[TheForge] Buy American?

[Andrew Vida]

RIES NIEMI wrote:

> Then, the workers in the factory making the anvils are paid at most a
> quarter of what american workers would be paid to do the same jobs.

	I'd be surprised if it was that much.  Last time I was in
	Hungary, four years ago, a good monthly salary was about
	$150 US.  I'm sure that has gone up, but probably not by
	much.

> I have a friend who makes a very similar anvil in the US- Russell Jaque at
> Nimba Forge. His anvils are beautiful- actually better looking and more
> carefully designed than the czech ones. Cast steel, machined and heat
> treated by high priced american workers who drive new 4x4 diesel one ton
> pickups that cost 40 grand. The czechs are eating his lunch.

	This all relates to issues that are anything but simple.
	Factors such a unions and corporate avarice have woven
	an enormously convoluted historical tapestry.  The sad
	day came when NAFTA passed, but there were many other
	such days that lead up to it.   From the standpoint of
	business, it is understandable that they would move an
	operation for Indonesia or Tijuana because their costs
	go down.  Way down.  Does one do prudent business or
	base their decisions on national pride?  I can see both
	points of view as having their legitimate argument.  The
	fact is we have lost most of our manufacturing base,
	especially in the heavy industries.  People want their
	nice cheap steel and they want it all made in America,
	but they don't want the steel mill in their neighborhood.
	Can't have it both ways.  We are becomming more and more
	a consumer culture and that is scary.  We're not even
	the tops in software development anymore, what with
	offshore development from India etc. taking a large bite
	out of our collective butt even there.  One can only
	wonder what it will come to over the next five to ten
	years.  I don't think a nation can keep exporting its
	industries abroad and maintain the standard of living 
	we have enjoyed here all our lives.  The coming years
	should prove very interesting in this regard.
> 
> What interests me is that the same people who will rail at our government
> for shipping all our manufacturing jobs to the third world will jump on the
> chance to save a couple hundred bucks on a czech anvil.

	People want their cake as well as eating it.  Nothing
	new there.  Competition is what it is and the USA is,
	by and large, no longer competitive in many areas.  They
	refuse to work for less than $X, and in fact cannot in 
	many cases do so.  Who can live on minimum wage?  They
	also don't want to do the kind of work that provides us
	with so much of the things we want.  It's all very romantic
	to ponder the intrepid smiths and foundrymen hard at work
	pounding and pouring the metal to produce the stuff that
	built this nation.  It's a far cry different from the
	reality of actually having to do such work when you aren't
	in the mood.  It's hot, hazardous, filthy, nasty, and
	not really all that much fun once the novelty wears off.
	Does anyone here really think the men in the photos and
	archive footage were merry little grease monkeys, cheerfully
	laboring their lives away at the factory with gleeful song
	in their hearts?  That image is almost as obscene at that
	of Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" where Quasimodo
	is portrayed as a cheerful little mishapen freak, singing
	la di da his merry life away.  Those jobs left the USA
	largely because they are miserable and dangerous and
	people didn't want to do them except for top dollar, which
	is understandable.  but on the other side of the coin,
	the managers are bound by duty to shareholders to obtain
	maximum profit.  Something's got to give, and so we find
	ourselves as we find ourselves this day.  No great mystery,
	really.

> Blacksmiths in general are probably mostly blue collar, work in
> manufacturing jobs, in small town america- exactly the sort of people who
> you would think would make the moral statement of paying a little more for
> american made. But they aint.

	Nobody is, really.  Noble ideals taidly fall by the wayside
	when the wallet opens or the stomach is empty a little too
	long.
> 
> I am not trying to make any moral judgements here, like I say I am as guilty
> as the next guy- it just is an interesting point about how our modern world
> is just a little more complicated in reality than some people would like it
> to be.

	I don't think there is any guilt to be assumed anywhere.
	Things have evolved as they have for rational reasons.
	In the conflict between keeping jobs, getting paid well,
	and having top quality products at bargain basement prices,
	something has to give.  I believe the most logical result
	has been obtained, but it has its price just as anything
	does.  Materially speaking, ours is a zero-sum world is
	certain respects.  More population, more want, more demand,
	less willingness... where would one think this can lead?
	I cannot say for certain, but I see problems.  Whether we
	solve them intelligently in the end remains to be seen,
	though I must say the historical precedents don't offer
	cause for excessive optimism.
> 
> Meanwhile, I am saving up to buy one of Russell's anvils. I like the names,
> and the way he cast the names right into the anvil in a cool typestyle. Plus
> I like the idea of buying locally.

	Me too, as long as one can afford to do it.