Oak Flooring

[g_man]

My son and his wife install flooring. On hardwood, he runs the nailer and she lays out and runs the chop saw. I went to see him at a job site yesterday. They were laying a 3/4" solid oak prefinished floor with 3 1/2" wide T&G boards in a new addition. He said " How do you like the Chinese floor ?" Then he explained how the customer bought the flooring at Lowes at a bargin price. It has made in China all over the box. He said it was laying up really well and they were't having any trouble with it.
It boggles my mind how this can happen. I can see Canadian product, it's only 40 miles away, but a bulky product all the way from China and still out compete US product when we have the oak we have right here. Something is wrong.

[spencerhenry]

government subsidies, and over there a dollar goes a very long way

[sealark37]

Not to mention that any person who differs with the communist government gets thrown in jail, if he is lucky.  Guess what, chinese jails don't have cable.  The prisoners are obliged to work without pay, for as many hours as their entrepreneur jailers desire.  Considering these very low labor rates, the rental of an ocean container is cheap marketing.  Note: our political leaders admire the Chinese.  Regards, Clark 

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

And to top it off, they probably bought the oak logs from here and shipped them to china to mill and complete the processing into finished product...

Herb

[Decked]

My wife works as a import buyer for a local company. All comes from China, they can make the tool in China, produce the product, AND ship it here ( pay the tarriff) cheaper than they can make the tool in the US.

The Chinese company pays the workers 25 cents a day. They work 7 days a week with only time off being "Chinese New Year".

And China owns half of this country..
sad situation

AND....I work in a place that uses a lot of plain ol' PENCILS...nothing hi-tech. I've purcased pencils from office supply places using US made stuff ( around $3 per dozen). The dang erasers plop out the first time we use them...THREE different "BEST quality" brands.

Then I go to dollar store...pay $1 for 20 pencils that stay sharp longer, lead doesn't snap off an inch up inside the wood, & keep their eraser.

where's the quality control in this Country? :'(

[g_man]

Things must have changed - My wife was a thrid grade teacher before she retired and she used to complain to high heavens that the school would buy cheap Chinese pensils. The lead was off center so much that when you sharpened them the point would be wood and then the lead would slide out in little pieces. The erasers were dried up and hard as a rock. She used to go to staples every fall and buy some good US pencils for the kids. She would give each kid a dozen US pencils so they could write.
Now you are saying it has changed the other way around. If that is true we are doomed unless someone wakes up fast.

[Larry]

Probably made in a factory using a brand new state of the art Chinese made moulder.  I'll bet money that moulder was engineered right here in the USA.  Moulder technicians from here probably set up the machine and provide tech support.

[madmari]

I was visited by a log buyer from Canada today who said the Chinese can take logs from North America, bring them to China, saw them, produce a wooden product and ship it back to us for sale. Meanwhile, we have unemployment and a super-soft log market. That is upside down.
  A case in point was on the news the other night about a Chinese company that set up shop in Georgia to make chopsticks for export back to China. The number of pieces was staggering and the company employed a significant number of US residents. It's better, but why can't an American owned company produce chopsticks?

[jueston]

It's the same with metal products, the Chinese buy scrap metal from north America, pay to ship it across the ocean, melt it down, make something with it, and then pay to ship it back. And its cheaper then American made products.... It's a sad state of affairs but that's what happens when one country [America] has an anti-business government and the other [china] will do anything to support business, subsidies, no tariffs, low business taxes.....

[jdonovan]

When I can operate my us factory with out regulation from OSHA, EPA, or other agencies, I'm immune from lawsuits, and pay my labor slave level wages, work them 14-18 hours per day, 7 days a week, and have a line outside the gate begging for jobs....

Then I'll be able to compete effectively with Chinese goods.

[Autocar]

Like G Man said we are doomed if our goverment dosen't wake up soon, boy you guys sure know how to Pi## a fellow on a Friday  :D

[Mlamountain]

We should start another union.....that will solve everything.  I think we could use a few more politicians and government workers also.  Oh yah more cops too.

[venice]

Pretty funny....

You guys should read Karl Marx's "Capital" and you'd understand what's going on. The Chinese did. And they understood.

They are communist. (The Chinese Gouverment is run by the communist party of China, you know that, dont you :-))

And the main target for every good communist is to fight capitalism and free the working class...blabla

There are 3 ways to reach that target.

1. Revolution, most common in 3rd world countries,

2. War, luckily never happend after WW 2,

3.(the chinese way)read and understand the "Capital" and do what the Chinese Gouverment is doing for about 20 years now. Use your enemy's biggest weakness to bring him to fall; GREED. Slow process but working pretty well as we see today.

The most important thing you have to understand is, the USA, like many other countries, is not run by an independent Gouverment that cares for it's population or it's country, it's run by Blue Chips. And all these guys are care about is profit. No matter what.

What brings us back to the "Capital". Just read it. And you will understand.

A couple years ago China was called "EVIL" by the President  and now it's the USA biggest creditor.... What!

It's all about greed and profit.

venice

[Jeff]

Listen fellas, be careful about turning this into a political discussion. I don't want to have to move it into the restricted topics board.

[SwampDonkey]

It all boils down to choice of the consumer. Like myself, I have to buy much of my woodworking supplies from Lee Valley if I want good value for my money. Thank goodness I can buy Canadian and US produced lumber still. And it's seems the Chinese are buying an awfully lot from Canada the last few months to. In fact the last quarter has seen a record export of lumber from BC to China.

[250quality]

It sucks! I just finished milling 5000bd ft of red oak with no market for it. Wife went to Depot and bought flooring for my daughters room as we needed it now and it too came from China.
Problem is it's hard to get mad cause its some of the best price and quality stuff I have installed.
Doesn't seem fair but what is the answer?