hacker-pschorr

The floor jack I bought there was a great deal:
CLICK HERE FOR FLOOR JACK LINK

Today I saw a 1,500lb folding engine stand for under $70. Looks good and sturdy - it's under $60 at my local Sams club so check your local store. Here it is:
CLICK HERE FOR ENGINE STAND LINK

Shane

Betcha it is made in China too!

hacker-pschorr

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Shane

Yep and I vote with my money, which I do every time I buy something. I have a very hard time supporting a communist gov with hard earned dollars out of my pocket.

bwebb77

Shane, you'll be hard press to find a lot of items not made in China these days. Even stuff you're not aware of.

hacker-pschorr

Well, over half the engine stands owned by Rennlisters were probably purchased at Harbor Freight, this looks to be the same unit with a folding arm.

What US made engine stand do you have? I would rather buy American, but locally I have two choices for in stock stands. Harbor Freight and now Sams Club. I'm not buying a $700 Snap-On stand either.

Shane

Your right it is tough these days to find stuff not M in C, make shopping for anything tough, try buying toys for your kids and NOT buy something from China. I was caught jumping up and down in joy at Walmart once. Lady asked me what had me so excited and I told her I had actually found a toy made in Singapore instead of China, she walked away giggling.

I have an engine stand made in the USA, but it is an old hand me down from my brother in law. When I have the time I will build my own stand and lift and stamp it Made with Pride in the USA.

chaadster

Trying to push a political agenda by allocating your consumer dollars in a particular way is pretty pointless. There simply is no clear message. If a product doesn't sell, it is because it was marketed incorrectly, or the color was wrong, or the timing was wrong, or it didn't offer perceived value, etc. The last thing that will happen is that a company will close up overseas operations and relocate to the USA. It's not even the last thing; it just won't happen. Even a cursory glance at the American capitalist system over the past 30 years reaffirms this. More than anything, the system wants you to buy, buy, buy, irrespective of a product's origins.

bd0nalds0n

Not to take this a whole nother step further, but here goes: In the spirit of Adam Smith's 'invisible hand,' there are Dawinistic tendencies: capital is going to flow to places where it's best looked after, and labor is going to flow to where it can be most cheaply had. The system is self-organizing, and is going to do what it is going to do. In fact, the broad resulting effiencies from allowing free-market forces to operate must add up to more than what would otherwise be gained by paying to subsidize and artificially prop up some portion of your economy, because governments are the least efficient allocators of capital anywhere. While I'm sympathetic to plights of any one individual (if the unemployment rate is 5%, but you don't have a job, then the unemployment rate is 100% and politically you're interested in someone who says they have an idea about how the genie can be put back into the bottle), the lesson we can all learn from the dinosaurs is that the most important trait is adaptability. Furthermore, using China in particular, the more trade-oriented and capitalistic it becomes, the less power a corrupt/communistic/totalitarian regime holds over its populace. Unless they really do wish us ill, at which time we simply stop buying Barbies arrived by container from the ROC.

None of us are at all apologetic for driving imported autos and feel rather strongly for the value judgments we made as part of ownership. If I could get a cheap, effective engine stand for $70, then super, until I can get one for $50 which will be even better.

Furthermore, with the kind of technological changes that are coming during the next 50 years or so vis-a-vis the collaboration between traditional technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology, it's going to completely upend all manufacturing technologies--and resulting economies--as we currently understand them, even as we begin to exhaust our traditional energy stores.

Lastly, the velocity of money through any system is great and why wouldn't it be encouraged? If you have a system that is "profitable," meaning that more money doesn't get siphoned off (in the case of corruption, for example, creating drag), then the faster the money changes hands, the more purchasing power increases, which creates a positive (largely, unless you think about things like the rain forest, etc.) feedback loop in which your economy reinvests in itself to create new, helpful gizmos and geegaws, which in turn increase the quality of life of your particpants.

With that, I think I'll call in order for some parts and do my part to keep things moving.

freezzz

Woe! Now that was deep...