As an Australian our manufacturing capabilities are almost non-existent. Belts, taps/dies, pulleys, gears, plastics, clothes, chemicals, most household items and more either need to be bought directly from Chinese sellers or from Australian distributors who then order stock from the same people. Does America also suffer from this problem? What is the current state of domestic industry vs importing from overseas as a consumer?
11 comments
We have domestic industry but it typically doesn’t compete with the cost of Chinese products so a lot of our shit is Chinese
It’s not *hard* to find American-made supplies, but it’s pretty consistently out-competed on price
The USA is still the worlds second largest manufacture.
It really depends on the category.
You can find US suppliers for most things, but as noted, they won’t be the lowest cost. We source from many countries. Mexico, China, Vietnam…all over.
One general rule is that higher level manufacturing – assembly – is more likely to occur in the US. This requires a higher skill set that Us labor costs can support. You won’t see many parts made here, but the car is assembled here (as an example).
Its very hard to avoid stuff made or at least assembled in China. We’re not just talking cheap crap from Amazon or Wish but even more premium brands. Video game consoles, smart phones, computers, appliances.
[There’s some company based out of California that makes very high quality video game and laptop carrying bags/cases that makes their stuff domestically](https://www.sfbags.com/collections/gaming-cases), but we’re talking $100 USD+ for a small laptop bag. That’s a tough sell for a lot of people.
There’s still a lot of stuff the US does. We’re pretty big on cars. And not just “American” ones. A lot of European, Korean, and Japanese companies assemble their cars for the US market here. And just like the carrying bag case stuff I linked earlier, there’s all types of crafts people selling their stuff locally at markets or online via Etsy and sharing their talents with the world.
Incidentally, I work at a factory that manufactures products that can be found in most Americans’ homes. As in, most American households have at least one product that was made on-site in my workplace.
But, we’ve still got a lot of Made in China stuff. Broadly speaking, likelihood of American manufacturing is correlated with:
* Regulatory requirement/ quality criticality
* Relatively low volume manufacturing
* Low ratio of value to weight.
Or, from the other perspective, something is more likely to be made overseas if:
* Defects are more acceptable (ie, items with no intrinsic safety implications)
* Identical (or near-identical) products are produced in huge volumes (ie, mass-produced injection molded plastic stuff)
* High ratio of cost to weight, which makes shipping products long distances more commercially viable (ie, consumer electronics).
We make very high end things that require very skilled labor and very low end things that can be done by machines
Defense manufacturing is all American or European parts. Although I’m sure somewhere in the massive supply chain for aerospace products some raw material comes out of less than friendly nations.
As others have said, you can buy American, but you pay a premium, and the product is better quality.
You can buy an East Asian bookshelf for $75, it’s particleboard/MDF with veneer and rickety garbage.
You can buy an IKEA Hemnes bookshelf for $150, it’s solid pine, but not particularly nice. Functional.
You can buy an Amish bookshelf of quarter sawn oak, grain matched, dovetail or mortise and tenon joined, hand stained, for $600. You hand that to your grandkids.
I have a Weber gas grill that I paid through the nose for with all American made components (I made sure of this and interrogated the poor guy at the hardware store). Cost me probably a $200 premium over the Char-Broil or Nexgrill or whatever. Worth it. My previous grill’s diffusers fell apart after 4 years of use. The Weber is still solid.
My Bosch dishwasher is a European design, assembled I want to say in NC? Fantastic product.
Basically my hierarchy is American – German – Japanese – Korean – everyone else
You can buy everything you need to build a house at home depot or lowes. Literally stores are set up so that as you walk from one end to the other you go from the houses foundation to the grill and landscaping plants.
Some stuff you have to have a license for because it’s a dangerous chemical but if I wanted to I could probably buy whatever I wanted for whatever industrial project
Plenty of companies that still manufacture in the US. In most areas, you can find domestic manufacturers if you want to avoid buying stuff from China.
Lots of monopolies in parts, chemicals and key ingredients that help supply chains function.