Made in America

there is denotation and connotation involved in this question.

i think the connotation is that an american company manufactures in the states, employing american workers. i suspect that what i have described is what people mean by american products, rather than a toyota assembled in the us, or a chinese company hiring american workers and building some product.

i think when people advocate "buy american", they imply, from an american company, located domestically.

hi kjabki:

i already answered that question. however, here it is:

the company is located in the us, and uses only us components in its products. it doesn not matter wheteher the workers were born in the us or somewhere else.

for those who are concerned about "made in america", consider the possibility that you could purchase a product, be happy with it and find out that that it has no american part, and was manufactured outside of the us. Is that a problem ?

i think there is a trade off between the utility of the product and helping to provide employment for americans.

i can't specify how to determine which way to go, except to say, that certain products have reliability and safety issues. for such products, the country of origin is immaterial.

in addition, with respect to audio, there is the cost and sound factors. if there are two components, one made in the us, which costs more than another, manufactured not in the us, and there is very little difference in sound, it is hard to pay more, just because it is made in a foreign country.

i think american companies have to be competitive.

the classic example is wallmart vs a local store. wallmart's prices may be a lot less, so it is difficult to patronize the local merchant if there is a big price differential.