More realistic: fleece suckers who think “Made in America” make it worth spending $500 for a $50 watch.
>More realistic: fleece suckers who think “Made in America” make it worth spending $500 for a $50 watch.
Most $500 watches are worth way less, even $50, so nothing special about this (regardless of where they are made).
Besides, getting domestic jobs for people is still worth something. Those laid off factory workers of old aren't gonna "reinvent" themselves anytime soon and get into Silicon Valley, but if they could get a new factory job that's something - and beats homelessness or low-end shitty gigs like Uber.
Why not make everything you can make? Would there be a problem is the US manufactured CPUs and phones as opposed to sending them to be made in China/Korea/Taiwan/etc?
To outsource externalities (e.g. environmental costs)? Or to stifle any labor demands (by moving your production to wherever you like any time they are raised somewhere)?
Why doesn’t everyone buy Toyotas?
It’s not being a sucker, unless we broaden the term where most all of us are suckers.
Because nobody can afford 'em?
Ok - I'm speaking mainly of their pickups, which are (overall) great vehicles (disregarding the earlier frame-rot issue they had in the early 2000s).
But they're so great, that even used ones sell for absurd amounts...
I entirely agree with the FTC, their claims were dishonest. As a point of comparison, Switzerland regulates what percentage of the watch must be Swiss before it can be claimed to be "Swiss," but it's not an easy question. For example, with completely made up numbers, low wage Chinese manufacturer sells mostly finished movement for $20 that required 4 hours to make. High wage Swiss assembler puts in another hour, at a cost of $40. Total time is 5 hours, 80/20 Chinese/Swiss and total cost is 60, 33/67 Chinese/Swiss. From time perspective, it's a Chinese watch, but from cost perspective it's Swiss.
[1] - https://www.truthinadvertising.org/revisiting-shinolas-made-...