I like to support American jobs in America where human lives are valued, quality is paramount (at least in most shops I think), and ethics are valued. What I don't like to support is Communist China and their desire to become the world's next great super power, especially by becoming the world's manufacturing hub. Are we going to be reliant on Chinese manufacturing for our next war effort with whatever country we go to war with? This is nothing but bad news for the US.
I was watching a documentary on why China has the most bullet trains in the world (>20,000km of track) compared to the US that has none. It seems great and advanced but there is more to the story. These same concepts applies to this conversation here on PM.
1. The Chinese government owns most of the land in China so it doesn't have to buy up land (imminent domain) from private home owners, unlike in the United States, so it can build a bullet train for cheaper. Plus if the Chinese government needed your land, they wouldn't buy it; they would just take it. The government owns everything and the people are at the mercy of its government. The Chinese government even has oversight/distant control over the factories that are supposed to be owned by private businesses....cough cough kennametal. (Think of the Chinese government putting in backdoors into computer electronics i.e. Huawei, Lenovo)
2. With the extremely cheap forced/slave labor China has at its disposal, it can build a train for pennies on the dollar compared to here. I mean look at Nike, Apple, Amazon, and Adidas sweatshops. Paying children and unskilled peoples pennies on the dollar to work in conditions that would be illegal here in the US.
3. Environmental restrictions are virtually nonexistent there, so they don't have to worry about building and working to an environmental code like here in the US.
So yeah, saying we have this technology and that technology compared to the rest of the world sounds great and all, but ask how they got it in the first place. Off the backs of the Chinese people and the rest of the world (via cyberattacks), just to try to become the next world superpower.
And don't get me started on the 80,000 factories that left the US to go to places like China for cheaper wages and cheaper manufacturing.
We need to buy American & Made in America...or else we fuck ourselves. The last thing we want is all our technology and manufacturing going to a corrupt regime who cheats, cuts corners, and who is hungry for the World's Next Superpower title.
That is why I won't be buying Kennametal.
Like Henry Rifles say: "Made in America, Or Not Made At All"
My .02 cents
Chris