher wages. Then the computer industry got slammed with "offshoring" by the big vendors like Dell and HP and others. The computer support industry is not a union group. There has never been a union movement in the computer industry. The jobs went offshore because of wages nonetheless. When someone in New Dehli can do the exact same job for far less than an American, the jobs will go where it's cheaper. In the US the cost of living and the quality of life is much higher than elsewhere, and India has grown a fine crop of technically savvy individuals with a much lower cost than the US.

[Masterplumb]

Sorry, but this whole thread is very depressing. When we have to scratch our heads to come up with an answer to this question we are in trouble. Global economy my butt, we have lost too much to other countries and gained a recession as payment for out shortsightedness. Open your minds and carry this current economic situation down the road a year or two, do you really see an improvement?


It is depressing, but the u.s. is no longer a the leader in manufacturing products. Im not saying we dont make a superior product its just all the manufacturing jobs are going or have gone overseas. This is probably due to higher taxes and like it or not unions.

Now while we have lost manufacturing jobs, we have also gained many jobs and careers since the 90's with the popularity of computers and the internet. Maybe the U.S.'s strong point will no longer be in manufacturing. And I think this will show in the next generation of workers.

[Masterplumb]

This comment is probably going to get me in trouble but here goes anyway!

In the US the cost of living and the quality of life is much higher than elsewhere, and India has grown a fine crop of technically savvy individuals with a much lower cost than the US.

Fine crop of technically savvy individuals my butt, ever call Dell or HP for tech support? You cant understand a damn word they are saying and to boot they are just reading off a script of frequent problems.

This is where higher taxes should come into play. You want to sell your product here, you have to either pay a higher tarriff or keep a certain amounbt of jobs here.

[Frankiarmz]

This comment is probably going to get me in trouble but here goes anyway!

I used to think the problem was unions demanding higher and higher wages. Then the computer industry got slammed with "offshoring" by the big vendors like Dell and HP and others. The computer support industry is not a union group. There has never been a union movement in the computer industry. The jobs went offshore because of wages nonetheless. When someone in New Dehli can do the exact same job for far less than an American, the jobs will go where it's cheaper. In the US the cost of living and the quality of life is much higher than elsewhere, and India has grown a fine crop of technically savvy individuals with a much lower cost than the US.

VASandy, as a long time Union man I would say I disagree with your theory but I would rather calmly argue the point than say you are in trouble for your right to such an opinion. My experience and belief is that Unions got people together to fight for safer working conditions and benefits that employers were not about to give of their own free will. These safer conditions saved plenty of men and women from injury and death, the benefits allowed them to buy homes, cars and other consumer goods and send their kids to college. These are all good things to grow a society but they come at a cost. My upset and attention is directed at all the CEO's who walk away from failing companies with multimillion dollar packages. Instead of damming the Unions we should praise them for raising the standard of living and quaility of the working environment of their workers. With or without Unions the inescapable problem America faces is the fact that our higher salaries are necessary to function in our society. Now more than ever we need more income to pay for housing and the ever increasing cost of food and fuel. Unless we want to mirror the third world countries we sadly shake our heads at on tv, we must undertake a effort to turn things around and place blame where it belongs.;)

[Frankiarmz]

So what's the solution?

Gear Junkie, I've been scratch'in my head on that question for quite a while now and although I have some ideas I doubt the solution will be simple or quick. Getting to where we are now with having lost so many jobs took some time. The double and triple jump in fuel and food has been much faster. I think we need the willingness of our president and both parties to open their eyes and come together for the sake of our country in this time of crisis. There are brilliant folks in Washington who could if asked layout a plan to get us on our feet. Here are some of my simple minded ideas. Stop spending a trillion dollars in iraq, especially if they don't give us a major break on oil and don't pay us back for the cost of their freedom. Do away with credit card debt by putting a one card, two or three thousand dollar limit on how much a person can charge. No more buying all sorts of home furnishings, consumer goods and racking up thirty thousand or more debt that just keeps the credit card companies rich and gives us a false sense of national wealth. Accept the fact that we cannot survive as an information only society, we must produce most of the products we consume and balance the trade deficit. Unless we figure out how to keep the third world the corrupt, cess pool that it has always been we are doomed to become a part ot it. We have to keep Americans job and money strong and we cannot pay these high prices at the pump, for home heating fuel and at the food stores much longer. Maybe our government needs to sit down with the heads of big oil and instead of asking them 100 questions that go nowhere, tell them you are going to rollback prices to what they were two or three years ago because if you don't our society will continue to tumble downhill into a depression. People can't afford to change cars or give up their work trucks, we are past that point because this happened too quickly. People don't have the time or money to convert their homes to wind or solar energy and this comming winter many will suffer terrilby. We need some intelligent advice and some time and money to act on it. The stimulus money will do nothing long term. So do you agree that we at least need to start rather than keep paying at the pump and shaking our heads like bobble dolls? :banghead:

[cpw]

Fine crop of technically savvy individuals my butt, ever call Dell or HP for tech support? You cant understand a damn word they are saying and to boot they are just reading off a script of frequent problems.
Those aren't the jobs that we should be most afraid of losing anyway. The first level of tech support people here also just read off of scripts. The only real disadvantage of the Indian tech support people is the accent.

The scary part is that there are plenty of Indians who can do more skilled work (like software architects, or financial analysis etc.). There are 1 billion Indians, so there are going to be some really bright people who come from there. I've met lots of them, and they can produce stuff with the same quality as Americans. In the past, many of them would have worked here; and they still do, but I think more of them are going back or staying there.

[Frankiarmz]

Those aren't the jobs that we should be most afraid of losing anyway. The first level of tech support people here also just read off of scripts. The only real disadvantage of the Indian tech support people is the accent.

The scary part is that there are plenty of Indians who can do more skilled work (like software architects, or financial analysis etc.). There are 1 billion Indians, so there are going to be some really bright people who come from there. I've met lots of them, and they can produce stuff with the same quality as Americans. In the past, many of them would have worked here; and they still do, but I think more of them are going back or staying there.

I agree that there are plenty of bright educated people in India and other countries, the scary part in my opinion is that our government has no plan with big business to deal with this shift in jobs. Let's face it there are the have's and have not's and for many years we Americans have been the haves in terms of good jobs, education and every other benefit that comes with a free society of hard working people building their economy and selling to the world. Things have changed and all too quickly, the shift of jobs, goods and wealth have thrown us in a tailspin. We have some difficult choices to make if we can stick together and get the cooperation of our government, do we allow this trend to continue or do we take action to interrupt what has been taking place? If you want to think in global terms, imagine us as the primary consumers of the tech support and products of the world, now what happens as we lose more and more of our buying power due to our erroding economy? Unless there is a big enough market of consumers to replace us, it really doesn't matter who has the technology, jobs and products to sell. :shrug:

[Gofor]

The problem is mostly laid at the steps of the Capitol building, where congress makes laws based on bogus science that cripples us in the international marketplace.
Global warming: Congress says the sky is falling and we have to stop using incandescent light bulbs, curb our gas guzzling and mandates alternate fuels. Well, the world temp has been cooling since 1997 (has dropped 1 degree centigrade in 9 years the amount Al Gore said would raise in 20 years) and no reduction in carbon based fuels has yet been made.
But, if we are going to mandate the conversion to alternate fuels, why then are we seeing high gas prices due to a shortage of fuel in the US because so much is being held in reserve. If we aren't going to use it it is worthless ( Anyone remember the phrase "Save your Confederate dollars, the South will rise again"??)
Wages in the US (and I do mean Union wages) are not the problem, altho they are blamed. Mexico, India, Bangaladesh, etc have always had cheaper labor. The cost of shipping the materials back and forth is more than the cost of paying US Union wages. (Not to mention the billions of gallons of petroleum fuel contaminants belched into the atmosphere shipping them). The cost of manufacturing in the US is fighting lawsuits at every turn brought by shady lawyers, environmental fanatics, and the cost of complying with environmental regulations that are 10 times more stringent than the rest of the world.
The UN has long attacked the US as a bully that is not doing enough to bring the third world up to our standards. In reality, all that is happening is we are being dragged down to their's, and they are already salivating on how they will split up the spoils.
Wake up and smell the outhouse people, because that is what your grandchilderen will be using for sanitation. Only by voting out those with big campaign war chests sponsored by special interest and foreign governments (that means US businesses owned by other countries) will the politicians start actually delivering on some of their promises to the working people if they want to stay in office. They need to be sent a message that business as usual will mean they aren't still in office to do business.

Go

[BHD]

a large part of the increases in the fuel and food is the drop of the value of the US Dollar, grain is a world traded commodity and so is oil, and when the dollar drops the price of grain goes up as there currency can buy more, and our currency is worth less we can not buy as much, on products such as oil,

grain is also facing world wide shortages as many normal exporting countries suffered major drought this last year, and much of the US wheat crop was damaged, as well. and there is historical low of world wide stocks of grains. and currently Texas is rating much of there crop as poor.

even tho we grow and export grains and meats, much is imported as well, (take the pet food scandal were the wheat gluten was contaminated was imported from china to a factory in Kansas, (one of the largest wheat producing states there are), why grains and meat are imported I still have difficulty understanding the economy of it or the logic of it.

[JTROANOKE]

Wages in the US (and I do mean Union wages) are not the problem, altho they are blamed. Mexico, India, Bangaladesh, etc have always had cheaper labor. The cost of shipping the materials back and forth is more than the cost of paying US Union wages. (Not to mention the billions of gallons of petroleum fuel contaminants belched into the atmosphere shipping them).
Go

Lets see - UAW worker including benefits - round numbers about 70 bucks/hr. Mexican worker including benefits - round numbers - about $5/hr. If there is 100 hours of labor in an automobile that is 7000 vs 500. When you are shipping by the trainload, I guarantee you you can ship a car from any plant in Mexico to New England for way less than the 6500 difference. The lawsuits have nothing to do with it. Ford gets sued just as bad in US courts if a Mexican built Ford has issues as they do with an american built Ford. And 70 dollars is a **** pot full of money to pay to get someone to screw in left taillights. There are probably some good union workers that are worth every cent of the overinflated wages. But unfortunately the contracts force the company to pay the slackers the same wage - this drags everyone down. Why should someone bust their *** to assemble 4 perfect widgets when the guy at the next bench assembles 3 half assed ones and gets paid the same money? Pretty soon a lot of good guys take up this logic and everyone falls to the level of the least common denominator. If the company tries to fire a slacker, they have the union stewards all over their *** trying to protect the slacker.

[cpw]

Lets see - UAW worker including benefits - round numbers about 70 bucks/hr. Mexican worker including benefits - round numbers - about $5/hr. If there is 100 hours of labor in an automobile that is 7000 vs 500. When you are shipping by the trainload, I guarantee you you can ship a car from any plant in Mexico to New England for way less than the 6500 difference.
This reminds me of a GE (maybe CSX) commercial that I've heard on the radio for quite a while, one of their locomotives can move 1 ton of freight 400 miles with 1 gallon of Diesel. That's pretty impressive, basically a car can move from El Paso, TX to NY for about $20 in fuel (2000 miles / 400 mpg * $4/gallon).

The lawsuits have nothing to do with it. Ford gets sued just as bad in US courts if a Mexican built Ford has issues as they do with an american built Ford.
But if the Mexican factory destroys something or pisses someone off, they probably have a lot less lawsuit exposure.

[VASandy]

VASandy, as a long time Union man I would say I disagree with your theory but I would rather calmly argue the point than say you are in trouble for your right to such an opinion. My experience and belief is that Unions got people together to fight for safer working conditions and benefits that employers were not about to give of their own free will. These safer conditions saved plenty of men and women from injury and death, the benefits allowed them to buy homes, cars and other consumer goods and send their kids to college. These are all good things to grow a society but they come at a cost. My upset and attention is directed at all the CEO's who walk away from failing companies with multimillion dollar packages. Instead of damming the Unions we should praise them for raising the standard of living and quaility of the working environment of their workers. With or without Unions the inescapable problem America faces is the fact that our higher salaries are necessary to function in our society. Now more than ever we need more income to pay for housing and the ever increasing cost of food and fuel. Unless we want to mirror the third world countries we sadly shake our heads at on tv, we must undertake a effort to turn things around and place blame where it belongs.;)

Very well put, Frankie. I do try to stay neutral on Unions. My Dad was raised in the coal mines of WV. That is one place where unions were required. The cost of getting the better wages and safety concerns was a good number of lives. Without the unions, the death rate for mine workers would still be horrible, and would put Arctic crabbers to shame. I respect what unions have done for us (and that includes me). I hope the current labor leaders still keep the altruistic goals of the worker at heart, and don't allow the CEO greed to rule their decisions. I agree that the working man and woman need a strong voice to stand up for them. Let's just hope that the leaders of these unions don't decide to start acting like the CEO's.

[cpw]

Very well put, Frankie. I do try to stay neutral on Unions. My Dad was raised in the coal mines of WV. That is one place where unions were required. The cost of getting the better wages and safety concerns was a good number of lives. Without the unions, the death rate for mine workers would still be horrible, and would put Arctic crabbers to shame. I respect what unions have done for us (and that includes me). I hope the current labor leaders still keep the altruistic goals of the worker at heart, and don't allow the CEO greed to rule their decisions. I agree that the working man and woman need a strong voice to stand up for them. Let's just hope that the leaders of these unions don't decide to start acting like the CEO's.
The death rates of Chinese coal miners makes any American occupation look safe. I'm not sure whether it is our Unions or our well-developed tort system that is responsible for that though. I tend to think our legal system is over-developed, basically forcing doctors out of business and greatly increasing the cost of business, but it does provide a good mechanism for sorting things out, holding corporations responsible, and compensating victims. The problem is that compensation often goes way overboard for things that aren't actually anyones fault.

[Woussko]

Here is a tool company that tries hard to be all USA as much as they can. I can say that their impact sockets are far above the rest out there. Look at what's used on major production lines and what brand professional aircraft mechanics use. By not selling stock to the public they maintain far more control than do the big hog corporations.
http://wrighttool.com/about/Diffrnce.asp

Here is a small company that's been around a good long time as they really are dedicated to using all USA made products to make their line of products. Again, by control of ownership they don't use slave labor over in other countries. Yes, you pay for their products, but their quality is high.
http://www.testleads.net

And finally a company that's owned and operated by REAL Native Americans. The natives that were here before white man came over from the old world. They do have people of many races that work there, but it's great what they have and are doing today.
http://www.simpsonelectric.com/main/index.asp?p=About_Simpson_Electric&s=History

[michael stephen]

what about big macs and whoppers..?