I tend to prefer to purchase products made here, and as a general rule, I do. I prefer levi’s jeans, unless I’m riding, because Wrangler’s jeans have the thick seam on the outside of the leg- ride a horse all day in levis and your inner thighs will feel like hamburger. Both of those brands are now made somewhere else- or at least a substantial portion of them are. I used to use only Craftsman tools, because they were made in the USA- in fact, I have several customers (like western forge) who make the craftsman drivers. And now a lot of their hand tools and most of their power tools are made overseas. The socket wrench sets and most of the screwdrivers are still USA made, but not all. <\/p>\n
I have a Harbor Freight Tools store directly across the street from my neighborhood. They have- believe it or not- a certain quantity of American made tools. And the same plants that make the $99 craftsman cordless drill are making the $19 Harbor Freeight cordless drill. Is the quality the same? probably not. is there $80 of difference? Definitely not. So I do what I can to buy American when I can, and when it is utterly impractical, I buy the oriental crap. Case in point: I can buy a Rigid pipe threading set for around $800. or, I can buy a Central Forge pipe threading set for $29. The Central forge is for smaller pipe, which I would be more likely to use, and has two fewer dies. The quality? the rigid is unmistakeably better. if I were back pipefitting again, I’d buy the rigid, hands down- And then watch it like a hawk. The Central Forge from Harbor Freight? The quality is actually pretty good, and for occasional home use, it’s much more than adequate. Is there a $771 difference? Not for my pocketbook.<\/p>\n
I’m not pleased that I can’t purchase good enough American made items for reasonable prices, but I’m also not going to have a fit about it, because the traditional American suppliers of tools- Stanley, Craftsman, Allen, etc. have all started producing products overseas, or selling products, labelled as their own, made overseas. If “made in America” was important to them, they’d still be doing it. So I don’t pay attention to them when they cry they’re being edged out. <\/p>\n