I bought a Bench Press and when I put it together, I was a couple of bolts shy...

[WCGreen]

Of course it was made in China because it seems we can't make it here anymore.

I went to the local hardware store here in very republican Westlake and I told the lady behind the counter that I was shy a few bolts and that the bench was made in China and that I was getting frustrated. This was the third trip down because I couldn't get the right size.

Anyway, she commented that who are you gonna call about such things when they happen.

The guy behind me made a comment in a bad Chinese accent.

I turned to him and said don't blame them, blame the guys who sent the jobs away.

The Woman behind the counter was in her late 60's or early 70's and she said WORD.

I saw James McMurtry last night and his song We Can't Make it Here Anymore is the best protest song since the60's...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWRfBZY-ng

[Ilsa]

1. Great post. That song is from four years ago. I wonder why

I difn't know of it back then:
\
"We Can't Make it Here"
Lyrics


Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

[truedelphi]

39. No matter how often I hear that song, I always get teary eyed

Adn then about twenty minutes later, I get MAD!

[Blue_Tires]

41. wow...brilliant

[davidinalameda]

2. I'm SO glad that you posted this

I'm to the point where I really try to buy stuff made in the US

not because of some patriotic fervor, but because I know that can find someone to fix it if need be; I know that the people who made it were working under safe conditions and were making decent wages

of course, I was looking through a catalogue the other day and nearly every piece of clothing was imported

it's discouraging

we need to make an effort to increase our manufacturing base

I was also reading an article this week about the Treasury Department might change the metals that go into the penny and nickel; I just hope that they use American made alloys in the coins

[greenvpi]

3. Why only the US

Do you think you're too good to buy from less unfortunate people?

[Ilsa]

6. Like he said, he wants to be able to have an item repaired

by someone locally, not by mailing an item back to China and hoping they'll honor a warranty. Or having to wait a month for a new part to arrive if he can even make contact with the correct vendor for that.

I don't like the idea that everything needs to be so cheap that it is disposable. We shouldn't be creating this much garbage. Items should last longer, not shorter than they did 20 years ago.

[rockymountaindem]

8. Why does this argument always come up?

How about wanting to make sure that we spend our money on and for fellow Americans so we can support each other and keep our own economy strong?

[davidinalameda]

17. those less unfortunate people

are frequently being used as slave labor or being paid so poorly that they might as well be slaves

I saw something the other than that stated it would take a Chinese worker six months wages to be able to buy a Thomas the Train toy if they had to pay the US retail price

[Marr]

23. "Less unfortunate"..?

What the...? Why can't you people ever write coherently?

[Ilsa]

4. Kind of reminds me of a dialogue on Jericho I heard this morning

(playback). After having all the major cities destroyed by a dozen nuclear bombs, a teenage boy is saying all they need to do is get the internet up and running again, you know, we'll have virtual cities, virtual govt. Let the terrorists bomb that! When asked how people would get what they needed, like food and blankets for winter and fuel, the kid stopped for two seconds and said, "We'll just order it off the internet!" as if it was that easy.

Our glorious service economy isn't providing the food and shelter we still need.

[truedelphi]

40. Smacking her hand to her head:

I hadn't thought of that.

I bet that them thar virtual food prices ahve been pretty stable lately!

And the cost of a new virtual Prius is probably more in line
with what me and The Mister can afford.

[w8liftinglady]

5. I'm Rec'ing this-my kids can't find decent jobs!

My oldest-Army Vet-no one will hire him for more than 7.00 an hour-he is debating going back to Iraq.
My middle son-just turned 18,all the jobs are held by middle aged and older folks trying to get by.Thanks,George Bush and friends

[ColbertWatcher]

7. How many times did you go to the hardware store?

And they couldn't get the right sized screw?

Was this a chain store?

Finding the right sized screw should not be a problem for someone who knows what they're doing.

I can see the difference between all the different sizes and I'm not in the hardware business.

[WCGreen]

11. It was my fault because I grabbed the wrong bolt the first time....

And then I took a nut to measure and it was wrong.

But the bolts weren't in the package to begin with and I was left to guess which ones went where.

[rdenney]

24. The old hardware store that closed when Home Depot & Lowe's moved in used..

to have a gaging device that would tell them exactly what size bolt or nut thread you had, both in US or Metric grade.

Oh, well, times they do change and not always for the best :-(

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Usually when they make those things...

...they make them with the same screw for every part. The only difference is the length. But, hey I don't know, I can't see it.

I hope you were finally able to put it together.

Sorry to hear you wasted so much gas!

[lib2DaBone]

34. I can't count the times

I've had to take faulty Chinese made junk back to the store. Problem is, EVERY THING is made in China. Anti-freeze in tooth paste, poison in dog food, lead paint in toys, bolts that snap, screws that strip, fans with bad motors, vacuums with bad wires. A Manager at a big-box computer store explained it to me. He said, basically, China has no "QUALITY CONTROL". They just ship crap and if it's bad, the customer will return it. They are putting further costs on the backs of the consumer. Kind of like self checkout only even better. Of course, American Corporations love it. They provide the cheapest crap at the highest price, set up a home office with a mailbox in the Cayman Islands and they pay no income tax! Ahhhh... life is one big ENRON.. it don't get any better than this.

[midnight armadillo]

42. These are the problems on the ordering side

American companies that order from the bidder promising the lowest price and quickest turnaround who then decide to forgo any quality checks or guarantees are to blame for the shitty quality. If American co's demanded top-notch product from the Chinese factories than they'd step up to provide it or lose the bid to an American manufacturer who can provide the quality. Why? 'Cause quality costs money, as you know.

The whole point of outsourcing is to be cheap, and fuck the consumer if they end up with crap since they'll be back for more to replace the broken crap since it was so cheap to begin with.

There's a great article on the web (from some mag, like Wired or something) about how Snapper lawnmowers decided not to sell via Walmart since they could see that eventually the price/volume demands would result in them importing low-quality machines from overseas (and ruining the Snapper name in the process). I believe the article mentioned that people would typically just buy a new mower every 1-2 years from Walmart since they were cheap enough to be disposable.

I predict that the next 20 years will see a great resurgence in quality, repairable goods as energy costs override the impulse to buy and toss and environmental concerns are more widespread.

[MercutioATC]

13. It's an Ace Hardware...

...if I'm correct in assuming which hardware store he went to.

...and have you ever really looked at screws and/or bolts? It's not only the thickness and length, but the size of the threads. They can be hard to match.

[WCGreen]

19. It's a great hard ware store...

I go there all the time for stuff.

[MercutioATC]

35. Agreed. Amazing how much they pack into that little store.

Unless I'm looking for bigger stuff that I go to Home Depot for, that hardware store is always my first stop.

[WCGreen]

37. It's like the hardware stores in Lakewood when I was growing up...

[ColbertWatcher]

29. There are actually 3 measurements...

...the diameter, the length of the screw and the number of threads per inch.

And once you've learned it, you can spot them right away.

[rdenney]

26. You are correct but incompetence rules the day in this country. The hardware store should have been

more helpful, then what I read here, not the customer.

Hardware sales was always a very Customer Service oriented business, matching paint colors, wall-papers, threads, drills and hole sizes, and many more things. Not anymore it seems.

[ColbertWatcher]

31. It seems customer service is more oriented toward...

...pointing people to something, not helping people with problems.

Employees have become nothing more than human versions of those "You are here" signs you see at the mall.

Employers seem threatened when employees know their jobs.

Idiocracy here we come!

[rdenney]

33. I agree. I have had managers scared silly about losing their jobs to their own staff..

due to their own lack of drive or intelligence, including people like myself who do the job
and learn to know the product or service.

It amazes me how some of these people made it to management positions in the first place, as most of them had no people skills either, leading to a high turnover rate in both customers and employees.

Idiocrasy, indeed!

[Beregond2]

9. I've been

a couple of bolts shy for years.

[kittykitty]

10. So did you ever get the bolts?

[WCGreen]

12. Yea, I just got done lifting.

[T Monk]

14. did you get steroid rage?

[tech3149]

15. Don't forget to check out Music Row Democrats

If you hadn't heard them before and you like McMurtry, I'm sure you'll appreciate them. Hope you found the hardware you needed, if not check out JTS Machinery or RTS fasteners.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. What a great song that is, Chris...

Very moving, very true...

Blame the guys who sent the jobs away...

K&R

[caligirl]

18. I felt awful about a pair of lamps I bought, I ordered them from

an American institution of a furniture store(Ethan Allen). When they came in Made In China was stamped on the box. I don't like their furniture as well as stuff made a few years ago when it was all made here. The furniture industry workers here took a hit and it all went to China. The white cherry stuff is now made of something else and it isn't nearly as nice. I think about replacing my living and dining room in about five years and wonder what with. What I have is the good stuff made here of great wood by American workers. I'll get it refinished and reupholstered first.

[WCGreen]

20. My mom's dining room set is Ethan Allen and it is still beautiful after

40 years.

My sister got it though. Damn her...

[caligirl]

27. You can get great deals on the stuff at Craigs list ,search Ethan Allen

Tt is great. But after spending that much I like to go look at craigslist once in awhile for a better deal. I ve seen my mission style white cherry dining room there for a fraction(half or less) of what I paid and sometimes in better condition than mine is in now. The fabric is an easy replacement.

[WCGreen]

36. Mission Style rocks....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. FYI, if you ever have a similar situation, check the box for the distributor in the US. You can

call and ask for the missing parts. They usually have them and send them right off.

[Kitty Herder]

22. Thanks for the link!

I truly enjoyed that video. I haven't heard something a song that good and truthful in a long time.

[Capn Sunshine]

25. Westlake? California?

We have a very active Democratic Party there , and recently passed republicans in total voter registrations. That's my home turf, amigo. :hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

28. He's in Ohio!

:hi:

[K8-EEE]

32. SERIOUSLY????

That really surprises me! That's great! I live in NoHollywood but my sister lives in 1000 Oaks and every time I go out there I get the GOP creeps for sure. Her neighbors have scary bumperstickers. Even a "Viva Bush!" Every time I see that "Viva Bush" guy I'm like, what an asshole. Viva Bush is somehow worse than just the W sticker, which is bad enough -- although last time I was out there, the W sticker neighbor had scraped it off!

[Usrename]

38. I bought a hunk of steel flat bar at Lowe's a while back...

...the tag on it said "Made in the US or in China."

I swear it did.

[Regret My New Name]

43. I know this isn't the point of your post but...

I bought one of those big home gym systems about eight months ago. Thing took about 8 hours to put together by myself (manual said 10 hours) , but it was missing about 10 sets of bolts by the time I got through. Wasn't a problem that some duct tape, bubble gum and saran wrap couldn't fix though.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

44. Welcome to DU, my dear Zevon fan!

Enjoy yourself in our crazy, very addictive little village!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

45. "Whatever, do NOT the bolt."

:rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. I'd like to point that once songs like this one become common

revolutions are not that far away... and no wonder I never hear this on the radio