Is ANYTHING made in the Good Ol' U.S. of A. anymore???

[duke62]

all union tradesmen have to go through a apprenticeship to be qualified to go out and work on any union project.either a 3 year or even a 6 year.3 times a week.so would u rather a non union untrained man working on your school or bridge or a man who has 20 different qualifications who is going to know the job before he is even there.our training lowers the cost of insurance and insures the job is done right the first time.and all i asked from u is to back up the statement that 17 union workers are standing around doing nothing while 3 are..tell me a trade that does that..

 

[NYreefNoob]

lmao, so you know how to design and build a bridge ? or a school ? you can train a monkey to do anything. duke i could go back and forth on this with you, but it's a waste, what 20 different qualifications do you have ? what did school teach you that a trade school wouldnt teach me ? california, the bodyshops are unionized, you think they know how to fix a car better then any of my tech's ? as for what job. duke you see all the paychecks that go out at your job site ? my boss's son is a union carpenter, that has 4 guys that have never been to the job site that get paycheck, how does he know ? you do the math

 

[Killerdrgn]

the reason why jobs are going overseas is not because the cooperation is not making any money here they just want to make even more.

Not exactly true, maybe it was for the first or second guy going overseas. But today if you're not price competitive then you're going to fail. (Circut City, and CompUSA ring a bell?)

if cooperations made no money in the us then why does foreign car companies have plants in the US.

Actually these factories are based in Southern Anti-Union states such as South Carolina. And one of the key agreements that had to be made to attempt to save the US Auto Manufacturing Industry was to reduce Unoin labor's pay scale to that of Toyota's. Plus don't forget Japanese companies are the largest users of robotic labor.

and its not the same old arguments check the facts there are many non union construction companies and most of the companies that hire illegals pay there workers off the books which not only raises taxpayers taxes every year but also raise the union contractors insurance.

Actually it is the same arguments. Just replace Union with American and you'll find the same anti-immigrant slogans from the Civil War Era.

and remember this a union man has health coverage which he pays into every year and every paycheck while these non union workers are using tax payers money for there coverage and who pays those bills....YOU.

I'm not in a Union and I also pay for my own health benefits. And as an American I am happy to help those that are less fortunate than I.

look around the city to all the beautiful buildings and bridges realize all these buildings and bridges were built by union workers.all the companies have profited from them and many union men gave there lives for them.

But all the major construction was before the Globalization Era. Which is my main point, people have to keep up with Era/Industry Shifts. I'm not Anti-Union or anything but I am being cognoscente of the fact that the staples of old American Labor is not what it used to be and are going to disappear. Like I said earlier it's the drive of knowledge that's coming in and manufacturing (save the industry of death) that's going out.
You should not be afraid of these shifts or find scapegoats to try to hang on to the old ways, because these shifts are always accompanied by rising standards of living. As people stop putting so much money into manufacturing, the more R&D money will be available. Potentially if we lead the way in artificial intelligence we may be able to bring back those manufacturing jobs (even though they'll be done by machines instead of people).

 

[duke62]

as for that staement//my union dues pays for our lawyers our office workers who are taking care of our money who are hard at work trying to get our work back in union hands..office workers who take care of our medical who work on getting our money when companies dont pay and for taking care of investments that are made to insure we have a good retirment.people who take care of our men who get hurt and cant work no more and our own insurance for when we get hurt we have more then workmanscomp to take care of our bills.ironworkers are the number 3 dangerous job in the worlds and i was very happy that i have the union there when i was hurt.and i am sorry to say when the men i worked with were killed the union and our dues helped there family with the funeral and helped there families with there bills.show me a non union company that does that for there men..my last statement...please if YOU havent worked union:shhh: .this is just a friendly discussion please dont take anything i say in spite..everyone has there own opinions..the are like a$$holes everyone has one :lol2:

 

[Killerdrgn]

so what you are saying is just because some person who grew up in a third world country who lived in a shanny comes to this country and makes 10 dollars an hour doing construction and now can afford to buy kmart clothes and is willing to take that pay and live with 3 other families cause its better then what they ever had so an american should stoop to that.so what u are saying instead of moving forward in this country and taking people out of the lower income bracket and receive medical insurance that we are hurting america
:scratchch

Yes actually this is the very effect that will move America forward. Which kid do you see today that wants to do jobs like manufacturing or construction? It drives the newer generations to make sure they get College degrees or even higher so they will have jobs when they get older. Also look at how every kid today is computer literate, do you think they want to be employed at a place that doesn't have computers regularly? You're seeing the new knowledge based economy growing right in front of your eyes. It will matter very little soon enough if you're involved in a Union or not.

I actually have to ask, if there were no more entry/bottom/apprentice jobs available, what would you do? Wouldn't you try to find a way to become management or an overseer/foreman/etc. Wouldn't taking this higher position bring more money and better working conditions for you?

 

[Killerdrgn]

ironworkers are the number 3 dangerous job in the worlds and i was very happy that i have the union there when i was hurt.and i am sorry to say when the men i worked with were killed the union and our dues helped there family with the funeral and helped there families with there bills.show me a non union company that does that for there men.

All the companies I ever worked for had life insurance benefits of at the very least $50,000 and more if you put in some pennies on the dollar. We also have the additional travelers accident/life insurance included in our benefits at no additional cost (as this is really the only time we'd be killed on the job. Another reason why all that manual labor stuff can go to immigrants in my opinion.

And also on another note, I'm not being confrontational if that's how you're all reading this. I'm just calmly stating the facts.

 

[jejton]

duke you havent made sense in anything you have said, immigrants are the one's who built the u.s, including a good portion of all the buildings in nyc, italians, irish and so on right off the boat. i....

Without commenting on anything Duke said, I have to point out that he did say ' illegal ' immigrants.

 

[Killerdrgn]

Without commenting on anything Duke said, I have to point out that he did say ' illegal ' immigrants.

You also have to note though that for the majority of this nations history it's been an open door policy until racism starts taking hold to limit a certain ethnicity's numbers. Like for example when the transcontinental railroad was being built there were quotas in effect for Chinese and Irish immigrants, but they still came in droves of "illegals" and helped build the railroads at an amazing pace. They were also met with this no immigrants mentality, but they still wanted and eventually became "Americans".

 

[duke62]

so is that what you want bro..chinese and irish working so hard the died in the heat and exhaustion..so lets do that to the illegals again shall we..instead of giving fare wages where a person can be proud.great thinking.

 

[MikeyZO]

Oh my god...

What did I start...
:theyareon



Btw Finksmart - I wasn't knocking the fact that it was made in China, just that its not made in the US anymore. It just so happens that the items I was looking at were made in Asia.

 

[Killerdrgn]

so is that what you want bro..chinese and irish working so hard the died in the heat and exhaustion..so lets do that to the illegals again shall we..instead of giving fare wages where a person can be proud.great thinking.

They came to avoid certain starvation in their own countries. And again the way to avoid "illegals" coming over and risking their lives like that again is to send those jobs overseas so they can do them at their homes. Eventually there will be enough jobs there that they will start demanding better living and working conditions also. And for here we already have those laws on the books so we should stop treating them as "illegals" and give them equal protection under our laws. The only reason why they were worked until death at times was because they were seen as "illegals" and didn't have those same protections.

And trust me the US isn't the only one with and "illegal" immigrant problem. China has their North Koreans, Singapore has their Burmese, Western Europe has their Eastern Europeans, etc.

As long as there are jobs in one country and there are no jobs in another the natural tendency is for immigration to occur, "illegal" or otherwise. What we're already seeing take place in the world is the shift to industrial centers around the world like what happened at the turn of the century for this country.

The old way was if you wanted manufacturing jobs you went to places like Detroit, Financial jobs - New York, Tech jobs - California, etc. Now what we're seeing is the shift of manufacturing to China, Tech jobs to India, Finance is still in the US mainly. Of course in all these areas you have your lower levels of support activities but those usually go to the unseen people.

Again I have to ask do you think people are just going to sit around and starve or are they going to try to improve their situations by pulling themselves up and/or moving?

Another note, it's really not immigrants that's the problem it's the total general population that's the problem. If we all of a sudden stopped all immigration but had 12 (doesn't have to be this number but just a large number) kids per family, you don't think they're would be this whole unskilled labor/ living wage arguments going on in 22 years? It's all based on competition for a number of jobs, and the only way out is really the creation of new jobs that have higher requirements than before. Example: You can't hire a Monkey to come up with the cure for cancer. But you can train a Monkey to assemble stuff. And Monkeys work for banana's beat that wage!

You really need to see past the protectionism of the status quo to realize that by sending the jobs overseas they'll eventually become the greater consumers of things like "smart" environmental clean up, non-physical goods and services, accounting, best practices/ standards, researched patents, etc. Explanation: At the current state their countries are really in poverty no matter how many jobs we believe we have sent to them. But as more of their people get jobs and disposable income they can start spending their money on things besides life necessities. And if the US starts focusing on more R&D we could start exporting that knowledge and skills.

 

[TimberTDI]

Yo Rick.

Put all the BS aside and stop talking out your arse. It's not the unions fault that you decide to become a car painter instead of carpenter.

You do realize that there is a "prevailing wage" law on the books in the State of New York. Of course you do, so and so's son must have told you all about it. So you must of course know that the owner of the non union shop is getting paid anywhere from $60-85/hour per each man. So even when he pays a generous non union salary of $35/hour "cash" he is putting $25-$50 and hour into his own pocket. On a crew of 10 men for a 40 hour week that equals $10,000-$20,000 a week. Again this is on top of any profits the company should be making. By the way, that extra $25-50 is supposed to be for medical and pension that the workers aren't getting and again $35 hour is generous.

Please answer Duke's question about where all these standby jobs are. I have to be honest, I'm 32 I've been doing this for 12 years and I'm shot. I could just about use one of those nice standby gigs. I've got 26 men directly under me. I'll tell you exactly what I tell them. "If I catch any fu**ing one of them fu**ing off or fu**ing around or just fu**ing looking stupid; they'll have their fu**ing checks faster than they can say what fu*k just happened."

LABOR OMNIA VINCIT

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

:shhh: My coffee was brewed in america. I saw them do it this morning at DD's!

 

[inkblue]

 

[Keith P]

I work at a machine shop as an engineer. We make metal working accessories.

We are not even allowed to mutter the work union.

Our company takes good care of us. Great benefits, 401K, profit share, free breakfast, sr125, the list goes on.

We are having a hard time keeping up in this "world economy". 2 weeks ago we had our first lay off in the 65 years we have been in business.

I get phone calls all the time with customers yelling at me about the cheap import junk we sell. Only later to find out the customer was sold a Chinese copy of our product.

Things are still made in the US, but it's getting harder to compete every day. Having a good products is not enough anymore..

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Milk! I have seen Milk made in the US!

 

[inkblue]

buLLets made in USA tHey seem to be doinG a good joB kiLLing peepS...

 

[Killerdrgn]

buLLets made in USA tHey seem to be doinG a good joB kiLLing peepS...

Damn now you're just biting off of me. :splitspin Bombs from the US work extremely effectively too. Wooo go MOAB!

 

[inkblue]

biTing :teeth: i liKe tHat...!

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Are paintballs made in the usa???