Altec DEPENDABILITY

[mah]

A variation on an old saying: "A rampant Capitalist has no conscience".

Marshall.

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

A variation on an old saying: "A rampant Capitalist has no conscience".

An old saying where? I've never heard it. I beleive in capitalism, but I don't beleive it should be the end all, in every decision made by an individual, or a company.

[selmerdave]

Just getting back to Bryston, I'll happily second (third?) that endorsement. They have that warranty because they know they won't need much fixing. My father has had a 4B since 1974, serviced once for free in the '90's. Works great, sounds fantastic for sand on a pair of Dahlquist's.

Dave

[Steve Mac]

there's stuff out there...
check out the odyssey audio amps...american made...killer
check out the gpa 288h drivers and 515 woofers...american made...killer

I share all the feelings here except for one.
The best that America is should not be measured by big corporations
and the bottom line. The real value of America is in each of us.

[MikeInNH]

A. The people who want to save money by not paying someone in the U.S.A. to do it.

I have one of those jobs (software engineer) that is moving faster and faster overseas every day. I use to do consulting...but it became more and more difficult to compete with places like India/China/Inodnesia...The engineers in many of these places make less then I pay in property taxes every year. It's become IMPOSSIBLE to compete.

95% (OR MORE) of the companies that outsource are very large corporations. Companies like HP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM. All those companies have major campuses in India and China..employing THOUSANDS of highly educated engineers making 1/10 what a comparable engineer makes here in the US. It gets too costly for smaller companies to only outsource 1-2 engineers.

And in some cases we the tax payers are paying for this. One of my consulting jobs was to AIG insurance in Bedford NH. They closed down the whole shop...laid off 1000 engineers and moved the whole operation to India.

B. The people who do not want to pay corporate taxes in America, so they relocate overseas.

VERY VERY few companies have relocated overseas. Many have moved whole divisions overseas. But they still need a US presence to do business in the US. Only lately has the Government been clamping down on these companies....Remember Halliburton??? The company Chaney was CEO of??? They moved a good portion of their corporate headquaters overseas to avoid taxes while Bush was president. Funny how it was never looked into until recently.

C. The people who sue to protect "the environment" at the expense of all else - even American jobs - when a suitable compromise could be worked out, if they were willing to listen.

I've see BOTH sides of this issue unwilling to compromise on ANYTHING. Take a look at the environmental laws in the past 30 years...and you'll see corporation after corporation finding loopholes to side-step any regulation (even though the cost isn't that high).

D. The people who are willing put up with it because "it's cheaper" and keep doing business with the companies that outsource their work or manufacturing.

I don't do business with them if I can...but it's virtually impossible. I NEED a computer to do my work.

E. The people who allow this to happen (aka the politicians), who, for whatever reason, allow the laws of this country to be either violated or so written as to allow it (or even encourage it, like the Overseas Development Fund (aka USAID), which will PAY YOU to shut down your AMERICAN factory, PAY FOR it's relocation to a third world country, PAY FOR it to be set up there, then GIVE YOU import tariff exceptions to ship your junk back into the USA to be sold to the unsuspecting populace, who think that familiar "brand name" item is still made here!).

Since the politicians are in bed with large corporations...and get major contributions every year...And it's not a Republican or Democrat thing....Both parties are doing this...Although 20 years ago they were almost exclusively Republican.

F. The people who hate our country and will do anything to destroy it.

They will always exist.

G. The typical people of America who sit in front of their televisions night after night watching Entertainment Tonight, TMZ, American Idolatry, etc., and allow us to become a nation of consumers, living on the dole as the nation loses it's sovereignty and ability to defend itself.

Most of the people I've seen have good paying jobs. Good friend of mine is a Manager at Home Depot...and he's all for his company outsourcing their IT and software jobs overseas....He doesn't understand the big picture and how it will affect him.

So I tell him...."If I loose my job...I may end up working at Home Depot. So who do you think will get have a better chance of promotion...."Me..who has a BS and MS degree...Proven exceptional work history...or YOU...High-school diploma who's only had one steady job for the 4 years???" He now understands how it will effect him....but he still thinks it's a good idea...

I have a friend who's daughter is in her 4th year at MIT. Scored 2400 on her SAT's......Has an IQ of OVER 150....Holding a 4.8 gpa (MIT is based on a 5.0)....Has switched majors 3 times because of the job market. And she's about to graduate with only ONE interview and no job offers yet. When I graduated college...I had well over 15 interviews...and 15 job offers and I didn't go to MIT....If our economy is to be based on service jobs (i.e McDonalds)..then we're doomed.

[Todd W. White]

One of the other things that is often overlooked, if it's known about at all, is the fact that a company that manufactures something outside the U.S.A. and wants to import it doesn't have the same costs to build it that an American company does if they want to build it here, and that product isn't taxed when it is brought into the country. If it were, the playing field would be level, but it's not. The result is, as you point out, it becomes impossible for American companies to compete. Add to this the huge import duties of American-made products that other countries levy, and the problem is made even worse.

The bottom line is that no country can survive unless it can make and grow what it needs - anything less than that, and they become slaves to their suppliers, be they overseas corporations or foreign governments, etc.

This has been a long time coming, but is accelerating and is probably unstoppable, barring a major war that would force America to bring manufacturing, etc., back home.

[Nipper]

This has been a long time coming, but is accelerating and is probably unstoppable, barring a major war that would force America to bring manufacturing, etc., back home.

That pretty much sums it up. The problem is, we could never rebuild those factories and steel plants quick enough to win a real war. Ask our enemies from WWII. Most of the Companies credited with helping us win that war are gone now. You cant throw a factory together and train people overnight.

[Nipper]

What's really sad about all this is the products with REAL quality are not filling the trash dumps. People are hoarding them now. Altec may have been the greenest audio manufacturer ever and didnt know it!
:snickerpup:

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

And in some cases we the tax payers are paying for this. One of my consulting jobs was to AIG insurance in Bedford NH. They closed down the whole shop...laid off 1000 engineers and moved the whole operation to India.

What does AIG need with engineers?

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

What's really sad about all this is the products with REAL quality are not filling the trash dumps. People are hoarding them now. Altec may have been the greenest audio manufacturer ever and didnt know it!
:snickerpup:

I don't beleive this. A select few people actively seek out the good old products, but the vast majority of people will toss it because it's old, and happily buy new at Walmart, Menards, or one of the other stores selling new&shiny things.