Porter Cable - Good Bye USA!

[Cecil Arnold]

I wanted to buy American so I bought a Toyota!Made in the USA!

And your Toyota (and mine) was made at a good price by high priced American labor that has benefits and a retirement plan. Does anyone besides me question our corporate culture?

[Dave Moran]

I contacted Porter Cable to express my disapointment, never expected a reply, I just needed to vent, I expressed my diaspointement but was not vicious. Here is the reply;
Dear David,

Thank you for visiting the Porter-Cable website.

The acquisition of Pentair Tools Group by Black & Decker was completed October 2, 2004. Over the past weeks and month all business units were evaluated to identify changes needed to meet strategic objectives. During the week of 1/17/05 it was announced that certain Porter Cable manufacturing operations in Jackson, TN would be moved to other locations including Reynosa, Mexico. However, it should also be pointed that some manufacturing operations currently in Mexico are also being relocated to Jackson, TN. A number of positions were affected by the move; however, Porter Cable, Delta and DeVilbiss Air Power will continue to maintain a strong manufacturing and distribution presence in Jackson, TN.

Regards,

Customer Care Department

[Richard McComas]

I am wondering how a country like Germany can maintain jobs and still sell their products internally at a higher cost?
Of course its capitalism at work, companies want the lowest cost labor input, but what about the long term. I wonder if any American company sees past the next quarter?

I don't know a whole lot about the subject or how wide spread it is but I do know the German co that makes the high quality Buffering Wide Belt sander is now having the machine made in China. If Buffering is doing this I can’t help but think there are others and probably many others doing the same thing or headed that way.

[Rob Wyrick]

I wanted to buy American so I bought a Toyota!Made in the USA!

But where is the profit going? Specifically, the corporate profit? In the end, Toyota makes money on car sales. If you give your money to Toyota rather than Ford or GM, then you are helping Toyota's car sales. If enough people do that, GM and Ford will feel the pain. Their profit will go down, their stock prices will go down, and they will move jobs to Mexico to save money and increase profits. If they don't move jobs or don't save enough, eventually they'll get bought (like Chrysler) and then even more corporate profit is lost to foreign companies. When all American car manufacturers are gone, the entire industry will start moving plants to Mexico or China in order to decrease costs and increase profit even more. Eventually there will be no auto industry in the U.S. except for a few high-end custom manufacturers.

Before you laugh me off and think I'm a nut. This has pretty much already happened to the textile industry. Where is the shirt on your back made? And have you ever tried to buy anything leather (shoes, coats, etc.) that was made in the U.S? It's nearly impossible.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now .

[Dave Moran]

Before you laugh me off and think I'm a nut. This has pretty much already happened to the textile industry. Where is the shirt on your back made? And have you ever tried to buy anything leather (shoes, coats, etc.) that was made in the U.S? It's nearly impossible.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now .

Rob, you are not a nut, find a TV made in the USA, there are none. this is a lot of what NAFTA, ISO etc is causing. and we keep buying into these scams

[Peter Gavin]

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with most of the sentiments expressed here. The 'good ole USA' has no monopoly on the right to make money. In fact, the huge disparity in earnings (and wasteful expenditure) between the USA ( and to some extent Europe) is probably the greatest threat to stability and safety in the world there is. Although it may seem unfair that a worker in Mexico can only make in a day what you make per hour, chances are he (she) is thrilled to make it. The best we can hope for is that the earnings gap between the USA and the rest of the world diminishes, because maybe then the mexican worker will demand benefits like retirement, job safety et al and the USA will become competetive again. In the meantime, you had better learn some skills that CAN'T be exported, because if you try to keep living in the old economy you are going to be diappointed.

Just my .02

Peter

[Carl Eyman]

This same question has been present during my whole working life. It has been with us certainly since the end of World WarII. Each succeeding generation has made the same plea of where will it end? Yet look what has happened to our standard of living; It is going no place but up. I see young college grads coming out of college and starting with a level of affluence it took me and my generation decades to achieve. Now it is true people say both husband and wife have to work to make it. Well, yes both do to afford a new 2500 square foot house, two new cars, music lessons for the kids, etc. But my point is the jobs are there so this can happen. If we've on balance exported jobs, why do we have so many left? None of this helps the guy that lost his PorterCable service center job, of course, but still there are plenty of jobs left, more being created every year, and we continue to live higher on the hog each year. Curious!