Made in USA

Around 1999 I was working at a plant in a former communist country.  One of the associates was talking to me and commented that he missed communism.  He preferred communism over capitalism.  I was surprised by that and asked him why.  I know materially, he was better off than before.  He said he preferred the comfort and security of someone else telling him what to do.  He didn’t like having to make important decisions for himself.

Perhaps some of you prefer the comfort of someone else making your important decisions for you.  Not an unreasonable desire.  We often times hold off making decisions until the opportunity is gone.

Read your books.  I’ve been in 42 countries.  Every one of them have their rich and their poor.  I’ve seen hard work rewarded and celebrated and I have seen the awful scourge of the exploitation of people.  Money is not the answer to everything.  People respecting each other and treating each other fairly would solve a lot of problems.  It can start right here on these forums.

Communism was terrible. Almost more surreal than Trump. People who want communism back are the lazy, corrupt ones who prefer to get rich by backstabbing others and assisting to a corrupt system. I always stood up against it and I was always punished for it, some of my relatives went to jail. 

Outside the USA items made there are most often too expensive, transport, changes due to voltage, certification costs, small sales volume and usually higher markups make them uncompetitive. Some nice products, my first DAC was an Audio Alchemy, very nice, AR speakers were well marketed in the UK and realistic in price, however typically here in Australia anything by MacIntosh for instance is at least twice the price it is worth, even stuff by Schitt is not cheap. 

@henry53 in Eastern Europe a decent speaker (5 grand) would cost 10 grand out the door and you'd have to put 10 months of your salary away for it.

So...are you really only buying US equipment first and foremost rather than what sounds best, fits your needs etc? To each their own but I'm certainly not - I'm buying what I like the best and what fits my needs and budget and what sounds the best within my system- just like I'm not buying my cars based on where they're made.