What do we still make *in* the USA?

[Stinky The Clown]

I have to take a breather from all the ABC-9/11 stuff for a while. Maybe you do, too. This thread is talk about what we still make in the USA.

I know .... that came first to my mind, too ...... 'trouble'.

I'm talking about products .... goods ..... stuff. What do you know of that is still made in this country?

I'll start a small list. Perhaps we can add to this throughout this thread.

Wine
Cigarettes
Wall paper
Computer monitor screen cleaner
Pills
Graveley lawn mowers
Restaurant stoves
Tomatoes
Houses

I was going to list Buicks, but ours was made in Canada. Our Honda was made in Ohio.

Pleasure boats
Humvees
Does Curtis Mathis still make their teevees in ... what was it ..... Tennessee?
Toothpaste

What else?

[Seansky]

1. unfortunatelly, chocolate, junk food, some train engines, some aerospace

some military defense stuff,

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Trucks .... big turcks

We make big trucks like Kenworths. For hauling all that cheap Chinese shit from the (open) ports to the WalMarts.

We do make the trucks, don't we? Except for the big Mercedes and Volvos.

[bennywhale]

2. Obesity epidemics, Global warming

good TV drama
hamburgers

[cspanlovr]

3. Enemies?

[whistle]

5. Marketing bullshit, that is what America now engages in

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Bullshit .......

...... that's a byproduct of the beef industry, right?

[whistle]

9. It is, but marketing bullshit is the direct product of MBA schools

[blondeatlast]

21. Another wretched "Made in the USA" product... MBAs. nt

[Union Thug]

28. LOL - Nicely done! n/t

[CTyankee]

7. Film and television industry? Professional sports? Political consultancies

Those are 3 right off the bat that I can think of. Higher Education also, altho it's not a "product" as such, even tho colleges and universities have gotten pretty savvy about advertising their "product." Speaking of advertising, how about print and media advertising?

Interesting topic for economists to mull over.

[Uben]

8. Bombs, missiles, tanks

and everything you need to invade a sovereign nation!

[Warpy]

10. A lot of the high tech medical equipment I used

was still made in the US. I left 3 years ago, so that might have changed, but it's one of the reason health costs are showing us the real inflation rate. Much of the equipment and all of the service is produced here.

IV fluids are still made here. Drugs are increasingly made offshore.

Lumber is still milled here. There are still companies making power tools here.

We no longer make cloth. There is one company making shoes, mostly for the military. I think they're up in Maine. We still do some ready to wear clothing, but not much.

There are still a few small steel plants. There are small machine shops out there. We still make aircraft and aircraft parts, although the electronics have disappeared offshore.

What I find most alarming is the prospect of the next big war. We no longer make the basic things it will take to survive one. We no longer have the equipment sitting in idled factories to be retooled and restarted, it went to Asia as scrap. We are in deep doodoo, folks.

At least we make enough distilled alcohol to numb us out and kill us off.

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Yanno ..... you raised the issue that's my own biggest fear .....

..... our country is no longer self-sufficient and can't become self-sufficient in a short time.

The guts of our factories, as you point out, were long ago sold for scrap. We have no machine tools to speak of.

Back a few months ago when there was all the talk about base closings, one of the ones that really got to me was the sub base in New London, CT. Part and parcel of that (although actually unrelated) was the Electric Boat plant that builds subs. Were the base to close, EB would likley have closed, too (it is already a fraction of its former size). Our only other plant capable of building subs is in (I think) Pascagoula, MS. The skills needed to build these subs is increbily rare and exists mainly *in those plant's workforces*. Now I'm not flapping my arms for more subs to be built, but if we ever come to need them, it would be awful to think we just don't have the skills to build 'em anymore. And with only one plant, what happens if something happens to that one single plant?

I mention the sub things simply as an example. Not only have we gotten rid of the factories, we have also allowed the skilled workers that ran those factories to retire, to die off, to move to other jobs (assuing there *are* other jobs). How would we *ever* remobilize our manufacturing capabilities if we ever had to?

If anyone wants to talk about 'national security', ours is a prime example of a country that isn't secure.

By the way, did you know that Japan is still extraordinarily protective of its rice farming industry? They have (rightly, in my view) classified it as a matter of national security to be able to grow their chief dietary staple. As tight as land is over there, they protect the rice paddies.

What do *we* protect?

Fat cats.

[Gato Moteado]

11. martin guitars?

i hope they're still made in the US

[notadmblnd]

12. hamburgers

and friench fries

[raccoon]

13. Loading pallets, I think I heard that somewhere. nt

[noahmijo]

14. Babies

And from what I see in this jerkwater berg, repukes make far too many of them.

[BadgerKid]

15. Corn and wheat products

[leveymg]

16. Private, Corporate and Public Debt and related financial products.

Ten trillion dollars worth, at last count.

Biggest and best in the world.

[FSogol]

17. Beer! n/t

[ACK]

18. Ideas primarily

Currently the deal is with China as oppossed to the stink with Japan a decade earlier is that the US corporations are racking in the cash into their coffers so its ok in their short-termed focused mind that China does so much of our manufacturing.

In contrast with Japan products were made some even in the US but the money was going primarily to coffers of the Japanese companies.

Now, the real threat economically is when China begins to buy out the brands in the USA ala Lenovo and the money goes to their companies coffers instead of ours.

Since this has already begun happening you would think that US companies would catch a clue and bring manufacturing back home and leave China and their cheap labor in the lurch especially with some quality issues that for an example Apple has experienced and many of the labor condition stinks that have arisen from both Apple and Nike for other examples.

But no !!!! They continue to feed the Chinese economy and fuel a superpower into being. Oh yeah and they get a nice tax break for it too.

[JNelson6563]

19. Munitions and propaganda

Valuable commodities in the New World Order. ;-)

[jadams1735]

20. Still made in the US

New Balance Sneakers http://www.newbalance.com/
Redwing Boots http://www.redwingshoe.com/
Carolina Boots http://www.carolinashoe.com/

BenchMade Knives http://www.benchmade.com/
Leatherman Knives http://www.leatherman.com/

Audio Products http://www.klipsch.com/
Martin Guitars http://martinguitar.com/



There are many USA made products........unfortunately they are some of the best products in the world so therefore they are priced out of the reach of most people....

[woodsprite]

22. Lying, scheming, power-drunk - or just plain drunk - politicians. n/t

[Auntie Bush]

23. MONEY! and lots of it ...corperations, military supples or one of

George's friends or heavy contributors.

In other words we make thieves/crooks and bullsh**er's and lots of liars.

[Marie26]

24. Weapons. nt

[FormerDittoHead]

26. This thread reminds me of a question I had (industry vs labor)

The whole point of mass production, I thought, was to reduce the cost of labor.

I think of the sewing machine, and how, before it was created, only the very rich (there wasn't much of a middle class at the time) had much of a wardrobe. The sewing machine was able to turn out in a very short time what it took human labor many times to do.

In the US, we INVENTED interchangable parts (Whitney), the assembly line (Ford), ie, MASS PRODUCTION. We found out that when you set up a large manufacturing "machine", and have it crank out some product day in and day out, (please hang in there) the more it cranks out, the cheaper each additional item becomes (called marginal cost).

So the point is that, having larger and larger machines crank out massive scales of products, it would drive the labor component lower and lower. No matter how expensive an individual was being paid, the machine was doing the vast majority of the work and so we could afford to pay workers livable wages.

But, have we reached the limit of mass production compared with cheap labor?

I mean, (sorry for the ramble), have we gotton to the point where, you could build a machine the size of a whole city, completely automated, using only pennies of labor for each item cost of what it produces, and yet STILL not compete with 10 cent per hour workers?

Personally, I don't think the issue is labor. I think it's investment.

We need to build next generation manufacturing, the kind which would nullify labor costs.

But it would take investment.

[Fierce]

27. Check these.

www.stillmadeinusa.com

madeinusa.com

And for EXCELLENT back-to-school backpacks, athletic bags and more, made in Minnesota: www.battlelakeoutdoors.com

ETA: We just returned a $2,000 chair to Ethan Allen. The sales guy told us it was made in the U.S.; when we got it, it had "made in China" stamped all over it. We found a similar chair elsewhere, made in USA, for less than half the price. Stick it, Ethan Allen!

[PassingFair]

29. Ha Ha Ha!

Not much.

Got some time, America.

Ha Ha Ha!

http://www.shanghaiist.com/archives/2006/02/09/ha_ha_ha_americ.php

Link is blocked, but you can follow it up.

It's a 17 minute video, and it's worth the view.

[Fierce]

30. Also go to...

www.shopunionmade.org

and www.unionlabel.com -- has lots of clothes, including some USA-made socks and men's briefs

www.unionjeancompany.com

www.pointerbrand.com -- jeans made in the USA, including kids' sizes

For business wear, www.travelsmith.com about 1/3 of its stuff (for women) made in USA, although their latest catalog has much less than usual. Maybe it's better online.

It can be done. Read the label and do the research.

[Chemical Bill]

31. Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans. n/t

[ihelpu2see]

32. The Elect Ned Lamont Button I got is UNION MADE IN USA!!! nt

[leftofthedial]

33. lies, propaganda, unemployment . . .

[Contrary1]

34. Here's one for the list:

http://www.packinpotty.com/packinpotty.html">The Packin' Potty Portable Toilet System

"From a briefcase to a full-size toilet in seconds!"
Only $79.95 +S&H

This would be great for those impromptu Freeper events.