I don’t know if I agree with this. I hear a lot of people upset at not being able to find products made in the us. Maybe this was true 15 years ago but I think people have wised up a little.
I told before the conversation I had with the toro ceo about wanting to buy a blower made in Minnesota but found the engine was Chinese and the housing was Mexican.
But it may be more a question of quality and reliability than price. Can we trust bolts on bridges made in China? Taiwan recently tested Chinese rebar before it was to be imbedded in concrete. Failed two quality tests. Might be years later before anyone ever found out when the steel failed. What do you do when a supplier loses your trust, regardless of price? You cut them out, period. Not to mention theft of trade secrets.
The Navy got tons of Chinese ‘boiler plate’ 50 years ago when the POTUS froze prices and my employer was cutting hundreds of kamloc components for repairing ships on a contract requiring domestic.
I’m not saying the cheapest option is always the best one. I tend to think there’s always a “cost” when you go cheap. That cost could be quality, time, complexity, etc. But there are a lot of people out there who only go with the lowest cost option. I know the state where I live tends to go with the lowest cost bidder for various construction projects. It’s hard to convince such people that the extra cost might have other advantages. So the free market caters to that mindset.
Meanwhile it will still be possible to directly purchase goods directly from China (shipped directly to the customer). A person can import up to $800 per day or so of items for personal use according to US law.
Typically cost is one of several factors when reviewing contracts. If the bidder misrepresents themselves in the award process, they either have to make good on their promises or forfeit the contract.
I worked on a grossly underbid project from 1997 through 2007. One bidder undercut the others so much that NOAA was concerned about awarding the contract to them. NASA oversaw the contract for NOAA and the NASA project manager convinced NOAA to accept it. He thought that he could make it work and save taxpayers millions of dollars.
It turned out that the winner didn’t account adequately for verification, even though they promised to meet those requirements. The contractor’s verification plan was so woefully lacking that it was returned with only one comment: when you read “shall”, provide a verification plan. It took them two years to do that.
Eventually the contractor presented a plan to extend satellite life from 8 years to 12. This meant they could provide the contracted service with 3 spacecraft instead of 4. They did that because they were losing so much money that marginal costs (integration, test, and launch) would not be reimbursed. That’s tens of millions of dollars. You can thank NASA for saving you all that money.
When I was shopping for an 8mm×1.25 22mm socket head cap screw I looked on eBay. The cheapest was in China, $2 + $2 shipping (for 2). I put it on the watchlist. I just looked at the list: shipping is now $25.
Still gotta provide the extra fuel and oxidizer to extend life by 50%. And I believe that they did play the MTTF game because no there was little to no additional redundancy added. It all worked out as planned. I used to do reliability calculations and the issue tended to be infant mortality more than lifetime limitations as long as radiation didn’t kill the ICs.
My wife calls BS on that, she buys from Temu (a lot) and they just added a few days ago an import tax to the order if coming from China, BUT if it is coming from a US warehouse (still made in China) the impost tax has not been added… She, so far, has not seen an increase in price otherwise since the Tariffs hit (yet)…
Groceries have even come down a little, NOT enough, but they have dropped some…
I dunno…here on the west coast they haven’t. My wife and I were just talking this weekend, our weekly grocery run has gone up $50-$100 per week over the last few months.
And on the automotive front Washington state gas prices will go up July 1 thanks to a 6 cent increase in the gas tax.
There are just more and more ways to dig into our pockets…
Nor have grocery prices declined in NJ. There are a lot of families and elderly people who have an increasingly difficult time putting food on their tables because of ever-increasing prices.
On a positive note, gas prices have declined slightly, with regular selling for $2.70/gallon at my local Costco station.
When I was in Somerset last month for work I was marveling at the low gas prices.
I didn’t get a chance to take you up on your lunch invitation, my team manager is big on group meals and team building so I didn’t have a free afternoon. But I will be sure to plan next time I’m out there!
Of course I am. My greatest concerns about the future are all about my thirty-something children and their under ten children. I’m just fine and there isn’t much that Voldemort can do to mess my life up enough that my standard of living will drop.
May 2nd isn’t far away. The item would have to be air mailed to the US to not be taxed at this point. I just learned as I wrote about it that the $800 tariff exemption is also coming to an end on May 2nd.
No, that’s Nissan. I work for another OEM. We actually don’t have a very big facility there, the national HQ is over on the West Coast, but my program manager is based in Somerset. So our yearly gathering alternates between East and West.
It sure is flat where you are, at least compared to my general area. No shortage of toll roads though.
