Anyone interested in electonics manufacturing should get a copy of "Curtis, Philip J., The Fall of the U.S. Consumer Electronics Industry: An American Trade Tragedy".
It has been known for a long time in the manufacturing industry that even if a manufacturer pays tooling and setup charges to have something manufactured in Asia, there is a very good chance the same product or component will be offered for sale direct through other channels. I have seen tooling paid for by US companies be used to make products that directly compete with the products that were tooled! Nothing can be done. The USA never has enforced any protection for manufacturers here, including dumping and patent infringement. That's really why we lost the consumer electronics industry in the 80's. Our government, at least since the 70's and especially 80's, has never considered manufacturing more important than short term money. Zenith and others won lawsuits for dumping, but our own government fought tooth and nail to prevent and delay enforcement. If we want to see what manufacturing we have left survive, we would have to change the attidudes of our consumers and our own government. Otherwise we just accept the fact that products can freely get ripped off. I expect to see more and more of this in the future. 73 Tom ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
