Made in America

"There is hardly anything in the world that some men cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey". John Ruskin

Boutique companies are a consideration.
I personally have products from Wavelength (Gordon Rankin) and Doshi (Nick Doshi).
There are others of the same ilk.
Do a bit of research to weed out imposters.

Mrtennis, I am not trying to be crosswise with you. Your post permits the inference that we should let the free market set the price and let the chips fall where they be. That's ok. I'm not a communist.

But if you're also saying that if one can get the same quality widget for less, then buy cheaper -- even if the competition is not on a level playing field. Then I must respectfully disagree.

Compete -- yes, of course. But not when the stuff we import is made under slave labor conditions or back door subsidies (e.g., direct grants or even indirect as through currency manipulation).

Here's an idea: the federal government has all those workers who like to regulate sh*t. Here's a job. They can start with strategically important industries. They ensure that (i) there is no foreign government subsidy of the products we import, (ii) the labor component reflects US standards of minimum wage, OSHA, EPA, and basic health insurance, and (iii) the currency is allowed to reflect free market supply and demand.

If the US dollar is weak because we're giving more US chits to foreigners than we're taking in -- then so be it. The cost of goods will go up and companies may be encouraged to build plants here here.

Did you hear that the US may be the world's largest energy producing country in the next 5 years or so, even more than Saudi. Do you why? In large part because the price of oil has risen to the point where it's economical to drill. Sh*t, half the territory of North Dakota has oil wells on it.

If the foreign country still wants to have their workers live in cardboard huts, no problem. The US can simply impose a countervailing duty that can be used to pay displaced US workers income replacement benefits.

Look our standard of living will decline because income will not keep up with the cost of goods and services -- but it WILL happen sooner or later anyway. How much longer can we import more widgets than we build for ourselves? How many more people will remain unemployed or underemployed before we realize that the US dollar over time will have to decline because foreign governments and investors will simply not want to take cheap dollars for their wares. Would you??

The world is not that complex. It's all about barter, using money as chits to trade. If someone is holding a lot of US chits, he can dump them or invest them in securities and demand high interest rates. I wish it were that the chits could return to be invested in US industry, but I suspect that the capital will fly out the US back door into foreign countries anyway.

There is an imbalance -- it will correct itself one way or the other. The correction could be catastrophic like 2008/9 or it can be managed so we can have a soft landing.

So when will our elected leaders stop the crap and tell us the truth and prepare the country for what's coming. They also need to stop the smoke and mirrors that it's just about taxes. It's about basic supply and demand and the cost of production. Taxes only affect the balance on the margin. IMHO

In the meantime, until the "inside the belt" bozos act like real leaders, buy American if at all possible. Where's Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan when we need them.

In my post above I mentioned that most of my audio system is "American". BUT, I don't know how many of the constituent parts are "American". Just because a product is built here does not mean that it contains a significant percentage of "American" parts. So in this respect what exactly does "American" mean?
As an example, again as mentioned in my previous post, the Toyota Avalon is the most "American" car, meaning it is built here and contains more American parts than any other vehicle.
Now I'm sure many folks driving Fords think they're driving "American" cars when in reality their vehicles may be built in another country with a smaller percentage of American parts.
I'm all for buying American made products and do own many but the distinctions are being blurred more every day.

Excellent point Rja. I think, but am not entirely sure, that most if not all the innards of my ARC gear and my VPI Classic is American made. OTOH, I understand that the transport ARC uses in its CDPs is made by Phillips in Euro-land.