[TheForge] rant concerning quality of products

[ries]

On the subject of Italian versus USA-

I went for a walk today, and walked past my big field.
I lease it to a real farmer, who farms around 2500 acres here, about a  
quarter of it in potatos every year.
this year is a year for my field for potatoes- they only do em every 4  
years, and in between plant nitrogen fixing crops, peas or grasses.
So they are out there tilling my field.

Its 20 acres, and they are using two John Deere 8400T's- huge 225  
horsepower diesel tracked, as opposed to wheeled tractors. A ten year  
old used one will run you $80,000, these are hefty machines. So there  
is no question that this farmer can afford to buy the best.
And hooked behind em, are two 10 foot tillers- one of em, a Maschio,  
Italian tiller.
The other, a French made Kuhn.
My guess is that for a professional farmer, its a no brainer, that  
there just isnt an american equivalent thats better than either of  
these.
This guy is as all american as he can be- all his trucks are american,  
he owns a few million worth of John Deeres, and he would buy US if he  
could.

Sad, but true.
There is no real reason we couldnt make a tiller as good as the French  
or Italians, if we wanted to- if somebody was willing to invest the  
money to build a quality company, the market is certainly there. But  
instead, american money men buy watches, or cars, or third houses,  
they do silly, but profitable, IPO's and leveraged buyouts and CDO  
swaps.


Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/