evodawg wrote:
After spending sometime shopping this weekend, (which I hate) I'm finding
out that nothing is made in the USA anymore. Most is made in China. With
all this money going overseas to china, is there a chance we could be
supporting the Chinease Military? Scary thought.

As I general rule I try to avoid buying from mainland China. Generally
the quality is as low or as high as the price when it comes to Chinese
imports. On the high end of price the quality of Chinese imports is
comparable with similarily priced items made in the West. The big
difference is at the low end, their low end price goes a lot lower than
anyone else and there tends to be lower level floor to just how
****-poor the quality can get that even the cheapest Chinese imports
can't fall below. Like the $20 vise I just bought: the jaws don't close
parralell(sp) and the pop up dog is a joke but the jaws line up when
it's closed and serves my immediate needs and I'll retire within a year
I'm sure.

Anyway though quality issues aside I don't like sending money over
there because of more political reasons. I don't like the human rights
record of the chinese government, I don't like their illegal occupation
of Tibet, their attitude towards Taiwan and insert long list of why
the PRC is run by crooks I also view them as a future threat as great
or greater than the USSR was at the height of the Cold War. than So I
specifically avoid Chinese imports whenever possible.

For imports in general I have no issues buying non-US goods. I admit to
a slight bias towards US and Canadian goods, followed by European and
then any Western-style democracy after that, for my imports. So if
there's an Indian made product that meets my needs (functional and
financial) I'll buy it without loosing sleep.

snip
Does Lee Valley or others as an example sell more made in the USA products
than say Rockler? And does anyone know of a list, broken down by category
of made in the USA products? Example: Tools, Furniture, Building products
etc.

Lee Valley is a Canadian company. They flag US and Canadian items
online and in their print catalog and they do mention the source in
their write-ups for a lot of other items. They have a lot of NA and Old
World imports as well as Japanese and S. Korean and a few Chinese,
which aren't listed as such but it's a safe bet that anything just
labeled "imported" is Chinese.

Just a little concerned about all this $$$$ going to China and our
politicians and retail manufactures promoting this idea. Is National
Security an issue? Not to mention all the jobs lost to this practice.

I think of it as more of a security issue than anything else. Despite
increased economic freedoms over there the state still has a dirty
little finger in most business ventures, including (or especially)
those involving western companies setting up plants over there. So
there are issues of tech transfer to Chinese government and of directly
financing a potentially hostile regime by buying widgets from them.
While I'm not directly boycotting Chinese goods I'm willing to put
extra time and money into buying goods from elsewhere.

Cheers,

Josh