I think
Manley trailers is an interesting case in point.
He sells both a less costly, made overseas version and a more costly, made in the US version. I wonder what his sales split is between the two? The reason I find this interesting is that in a way he has made the choice to compete with himself. The foreign and domestic versions surly draw sales from each other so economics indicate that he could almost certainly sell ether one for less by not selling the other one. Therefore, his customers are paying small premium for his trailers no mater which one they chose because they have the choice. It is a bold business move that serves to insulate him from a competitor coming in with a similar product made overseas at a lower price while still giving his customers the opportunity to choose American Made if they are willing to put their dollar where their mouth is.
The same dynamic is at play with these ramps but with two different companies playing the rolls of foreign and domestic versions. In both cases, the cost of production is driven up by the delusion of the market because of reduced economy of scale realized per unit of capital investment, while simultaneously the sale point is pushed down by outside competitive pressures. The effect is to keep cost low for consumers and prevent excessive profit taking but also to make innovation more risky, thus costing the consumer better products that might have been had the environment been more favorable for investment in innovation and product development.
Warning tangent ahead...
Being in the business of product development, I for one believe that America can be great by being innovative… by being the best at solving problems. I don’t feel that what amounts to nationalistic nepotism is going to solve any problems or bring back a nostalgic era where vast swaths of Americans earned a solid living in blue collar factories. We should look to ourselves and ask what is our real value to the world economy? I don’t believe the answers are hard to find. In addition, we should be thinking about what kind of policies we can put in place to move in the direction of reducing risk for innovators in the market.
As the saying goes ‘you are only as good as your last show’. The world does not owe us anything because we ‘usta’ be a manufacturing powerhouse. Markets work best when they are competitive. The race goes to the swift. We are as great as a people as we are willing to be. If we are a nation of couch potatoes with huge chunks of the population on welfare and insist on trying to get our way in the world by force we will decline as a nation. If we can inspire our youth to succeed by working hard and being smart, there is no nation that can surpass us.
