OT Do you care were the products you buy are made

[Fyron]

There is a lot of cheap stuff made in Taiwan, Korea and Japan sold in the US (at least around southern California). Not as much comes from China that I have noticed though. Although, I could really care less where stuff was made (as long as it works well, and is not shoddy ).

[Captain Kwok]

To some degree I try and support Canadian-made products when possible.

I'm a bit more proactive when it comes to choosing stores to shop at. For example, I try and avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible because I do not care for the way they handle their employees and their supplier practices. I believe they drive down wages and have contributed to significant loss of revenue to suppliers that are necessary for growth etc.

[Kamog]

The quality and price is more important to me than where it is manufactured.

[Narrew]

Like Fyron said, as long as it works and is not shoddy, I don't worry about it, I would think twice if was French made, but I don't drink wine and thats all I can think of that they sell that I would buy (yes, my reason is political, but thats just me).

As far as everything from China *sigh*, thats the way it seems, I notice alot of JOBs going to India, nothing against India or any other country, but I wonder how long companis will do that till they smarten up and pull those jobs back here?

[Fyron]

The companies are being smart as it is by moving their employment to foreign nations where they can pay employees less money (far less in some cases). They don't care about helping Americans or anything silly like that, they just want to make profit. Lower operating costs (paying employees, for example) lead to greater profit.

[Narrew]

true for the short run, but some jobs are customer service where we Americans will get to the point of not putting up with talking to people they can not understand or has such a low knowledge of what they are talking about, people will go elsewhere.

A subsidary of BristolMyer made orthopedic implants, they move machinery to Costa Rica for the lower cost for workers, BUT they did not have the ability to run the computer controlled machines so it was a year or so later that all the machines came back.

Bean counters only see the bottom line yet seem not to see things that tie into the business over all, so they make a change that in the end costs more.

[Fyron]

If you wish to stereotype businessmen, then sure.