Politics & Economy

[catlover]

@needstuff...no offense taken on my part. No worries...

[Dgw9]

I am privileged to hear from salaried professionals how line workers are over-compensated and that their jobs can be done just as well and far more cheaply by overseas labor. That somehow a bachelors, masters or doctorate degree makes them irreplaceable. The funny thing is, if you are a doctor, or an engineer, or an accountant or maintain any business position in the good old United States of America, you are in exactly the same boat, and you shouldn't ever forget it. Your job can be done with a fair degree of competence at a far lower rate by someone from another country. Someone willing to work much harder than you would for a much lower wage. It is only when the object is something tangible, like a sofa or an armchair, that someone, like drcollie, can actually pull it apart and expose it for what it is--second rate goods purchased at a discount from what American workers would have produced in a first-rate shop for a first-rate wage. The bromide is wrong---You only get what you pay for if you are really paying attention.

After everyone has had their final say, I'd suggest we kill this unproductive topic. There's too much quality American furniture I still don't know anything about!

[drcollie]

I normally do not comment in threads such as these because they are inflammatory by nature and quite honestly, bad for business. My politics I keep to myself, but I am patriotic and believe in the American Way hence my dogged reluctance to carry imports in my store. But let me tell you a true story about my favorite company (long time forum members can probably guess who it is, but I'm not going to name it)...

The men that own this company - its private and not publicly held - have made enough money for themselves to be comfortable a long time ago. They could easily retire or sell their companies and never have to worry about a dollar again. But they keep working - and they do work hard. I hear two recurring themes from these gentlemen in our conversations, and they are:

# 1: They want to keep their people employed. Their workers are like family to them and that's not just window-dressing, they really mean it. They feel they have a duty to their community to keep pushing and keep working because their industry have been savaged the past dozen years as more and more companies give up domestic production and go offshore. I have never once heard the owner's say "We're here to make money", rather they say "I will do what I can to keep our people busy and working, we will prosper for their benefit, they count on us." They even keep a full-time professional nurse with a medical office in the factory so every employee gets free medical care immediately if they get injured, or just need an allergy or flu shot, etc. They don't charge the workers a dime for that. I never saw so much pain there as in 2008 when they had to lay off some workers during the height of the recession. They took that as failure on their part, but during that time the orders just stopped coming in (I was very close to having to close my business as well) and they had to do it.

# 2 is a love of the job. They are proud of being the best in the industry - USA made - and want that to be their legacy. They build using only the finest products, and the most highly trained workers. And they pay their workers more than anyone else in the industry, too. And that's very appealing to me as a dealer as well.

American quality and values are still out there. We DO build the best in the world in this category, but it won't come cheaply - quality does cost. Most people know that. I admire companies that refuse to bow to consumer demand for less costly products and still build it the right way, and to last.

[catlover]

Excellently said drcollie. It's nice to hear that there are professionals and owners who sincerely care about their workers.