I've resisted all attempts to pry my StarTac mobile phone from my grasp!
I love the sound quality and won't trade it in for a color screen, or
the chance to listen to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on a dinky little
phone of the moment with keys so small I can't even SEE them, much less
PRESS them! My wife had hopes of getting a replacement for her StarTac
at Christmas but I quelled her enthusiasm for switching by having her
listen to the awful sound quality of the newer phones.

dave

DexAZ wrote:

Like it or not, we ARE in a global economy these days. A cellular phone
product I service _was_ made in Ft. Worth, then Brazil and now is made in
China...of course. Products are built where they can be built most
profitably. These days, that means somewhere with little or no problems
with unions, noise buffer zones, industrial waste laws and of course no real
minimum wages. What we consider "slave wages" per hour here, are more than
some folks earn per day or week in other parts of the world. I'm not saying
it's right, I'm just saying this is the way things are. Just because an
item is built outside the US does not mean, necessarily, that it is not
built well or built right. Most of our TVs are made somewhere in the
orient. RCA & AMPEX used to built broadcast color TV cameras and video tape
machines here. But Sony, JVC, Panasonic and Ikagami built the same items
with newer features, smaller and less expensively. Would you still be
holding out for an American RCA or Zenith color set? RCA is built off shore
and owned by a French firm, Thompson, if I remember correctly. Not sure
Zenith even exists. And you can get a darned good color set at Wally World
for $129 from some firm I can't even pronounce. I know the folks who used
to built RCA, Zenith, Motorola/Quasar etc. here are out of work. Not
because they built a poor product but more likely because Sony, Panasonic
etc. were able to build a better product & change with the moods of the US
market (you and me) faster as well as build with cheaper labor. We want new
bells and whistles all the time. American manufacturers are not as willing
to put those bells and whistles on their products. Motorola's StarTac
phones for example. They were small, tough and they did the job. They did
not, however, offer ringtones, games or video cameras. Moto almost lost all
their share of the handset market before they brought out their new line
with those features. The second and third world seems quite capable of
building our entertainment systems, cars, trucks, motorcycles, cell phone
system infrastructure & the handsets, PDAs, hard drives, clothing etc. etc.
And doing a first class job of it. If not, why do _we_ buy the stuff? If
America could build a better mouse trap at a competitive price, why don't
we? Because we choose to have clean air and water. Because we like to live
in America as it is not as it was. Look up some photos of America's
industrial centers, rail centers and ports during WWII. Do you want to live
with _that_ in our water and air? An old neighbor of mine had his entire
breathing system screwed up. Spend all his life as a fireman and engineer
on coal and early oil fired railroad locomotives. No anti-pollution system
on those bad boys. His lungs did that job for many years. Until they began
to fail. I like the clean air we enjoy today. I do not want to spend my
last few years lugging around an Oxygen bottle. I would also like to thank
those from my fathers generation who made the sacrifices, in Europe & the
South Pacific as well as in our mines, foundries, factories, mills,
rail/dock/shipyards required to assure the freedom I enjoy today.

I know a couple guys with a boatload of JET products. I'm sure they would
rather have spend their $$ on something made in the USA but could not find a
competitive American made product for the same price. So they bought JET.
So far, they have been very happy with JET and these guys would really bitch
like hell if they thought their investment went for "junk".

As I stated earlier, we live in a global economy...like it or not. We will
need to adapt and learn to life with that fact. We tried to isolate
ourselves from the world before WWII. Turns out that may not have been such
a good idea.

If the JET looks like it will do the job for you and is the best product you
can find for your $$, then buy it! There are many Americans involved in
bring it to your door. If you insist on American made...check out
Shopsmith. I have one and it does a great job. There were a number of SS
clones built here and off-shore, some time back. Most of those firms died
off so sometimes a good old American firm CAN compete and win. But then you
really don't want a Shopsmith, even though it is built in Dayton, OH, do
you?

Time for a chill pill

DexAZ

"Oregon" wrote in message
igy.com...

A recent WoodCraft flier revealed that the Jet bandsaw I've been lusting
after is made in Taiwan. I've got this "buy American" thing happening,
partly because...well, I'm an American, and because other than cars and
electronics, I'm not convinced that those foreign boys make a decent
product. My BP goes up a bit every time I have to grab a "mm" wrench. So
what's the scoop with Jet? Seems to be a quality tool, but "made in

Taiwan"

doesn't fill me with tool-joy. I'm sure I'd be disappointed if I

researched

the country of origin for my Delta and Craftsman tools.
Your thoughts on the matter?
O.