Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I was just in a Home Depot store and looked at the Sno-Tek's.  It is amazing they put a nice big sticker on the bucket that says "Made in the USA".  I guess the "Made in China engine" doesnt apply.  Good old marketing tricks.

I do think there is a flaming/trolling tone.  I don't think they sounded necessarily stupid though.

The point is the stickers that say "made in usa" don't mean that much.  I forgot the actual rule, but it depends on the a certain percentage of the invested cost in a final product.  In other words, a great deal of the product can be made somewhere else and still be labeled as made in the U.S.A. , as long as the final assembly or whatever is valued at the greatest percentage compared to the other components of the product.

B&S engines are made in China too. 

What matters is that Ariens put their name on the unit.  This means that they have at least some confidence in its success.

Ariens fan boys will see the original post as flaming. It's only normal for those who have an affection for a product (be it misguided or not) to resent anything that might possibly be construed as negative toward it. I'm certain that we all feel a little that way for brands of our preference. Nonetheless, I don't think the OP was outwardly bashing Ariens. On the other hand, if he/she are genuinely offended by the Chinese engine on an American built product, they're living a sheltered life. There are not too many things a person can buy these days without Chinese content. I'd be surprised if the LCT engine even has a "country of origin" sticker on it. I know that my Mitsubishi pressure washer engine doesn't and it's supposed to be from Japan. Yeah right! Japan via China. Same thing with my Champion engine on the generator. No mention of country of origin on it either. Although, the generator itself has a "Made in China" sticker on it. Not too long ago, I was ringing the alarm bell about the excessive amount of Chinese content in everything we buy. I was actually concerned about the well being of our manufacturing base. Considering how North American manufacturing in general have embraced Chinese productivity and cheap labour, I must conclude that my fears are unfounded.......

borat wrote:

Borat,

im curious what you mean by "my fears are unfounded"...

how is "North American manufacturing in general have embraced Chinese productivity and cheap labour" a *good* thing?

how is that good for the "well-being of our manufacturing base", when our manufacturing base is leaving..for China..

your comments seem to to contradict..

just curious..not trying to flame..just wondering what you mean..

thanks,

Scot

sscotsman wrote:

Tongue in cheek comment sscotsman. I do not condone the handing over of our manufacturing capabilities to a foreign country whatsoever. The point that I'm trying to make is that despite my outspoken disagreement with our country's dependence on a foreign country making all of our stuff, our manufacturers don't seem to mind it at all! One after the other they are sliding down the slippery slope to China. What's even more disconcerting, is that we're not even wise enough to spread the work around. We've pretty much handed the egg basket over to China. How many more years before they have us completely by the $#%*?

borat wrote:
oh good!
I was a bit confused, having read some of your comments from the last week or so..
I guess I havent been here long enough to pick up on the sarcasm! ;)

I agree with you 100%..

My wife worked for a big international company..
production went to Mexico and China..
her and 60,000 of her coworkers are out of a job..
those jobs will never come back..
she has found some temp work, but at half her previous salary..
our family income is down by 40%..and it will never go back to where it was..
my own job hangs by a thread..for these same reasons..

I refuse to buy anything at Walmart..I cant stand the place.

well..I dont want to get into a big debate..I was just confused by your post! ;)
thanks for clearing it up..
glad to see you havent slipped into complacency  yet..

Scot

yeah. Every once in a while, I have to vent. I've been commenting on "Chinese content" for years. Approx. twelve years ago, while opening Christmas presents, it became abundantly clear that even then, China had produced 80% of the gifts under our tree. I've been relentless in bringing this to light since then. It would appear however, most people do not share this concern, or if they do, they're pretty good at concealing it. Now, twelve years later, our manufacturing sector is even more at risk because with the flood of North American/Japanese/European "know-how" being supplied to China, be it legitimate or stolen, has elevated their productivity and quality to a level that is very difficult to ignore. Two years ago, I would go out of my way to avoid buying a Chinese built OPE engine because the build quality was inconsistent . Now, I have no qualms whatsoever. Their engines quality has improved that much. Being that some components in B&S engines are built in China, we have virtually no choice but to buy a foreign small engine, like it or not. You are correct in pointing out Walmart as being the catalyst that began the exodus of blue collar jobs out of our countries. They completely changed the way business had been conducted between manufacturing and retail. I like to refer to Walmart as the "Great Wall Mart".

http://www.lctusa.com/

Support & parts distribution in the USA, even if the engine itself comes from China.

Hello to all, I am the original poster.  In a way it was a bit of a slam to Ariens, after all just what does "Made in America mean these days"?,  The tag caught my eye first thing!  Leave the that tag off and all would be well.  I realize it is a world market, just dont try and pull the wool over anyones eyes with a shiny tag..  Is that fair enough?  The engine may be great.
How many laid off workers will it take for this country  to realize this.    SAD Situation.
I'm a young 60 yrs old and cant believe what is going on here.  There will always be some politician to say ..."dont worry it will work out in the end."
Sorry to get a bit political but that is our future...SNOW or NOT.
MADE IN THE USA

The Made in the USA is misleading.  Be careful about thinking that Made in USA means quality.  However, there's something else that is not.  "Made in China" means that the people who put these engines together are proudly displaying for the public to see.  60 and 15 years ago, we thunb down our noses at products made overseas from Japan and Korea.  Look at where they are now.  Let's not make the same mistake the third time.

US has to get competitive or all we can provide are weapons and services.  If a pair of jeans already costs $60 and are made over there, who's going to pay for $200 jeans made in the US of A.

Your reference to jeans caught my attention.  A while back my wife and daughter were shopping for dresses at JC Penny's.  I was bored and spent about 40 minutes walking through the store looking at everything and anything to see where it was made.  The ONLY items I found that carried a "made in USA" label were blue jeans. 

Lenin once said (paraphrasing) that a capitalist will sell a rope to someone for a profit even though he knows the buyer intends to use the rope to hang him with.

 

That's because the capitalists' greatest value is profit. All other values are secondary and dispensable as long as the first value is obtained. Any social reality is acceptable as long that first value is materialized.

 

The "rope" that China used was cheap labor.  China went to American business leaders and offered to build products cheaper for them.  American businessmen knew that outsourcing their manufacturing to China would produce quick and easy profits, so they went for it...even though they also knew that it would ultimately lead to their demise.  They just could pass up the quick profit.