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Better take that shelter back..
Nope, while I agree with buying American too many products are not available and the ones that are many still are just overpriced crap. Buying American doesn't mean quality anymore sadly. Hard to convince folks to pay premium prices for trash
Along with Nils, Mora, Rapala, Gamakatsu, VMC, etc.
You wouldnt be able to drive a truck,due to out of country parts,everything is made overseas almost..china owns us.
For those of you who remember this was the argument being decades ago about Japan.
Maybe a thread can be made, like the Ice Deals thread, to post Made in North America goods.
Folks!This is our sport, support made in the USA or Made in Canada for all your fishing gear. And yes, this includes your hooks and teardrops too. If it says "made in china," put it back on the shelf, you really don't need it. Let's keep our money here in North America and keep our sport thriving. Press your buddies to do the same. If they give you crap, tell them they are feeding the communist government that ultimately wants to crush you with every purchase. Maybe they will then get the point. I was able to get out on the Michigan Great Lakes ice for the first time yesterday and was on the Perch immediately.
When I was in single digits it was the Russians who were going to incinerate us any minute. When I was in my 20's it was the Japanese who were going to crush us and now it's the Chinese. American business has arranged the supply chain, so we are dependent on components manufactured all over the world to assemble products. It's cheaper to place a made in America sticker on something and up the price than to actually make it here. Plus the fact many manufacturing facilities in the US have been allowed to fall way behind since reinvesting in infrastructure is a cost and not a profit.The guys in charge, who make several hundred times what an actual worker makes want to squeeze every dime as long as they get theirs and then blame the poor stiff trying to survive for being greedy.For the last 10 years I worked I was a logistician for the Air Force (yes the American one). I spent days arguing with guys who suits cost more than my house did about why they needed to use American sourced parts in American weapons systems. We caught one major company using blacktopped computer components in aircraft. They cried about losing profit. Since lives depended on things actually working, I stuck to making them comply. Of course that didn't make me popular with them and I didn't get offered a corporate job but I sleep better at night.
Thanks for your effort, Jack! The only thing I see a problem with that is American companies in my experience (I spent 6 years breaking down, medical, military, and lab equipment) most often were poorly made. Every other country made better equipment than we did... Even the Chinese equipment (which was not made well) was better made than ours... I am sure there are exceptions, but not enough. If the components came from our allies like from the Swiss or Germans we would be much better off as they can make stuff very well... Oh, wait they also pay their help well and treat them well... I wonder if there is a connection? Strange the owners of those companies make lots of money also...
It's totally possible to engineer something to last longer than a human life span. Without going into a lot of formulas the key is mean times between failures. Everything is designed to work X number of times before it breaks. Having a lower mean time between failures means you can make the parts more expensive than replacing the item so therefore everyone buys a new one rather than fixing it. There are ways to buy American made products but not all of them are actually 100% American, but you can get close. For instance, I bought a dock and actually paid a higher price, but it was actually made in the state I live in. The welding and assembly were done here but the wheels were made in China. My wife bought a bedroom set made with wood sourced in state as well as assembled locally. It wasn't cheap. The mattress was from someplace else but it was a close as we could get to keeping the money local.Ice fishing wise I live about 20 miles from where Heritage Laker tipups are made. The factory uses American wood but the parts not so American.