Apparently I'm buying only Lionel in the future, but not for the reason you'd think

I do care where my stuff is made, to the point I'm willing to pay a premium &/or sacrifice a few features. 

If it's only 40% or 60% "made in the US?"  I guess my thought is that's better that 0%. 

My reasoning is completely selfish though, and I'm sure has an element of "lost cause" to it.  I live in the US.  My thinking is the more people that have jobs in the US, the better off I'll be.  

Let's say I live in Boardman, Ohio & I like toy trains.  I'm going  buy the Ameri-Towne kit over a foreign made brand... even if the foreign version is cheaper and nicer.  Why?  There's a guy that works at that plastic factory in Boardman.  Because he has that job, he gets a paycheck.  With that paycheck, he pays property tax.  Those taxes pay the teacher that teach my kids.  He also uses part of his pay to eat at the diner my wife works at.  He uses part of his paycheck to buy insurance from my buddy.  He uses part of his paycheck to buy widgets that I make in the Widget factory on the other side of town.  He even uses his paycheck to subscribe to OGR. 

When the Boardman Plastic Factory shuts down.  He, and all his coworkers, stop buying all that stuff around town.  The schools go down the tubes, the diner shuts down, the OGR guys wonder why their subscription rates stink.  Then he goes on unemployment, and we all get to complain about having to pay for him to eat and how evil CEOs and the government have ruined the economy (while we drive our Japanese cars & play with our Chinese trains). Then we get on the OGR Forum and wonder why the LHS shut down.    

I would not have gotten into Hi-Rail scale unless it was for K-line. Who could come up with such great ideas. Smaller scale steam, passenger cars with interiors, the best FM Trainmaster, They came from ideas from this country. Yes, they were made across the Pacific but I could afford them. It kept the other big two and everyone else on their toes. It would never have happened it everything was made here. That's how it works now. Yes we have four Apple computers, some Mac Pros. Apple has high prices as it is. I couldn't buy any if they were made here. We have become an idea country, that's where the money is. Don 

Lee, 

I believe this is the LCCA Website news item and video link that you and your wife watched.  I am glad you found it to be relevant and important to you.  We have three more parts to this video Q&A session with Jerry  Calabrese in the video gallery section on our website www.lionelcollectors.org.  Go to the link specified below to view Jerry's comments about manufacturing in America.

Al J. 

LCCA Host Q & A Session with Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese. (Norfolk VA, July 2012)

During the Lionel Collectors Club (LCCA) of America's 42nd Annual Convention held last July in Norfolk VA,  the LCCA hosted a Q & A session with Lionel's CEO Jerry Calabrese via conference call.   Click on the video link below and listen to Jerry give his assessment on the current state of the model train industry and Lionel.
http://youtu.be/elDiChuC6aE

This is the first part in a series of videos capturing this LCCA Q & A Session with Jerry Calabrese.   Stay tuned to this website for subsequent videos of this  Q & A session.   Our sincere thanks go out to Jerry Calabrese and Lionel for participating in this very informative session.   We are certain our LCCA members and visitors to our website will enjoy watching this video.   Thank you Lionel!

Yeah, we had a link to all of them.  They were really good insight into Lionel - I think the company has a very good handle on its strategy anddirection and where it wants to go.  Thank you

Yeah, there is a lot of it here, including gobs of specialty and very high-end chip and system manufacturers and companies like Micron that tend to be closer to the bleeding edge of technology than the mass consumer market.  Over the past three decades, once a chip or assembly became commodity/mass market, the high volume production tended to go overseas for cost-per-unit reasons, but that is changing, too.  My own beliefe is that gradually throughout this century the US will take the lead in "21st century industrialization," which will involve small production volumes and customization using things like 3-D printers and computer controlled manufacturing.

I know it was brought up, but the majority of Weaver cars are made here.  The last few that I ordered have impressive detail and all metal truck ***.  

I agree with Don inasmuch as K-Line also reintroduced me into the hobby and their product lines were just beginning to make a quantum leap when Lionel pulled the plug, and that their presence on the scene was a very positive competitive force. Bachman on the other hand, through their acquisition of Williams has yet to come close to what K-Line accomplished in terms of variety.But then again, K-Line products were made in China although their offices were in North Carolina. 

Where manufacturing occurs to me is a moot point as profits do come back to the U.S in a sort of circuitous path as well as management etc being planted here meaning wages are earned here. I think buying exclusively all U.S products is xenophobic, as we do live in a global economy the last time I looked. As far as the U.S manufacturing base is concerned, toy trains are not even on the radar and it's more of a philosophical decision which is entirely subjective as to buy exclusively all U.S toy trains. My wife and I share the purse strings. She does not own them. I cannot imagine buying from just one product line as that would be sort of self defeating in limiting what I can and cannot do. I like the freedom to chose which is another American tradition. BTW..I have bought some real lemons made right here in the good old USA.

I think the US never lost the lead Lee, on technology.

It seemed to be a popular tune the last years: the US losing it's grips. I don't sing along. It's the technology and science that counts at the end, even if your economy has taken some blow-backs. And the spirit: I'm always impressed on how you people tackle things.

Kieffer

Maybe Mrs. Willis could conduct some seminars for the rest of our wives?

It would be nice if all the trains were made in the U.S.A. What I would like to see from the manufactures is a list showing what their products would sell for if they were made in the U.S.A. compared to what they are selling for today made in China.

Nobody is saying it has lost anything in technology - probably the lead has grown.  But industrialization - the use of technology in manufacturing - has suffered as many jobs/factoires/assembly functions went overseas.  I think newer technology-driven manufacturing will be far more efficient than even today's best robitic factories and the US may bery well take the lead by quite a bit. 

I was reading about the push for one man train crews. We once had firemen, brakemen, conductors, cabooses, flimsies handed up to the cab by station operators, we had towermen, boiler makers, etc, etc. The disparity between advances in technology and the resulting unemployment is nothing new. Railroad employment was once the backbone of the economy. Should we bring back labor intensive steam to employ folks? I think not as a matter of business is pragmatic rather than nostalgic. All of this seems to indicate that the old axiom of profits before people is also a deeply embedded American tradition that is pretty tough to resolve. The USSR put everyone to work and went broke.  One has to ask where the components for the software modern toys use is made, Lionel or otherwise? What do you call a Japanese car made by American labor?  The whole issue of buy U.S seems overly simplistic. The folks that are really hit are older, and no company wants to invest in folks who are a few years away from retirement when they can hire a kid who will give them several decades.

Retraining flies in the face of this. I suspect there is no simple answer as one has yet to be found.

I guess it's my English. All I tried to say was that any nation, with a flourishing  technological or scientific culture, will overcome economical or political set-backs.

If you don't have that potential, you're at the losing edge.

Kieffer