Our raw soft wood lumber gets sold to the US where it is brought to the mills and sold back to us where we pay a premium for it. A great part of our oil gets pipelined to the US where it is refined and sold back to us at a premium, Our beef and pork is sold to US plants where it is sold back to us at a premium. Because of documents signed with the US in the late 1950's and early 1960's, Canada can no longer produce our own defence aircraft.
Our buisness and brains have been running south for the past 60 years, as bad as it is, things are turning on the US and everything is going to China.
Common story. Most hardware has moved to China, India, Taiwan anyway. The larger companies like Newell Rubbermaid are interested in large volume sales of the big boxes to keep their bloated asses alive anyway.
So you have the industrial grade tools that are made right and last a long time for lotsa bucks and the rest of the cheap crap we get to buy.
US living wage and benefit demands, corporate profits, EPA, OSHA and other gubment regulations all helped pushed tool manufacturing out of here as well as retailers going for the highest volume and price for the lowest quality to get there. Everybody likes lower prices, right?
There are 2 or 3 Vis-grips that I need to add to my collection....
September 3 2008, 11:55 PM
I guess I'd better buy them now, instead of waiting. Least this way I won't have to worry. What the heck it up with this country? Tools from India - metal soft as butter....I bought a set to make a side of the road repair. My good tools were at the house and I only had $5 - $10 in my pocket (this stuff was from the bin in the middle of the floor), my car wasn't running, but it was an easy fix. So instead of having to call or have it towed home I bought this cheap set of tools. I was using the open end wrench to tighten a header bolt..when it finally 'bit' I went to snug it down and the wrench slide off the bolt...I tried a couple more times before I noticed that the bolt wasn't rounded - it was sliding off because the damn wrench was openning up!
Being the cheap kinda guy I am, I couldn't feel right tossing'em....so I keep them around as "loaner tools". Funny thing - no one asks to borrow my tools after the first time.
Re: There are 2 or 3 Vis-grips that I need to add to my collection....
September 4 2008, 5:56 AM
Quote Ed:
"Canada can no longer produce our own defence aircraft."
What the hell does Canada need defense aircraft for? You expecting a bunch of frickin eskimos are going to invade on snow machines equipted with surface to air misiles?
Hell, if it wasnt for the USA, you guys would still be walkin around on snowshoes, traping beaver, frogs, smurffs or whatever the hell it is that inhabits that God forsaken country, instead of driving Ford Crown Vics that are being made up there, which by the way, you guys really need to produce better quality. The fit and finish on my Crown Vic Sport sucked.
Dont make me and the four other guys on my bowling team come up there and kick Canadas ass and take the whole country. I swear to God Ed, I'll put the whole frickin place up for sale on Ebay with an opening bid of .99, no reserve AND free shipping.
Re: There are 2 or 3 Vis-grips that I need to add to my collection....
September 4 2008, 7:03 AM
Well, that's pretty darn sad, almost depressing really. Next I guess Channel Lock will go belly up. They're made in PA, so that would hit even a little harder. So, this keeps up it will get to a point where it's impossible to buy a decent set of tools in any way. Try finding a decent screwdriver right now, I dare you. They're all shit.
My old man used to work for Stanley and acquired a bunch of their screwdrivers in the 70s. Those things are prybars, shims, scrapers...etc...and they STILL have nice sharp edged tips on them, good carbon steel. The other day I twisted off the tip on the "better" quality Craftsman screwdriver I was using and I was actually using the screwdriver properly, on a screw of all things. I don't know what would happen if I used it to pop a cylinder head off a block =). Same goes for ratchets, unless you spend $100 on a Snap-On or other high end stuff, they're all junk it seems now that Rigid/Craftsman/Etc are all imports.
I don't know, maybe in the 60s/70s tools were comparatively more expensive and therefore better quality, but just seems ridiculous to have to go to professional quality stuff like SnapOn before you get something remotely decent to work with.
_______________________________
The eyes are the groin of the face -- Dwight Shrute
Re: There are 2 or 3 Vis-grips that I need to add to my collection....
September 5 2008, 6:22 PM
So, what do those posts about Canadian jets have to do with crappy work Canadians did when they built my Crown Vic ?
For all we know, the reason those F 15s crashed was because there were "Canadian foregin exchange mechanics" (probably rejects from the Crown Vic plant) who worked on our jets.
Re: There are 2 or 3 Vis-grips that I need to add to my collection....
September 6 2008, 1:42 PM
David,
My Sport was a great car, the interior fit, i.e. bucket seat material was terrible. Other than that it was another great car that Ford, in there infinate wisdom, never pushed with any advertising.
The salesman, and my buddy, a Ford parts guy since the late 60s, had never heard of one. Mine was the first on the dealership EVER had. Thats sad. There wasnt one anywhere in S.E. Wisconsin that I could even test drive.
Re: There are 2 or 3 Vis-grips that I need to add to my collection....
September 6 2008, 2:52 PM
Chuck,
My '01 was the closest thing to a sport I had seen. It had the performance and handling package with 3.5x gears and the dual exhaust. I went to the junk yard and picked up a set of police buckets and had them covered to match my interior. I had to do some work to fool the computer about the seat positioning sensor. I told it the seats were most of the way back. I have a mark viii now. For the life of me, I can't see why the DOHC motor did not make it into the Vic sport. Wasn't even an option. They saved it all for the marauder and then didn't really promote it. I should have kept that car. It would have been almost paid off by now.
QUOTE: Ed said, "What I want to know is when are the domestic car companies going to smarten up and produce small diesel cars similar to the VW's."
I think the answer to that question is when the American public shows any sign of willingness to buy them. Since the GM diesel fiasco of the '80's, Americans have not been willing to buy diesels in any great numbers. There have been a couple of studies that concluded that the best fuel savings in the short-term for America would come from diesels, not hybrids. But, they just don't catch on in the US market.
