So. Carolina TV plant to close
 

Article from Fortune Magazine: Only U.S. TV manufacturer to lay off employees.

The tariffs imposed by President Trump have claimed more jobs, this time at a consumer-electronics manufacturing plant in South Carolina.

Element Electronics blamed tariffs on Chinese imports for its decision to shut down its manufacturing facilities in Winnsboro, SC, a town located about 30 miles north of the state’s capital. The plant, which makes Element TVs, will maintain a skeleton crew of eight workers, as it hopes the shutdown will be temporary.

The news is especially hard for Winnsboro and its surrounding communities because of recent job losses in the area, including the shuttering of a Walmart store, the closing of a textile mill, and the cancellation of plans to construct two nuclear reactors.

Element notified the state’s Department of Employment about its plans, according to Columbia-based The State newspaper, which first reported on the plant’s closing. In its notification, Element stated, “The layoff and closure is a result of the new tariffs that were recently and unexpectedly imposed on many goods imported from China, including the key television components used in our assembly operations in Winnsboro.”

-Steve D.

So the Chinese government imposes high tariffs on American products sold in China we should lower our tariffs on Chinese products? Did you ever think that’s why lots of our manufacturing jobs went to China?

Why don't we just allow China to become our bosses.

You mean their not? :lmao::lmao::lmao::yippy:

Right. Just being sarcastic. When countries stop buying goods from certain areas of the US. That's collusion to manipulate the vote. So they become our bosses.
Perry

A truly American made TV wouldn't be so strongly affected by these tariffs, this is a final assembly plant at best, and for an unimportant brand at that.

If the LCD panel, and other key components were domestically made, it would be a whole other story. Remember those % US content stickers on old zenith tuners?

I think it's been well known for a while now that it makes less sense from a financial point of view to manufacture key components domestically when a communist country can do the same and ship product back for half what it would cost overall to run the factory here. Ethically however it results in high unemployment as skilled workers have nowhere to actually work and economically it makes you extremely top heavy as even mild influence by a third party can topple everything.

There's no way out of this closed loop without a mutually accepted economic downturn and it seems nobody wants to have that on the books as it ends their political careers.

Exactly. Basically all they did at this plant was attach the power cord and put the TVs in its box. I think they got in trouble with Walmart because the packaging ostentatiously declared “proudly made in USA”, which was extremely deceptive. Also Element is just a puppet for some Chinese company, “Ching-Chong Electronics” or something along those lines. BTW I’m pretty sure that same company is now the producer of Westinghouse-branded TVs. I was at bestbuy recently and noticed the little yellow energy consumption tag on a Westinghouse tv listed Element as the manufacturer. A little research and I discover Element isn’t really an independent company themselves... not too hard to put two and two together. :scratch2:

That is a bad and pointed way to look at it IMO.

For along time we have imposed no tarrifs on goods imported from countries that place terrifs on good from our country imported into theirs. This kills our manufacturing jobs by allowing that country price our goods out of their market, and (assuming their labor costs are less than ours) they can simultaneously price our goods out of our market. Thus forcing our manufacturing jobs out of business or the country.

What Trump has been doing is to try and fight this unbalanced system and achieve a new balance not skewed so badly against the US... Granted these foreign countries are used to get their way at our expense so they are going to attempt to fight back...In whatever way they can without loosing their biggest market the USA.