Ba r r y said:

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 11:58:27 -0400, Greg wrote:

Damned bean-counters and
Wall Street driven decision makers are ruining this country. Not to
mention idiot consumers who can't judge quality and shop only for
price.

The first are only responding to the second.

Not necessarily. I look for things that will last - for eons.
If I can't find quality, and have to buy cheap crap - then I go
directly to the source. Why support a lethargic firm and it's
overpaid CEO and marketing department when it does not innovate, but
only rests on it's past successes - successes that usually resulted
from a lack of competition.

These days, however, in an attempt to squeeze every dime out of each
sale, so that greedy investors can quickly collect huge dividends for
essentially doing nothing, they close the local plant and move it
overseas. Does this result in a lowering of the price? Not usually,
just greater profits. This short sighted mentality is destroying our
economy - whether originating from investors, CEOs, or politicians.

But then again, consider Toyota. G

Toyota is a case where most of the product line costs more than the
competition, but generate a real sentiment of getting what you pay
for. Comparing a Corolla to a Cavalier, a 4Runner to a Trail Blazer,
a Tacoma to a Colorado, a Malibu to a Camry, and a Prius, to well...
NOTHING, it's very easy to see why one company is growing in leaps and
bounds and the other is dying. One pays engineers, the other pays
marketeers.

Yup.

We'll never know if companies like Delta had stuck to their quality
guns, and occasionally showed some fresh ideas and innovation, if the
purchaser would have stuck to them.

I find it interesting that, for instance Delta, has sold basically the
same Unisaw for 40 odd years. They change the handwheels, paint
color, advertising BS - but the product hasn't changed substantially.
They stand frozen like a deer in the headlights, fearful of making any
substantial changes, for fear of loosing what reputation they have
left. Instead of boldly forging ahead to improve the product through
simple creative thought. Leave the basic mechanism alone - it works.
But update the dust collection (Dewalt), improve the off switch and
it's location (Jet), improve the horrific guards and splitter
assemblies (numerous aftermarket companies) - or God forbid - do
something radical like improve safety (SawStop). Cripes, those cast
iron molds and metal bending machines must be paid for by now.
Innovate - or someone else will.

Companies like Grizzly and Jet have not only built cheaper products,
but in some cases, more innovative tools at increasing levels of
quality with better end user support.

See? I warned you...

Compare old imported iron to the current offerings. It's all kind of
like comparing a '75 Corolla to a new one. No matter if it's cars or
tools, consumer markets are moving targets.

Targets. Hmm - I wish I could get away with using them as targets. ;-)

I bought a blown up '68 Toyota back in '74 and rebuilt the engine for
my sister - long before anyone considered foreign import cars a
threat. I could tell we were in trouble. If they hadn't been so
damned ugly, they would have been more of a threat. But they have
fixed that nicely, Thank You. Incidentally, that '68 Toyota ran for
over 300,000 miles, and finally died in 1986. Never gave a minutes
trouble until then.

Later,


Greg G.