[TheForge] Second Rate USA?

[Ekaterina Harrison]

I disagree.
In recent years I have personally seen Caterpillar go down the road of  
having much of their equipment components manufacture overseas.
Some years back I was working at a sawmill and and realized the  
Caterpillar forklifts had started using Mitsubishi engines.
We currently own a Caterpillar backhoe and I must say Caterpillar's  
service has gone way down hill. It used to be that no matter how old a  
machine you could get parts in the next day because because they were  
manufactured and stocked here, in the States ( out of superior  
steel),- not so now days. The mechanics were exceptional (even  
legendary), not often the case now. Some of the Caterpillar mechanics  
we encountered could best be described as sloppy backyard mechanics!   
Sad!
Our recent backhoe, needed to have a cylinder replaced. We were told  
it would be several months out because it had to be manufactured in  
Germany! How many business can afford to be down for months!

Ekaterina

On Jun 9, 2008, at 10:18 AM, theforge-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:

>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 08:56:08 -0700
> From: ries <ries at riesniemi.com>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Second Rate USA?
> To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <76B4163A-CEE5-4CAD-9B03-4B8A4186F4D4 at riesniemi.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
> On Jun 9, 2008, at 8:09 AM, craig.schaefer at verizon.net wrote:
>
> "....that we would become a second-rate industrial player? "
>
>
> I disagree.  We are on par or better than anyone in the world,
> technologically.  It's costwise where we have trouble competing.
>
>
>
> Craig
>
>
> I would say that in a lot of ways, we compete just fine.
> A few examples-
> Caterpillar and John Deere both export hundreds of millions of dollars
> worth, if not billions, every year.
> Not cheap, but miners, roadbuilders, and construction companies
> worldwide gladly pay for the best.
> Ditto for Kenworth and Peterbilt, Terex, and other construction
> equipment.
>
> Boeing, of course, sells airplanes by the bushel. Less of them are
> made here than used to be, but in my little area, there are still
> plenty of subs to Boeing- machine and fab shops, including Janicki,
> which, from a standing start less than 10 years ago, now employs over
> 500 people, has the largest milling machines in the world, and is
> selling tooling to Airbus, among others.
>
> The US auto industry exported Billions of dollars worth of cars and
> trucks last year- not enough to overcome structural problems in the
> big 3's business plan, but they units were still made and sold. We
> send Honda's to Japan, BMW's and Mercedes to Germany, and so on.
>
> Haas is the largest manufacturer of machine tools in the world- based
> in Ventura Ca.
>  They sell more than 100 CNC machines a month to the chinese.
> We have probably 50 more machine tool manufacturers here, making
> oddball, expensive machines, that they ship worldwide. Giddings and
> Lewis, for instance, sends metal to china as well.
>
> Everybody in the world knows the difference between a real designed in
> the USA I-Pod, and a cheap chinese knockoff, and they all want the
> real thing.
>
>
> If you subtract the oil imports from our balance of trade, it isnt
> half bad. Not as good as it could be, but nowhere near as bad as
> people say it is.
>
> Where we dont compete is on low priced commodities that are mass
> produced by unskilled labor.
> But we do very well, especially considering how small our population
> is, on things that require brains.
>
>
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
>
>