Sad Day for American Textile Industry

What I want to know is this: WHY is this okay to be happening? Why are we allowing so much of our industry to silently slip offshore? I fear for this country, really I do.

Karen Maslowski > Saw a video stream/report on the news of a huge building, the Bio

It's economical / political. No tariffs make a more competitive environment that won't cover union wages, so industry has to move to Asia or some third world country to price their product competitively. Walmart buys Chinese/Asian, and in spite of what we say about how bad it is, Americans shop at Walmart.

That's all well and good, but IMHO the government has a duty to create an environment that allows American business the chance to compete in the global economy. Restricting trade is a key factor in doing that.

Union wages are hardly a factor any more. The Japanese pretty much settled that for us when they dumped steel on us for so long that TPTB let our steel industry collapse. After that, the automobile industry began it's decline.

The bigger issues are things like laws that prevent our children from working, laws that say our employers have to provide restrooms, laws that say industry must take certain measures to protect our workers, as well as the environment....all those pesky regulations that business would just as soon avoid.

Free trade doesn't work because we can't compete against countries that allow production lines to pay people less than $5.00 a week. The government isn't supposed to base it's trade policy on what's best for Wal-Mart, or even what's best for India.

I agree - this country is in BIG trouble. Has anybody else noticed that while we're supposed to be entering a service economy era, that service is absolutely awful?

Reality: restricted trade protects obsolete industries and allows industries to avoid modernizing and competing on quality and efficiency.

Protectionism allowed the existing big steel to avoid modernizing. The economic facts today is that the smaller, modern, efficient specialty steel companies in the US are competitive with anyone and are the real threat to old steel in the US.

Detroit builds cars that no one wants to buy. Self inflicted wounds.

You go 8 hrs without going to the bathroom? This is a trivial expense compared to the loss of time as employees scramble to find a place to pee.

Dead and injured workers are non-productive.

What exactly does the US military fight to protect if not the US? Prefer a lifeless desert?

Complain all you want, but the fact is that the economy has to change. That means that people have to change. The problem is that they are trying not to change and just complaining.

Mike

Easy enough to fix. Convince yourself and everyone you know to work for $75.00 per week. Problem solved manufacturing will again boom in the US as we could be competitive.

Or, convince yourself and everyone else to pay reasonable prices for goods that are produced in local factories.

As long as we want to buy kids's school shirts for £2/$3.50 (Asda, I'm looking at you) it won't be viable to have a home textile industry - not for the mass market, anyway.

Sally Holmes Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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With the materials my wife and I see in the stores, is it a great loss? The only thing you can get (here anyway) is either those stinking synthetics, or when you do sometimes see cotton, it's so thin you have to add a lining to everything you make anyway!

OH - I see... You had somewhere over there that still makes real material, instead of importing Asian garbage like Australia does.

My wife subscribes to Australian Stitches magazine. They are always talking about the "wonderful range" of materials available. They don't know what wonderful is. There's lots of colours, yes. But all this Asian rubbish they call wonderful... It's like wearing a sweaty plastic bag, or see-through flyscreen mesh.

(If anyone's thinking of trying the magazine I mentioned - it's become pathetic too. They used to have really useful info, adjustments, how to do this with a pocket, that with a collar, etc. But lately it's become a catwalk fashion display. It's good up until about volume 8 or 9, then it commits suicide. So go for the old issues on ebay, if you decide to try it.)

Allan

No, you don't see. the post I was replying to, said

...so it seemed the poster's question was IN GENERAL FOR OUR INDUSTRY not only for textiles.=20

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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I think it's an offshoot of materialism myself -- you can have something more impressive for cheaper rather than something better made that will last longer but that won't let you keep up with the latest and greatest.

Thank you for this tidbit. I will save it and read it when I look at my old issues and wish that I had more copies.

I think what you're referring to is the implosion of the Pillowtex plant in Kannapolis. They're building a biotech place on the site, which is supposed to take 5 yrs to complete.

We could reduce our costs of production by suspending all the legislation that mandates safe working conditions, environmental responsiblity and fair labor relations. Why is it OK for America to make a market for goods produced abroad by slave labor in usafe, unsanitary and unjust conditions when it wouldn't (and shouldn't) be tolerated within our borders?

This "foreign competetition" business is comparing apples and oranges. Who benefits from having workers in developed countries compete with those who are basically working for food? As long as there is someone who will work cheaper, and our own legislators make no interventions that will lessen shareholders' equity or return on investment, the rust belt will continue to grow as ever cheaper and more compliant labor is sought.

I understand that if a foreign company wants to sell its goods in China, it is required to produce its goods in China. The Chinese should be congratulated for having better sense than we. Perhaps we could learn something from them.

Max

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

--Mae West

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You make a lot of good points, Max. We Americans are so used to consuming vast quantities of "stuff", and we rarely pay any attention to where it is actually made. Remember the hullabaloo surrounding Kathie Lee Gifford's clothing line being made in sweatshops overseas? Nowadays, no one seems to care that virtually EVERYTHING is made that way. And do you recall the "made in America" campaigns? Barely a company exists here that could boast mostly "made in America" goods anymore.

For those of you who are annoyed at this thread, I apologize for keeping it going, but we who make our own clothing are doing something, at least!

Karen Maslowski > And the cost is measured only in the dollars out of one's own purse. Stuff

America is not competing on a level playing field. The cost of goods produced in the US includes the cost of complying with regulations that were developed in response to the inhuman working conditions that prevailed in American Industry well into the twentieth century. Why do we allow goods produced under conditions that no American worker would tolerate--and no human being should tolerate--into this country? To say that America will refuse to import goods produced under unjust, unsafe, or environmentally irresponsible conditions makes trade restrictions a CONSEQUENCE and not a primary motivation. I should think it would provide a rising tide for all, at the expense of some corporate profits that the minimum wage worker will never miss anyway.

Max

Do you shop at Walmart? I don't. And why should any company in this country be able to stock retail goods that were produced by Communist slave labor?