"Death Prediction" stuns troops

[muskrat89]

I work in manufacturing, and the general feeling is that it‘s only a matter of time until the bulk of manufacturing goes to the Far East. China doesn‘t just produce junk any more - their quality is able to compete with western products. As an example, I work for a metal-stamping Company. A more "buy American" management group, you‘ve never seen - that being said, in order to compete, we are now forced to consider buying dies and components from the Far East - in essence, we‘re just delaying our demise, while helping strengthen their economy. Also, the masively lower labour rates enable the Chinese to spend extra profit dollars on research, and technology - hastening the pace in which they are overtaking the West. I recently read an article (sorry I can‘t find it now - excuse the fuzzy details) where China is also practicing "currency manipulation" which is not governed by international trade/commerce laws. The biggest buyer of American dollars in International markets is China. They then inflate the value of the US dollar. This allows them, in essence, to sell exports for 30% more (guessing the actual number), and purchase imports for 30% less, based on the de-valuation. Pretty freaky stuff. It is thought, with the labour rates, population(work force), and increased technology/quality - even countries like Mexico, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Pakistan, etc., won‘t be able to compete, long term, with China. It‘s a pretty gloomy picture in the manufacturing sector, Stateside...

 

[Jungle]

I totally believe in us all(CDN) using the same uniforms and equipment, however, there should be room for some individual kit as long as the base equipment and all the important identifying features remain the same.

It‘ OK to have some personal accessories, but the uniform shouldn‘t be fooled around with.
Doug, take care !!!

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Major, I might suggest you buy a copy of my book DRESSED TO KILL which explains in detail Canadian uniforms of the Second World War period. The short answer is yes, Canadian uniforms were quite different from British ones. We manufactured our own, and frankly, ours were much better in a myriad of ways.

We also had our own unit insignia, our own regimental traditions, and most men spoke without a "British" accent. We also adopted British lingo thinking it was more "military", mostly because US civilian terms were no different from Canadian ones.

So while a Canadian civilian put gasoline in his car, the soldier used "petrol". It seemed more military than what American soldiers called it - gasoline.

Canadian civilians used flashlights; in the army they learned to call them torches. The US Army still used the North American term flashlight.

etc., etc.

 

[muskrat89]

For many people, especially those not familiar with manufacturing - there is an assumption that China only produces "junk" - cheap knock-offs, and stuff you find at the dollar store. I was saying that assumption is erroneous. The die manufacturers we are looking at are mostly Korean. Their die standards are higher, dies are quoted quicker, dies are built in half the time or better, dies are right when they arrive. Price is significantly lower. Dies ultimately are owned by our customers. Its growing more difficult to convince them to buy North American, when the toolhouses are being out-performed in so many different facets of the business. It‘s tough - we can insist on buying American - our sales losses will definitely put us out of business. We can keep our doors open a little longer at least, but we are hurting tool & die shops, fastener manufacturers, etc. An example is the recently imposed steel tariffs - it helped our steel industry, but is absolutely KILLING all of the industries that rely on that raw material.

 

[Danjanou]

I prefer prior 1941 relations.....I believe that it will be that way again soon. Americans are growing tired for being blamed for everything (sometimes rightly sometimes not). We are going broke, soon we won‘t be able to afford anything!

A return to the pre 1941 Isolationist policy perhaps backed with Fortress America concept. I‘m sure there‘s more than one person south of the 49th that supports that idea.

Oh well nobody asked you guys to be top dogs, including yourselves. You just sort of fell into as an accident of history and geography (and maybe a little quantom physics). Like others before you if and when you give up the mantle of premier superpower there‘ll be someone waiting in the wings to grab it.

From the last couple of posts on this thread, anyone care to make an educated guess as to who the number one contender for the job will be?

Something tells me they won‘t be as tolerant, gracious, and well meaning (well most of the time)as the one‘s they‘ll be replacing.