Classe move to China

We need to buy South Carolina socks, underwear, and toothbrushes?

It is a disappointing move for sure. I own Classe and like it very much; given this change, it's gonna be my last of their product.

Boy, I would not want to be a Classe principal reading this thread. Entry level gear might hide on the origin of manufacture, maybe irrelevant or off the radar screen of typical buyers of that level equipment. But if this thread is representative of Classe's clientele, they better start calling back their laid off Canadian workers.

South Korea is doing what China has done and what we have abandoned: a protectionist market with steep tariffs and a buy locally policy. In the early 70s the major export for So. Korea was human hair for wigs. Samsung was a fishing and fertilizer company. They turned their economy around by going the protectionist route. We abandoned that model under Reagan and look at us now.

Germany builds cars here as well as back home and they pay their workers over $70/hr.(w/bennies) and build twice as many vehicles as we do. We are the cheap labor for their markets. When asked, they sheepishly say its because they are allowed to get away with it here. They have no intention of destroying their model at home but are willing to exploit labor here because our economic model is fully supportive of it. It all boils down to what was put forth earlier: morals and ethics. When a German businessman was asked why he was willing to pay so much of his income in taxes, he simply said: "I'd rather be a rich man in a rich country than a wealthy man in a poor country.
Its time for some serious introspection.

Nordic, it might. It even be to increase the margins, it could just as well be to hold the price points they have as imported component parts have gotten more expensive with weakened dollars and loons. I find the price increases of the past 2-3 years quite remarkable - given the economic climate and psychology during that time - going up at a faster than tuition.