I have rainshadow blanks Made in USA and the same blanks Made in China and they are the same!!
I built about 30 rods last year and I have any broken rod from Batson Enterprises.
It is not important where the blanks was made.
Quality is the best.
Michal Studený
Czech Republic - Europe
www.jedemenaryby.cz

Please see my new post " Facts about Batson Enterprises - Rainshadow/Forecast. If you ever have any questions please feel free to contact us.
Thank you
Bill Batson
CEO
Batson Enterprises
Rainshadow/Forecast
877-875-2381
wbatson@olypen.con

<<”If you read my post instead of quoting me out of context - you would have read that the Rainshadow RX7's (not the RX7+ or RX8+) are made overseas.

My post was directed at this comment:
> Rainshadow appears to have moved to China
This is incorrect. Batson is still in Sequim, WA”>>

Maybe I just should have been more clear with the question… I know the Batson family didn’t move to China. Who in their right mind would leave the land of milk and honey for rice fields and malaria?
General Electric’s headquarters is in the US to. They have nice large plant just down the road from my house that has been sitting empty for 10 years now because it was cheaper to move to Mexico.
It is not just manufacturing jobs leaving the US anymore. A great deal of large corporations are already sending all the Help desk, IT, engineering, and programming jobs to India. These are $25,000 to $80,000 a year jobs that will leave a huge gap in our economy and will not come back. If you can’t get a job in manufacturing, telemarketing, engineering, construction (illegal foreign labor is steadily replacing US construction workforce), then where are you going to work?

Who can afford to buy these great quality blanks if they don’t have a freaking job?

Mike, America has been lucky, Australia had this done to us long ago, Us Aussies reacted in the same way at first. But protectionism is not the answer either. And after all the panic, our country has prospered since. Countries need to change to the changing needs of it's people. As what Australia did, I purchase 99% of my rodbuilding supplies from America, that does not mean that it doesn't create employment here or there, you need people to move my stock when it comes into the country, my accountant charges me extra for his work, tax man, banks take their share too. Yes our labor forces are reducing, but society is changing also wanting different things. Think back to our parents times, they would have said the same thing, we work a lot less than they did.
But look on the bright side mate, China and India won't be able to keep it up, China is fighting the move to capitalism but they can't stop it, like our countries tried in the 1800's. And India will do themselves out of a job by some African nation decides to under cut them, what we need to do is not get caught up with all that and find the openings that exist.

Well said, Myles. I think this whole idea of "Buy American" is silly or possibly even worse. I remember this from back in the 60s and 70s when people said we should only buy American made cars. The problem was that American made cars were gas guzzlers and my Honda got 30+ mpg and it lasted longer. Now there isn't any such thing as an American made car, the parts come from all over the world. Try buying a US made camera or audio equipment (except maybe speakers) or video equipment. You can't, even if you want to pay premium prices. Innovation in those industries didn't take place here, it happened in Japan and Korea. Where something is made is of no consequence, what counts is whether it is well made and meets the specifications. "Made in USA" is not a guarantee of quality, in fact for quite a few years it was a mark of inferiority in the electronics and optical industries.

Gerry, your right we introduceed the Buy Australia idea back in the 70's when the UK dumped Australia as a trading partner and choose Europe. And like you guys are proud Americans I'm proud to be an Australian, but free trade is much better thing and protectionism, tariffs will only destroy industries, agriculture in the long run.

<“Now there isn't any such thing as an American made car, the parts come from all over the world.”>

Honda Made in USA
Nissan Made in USA
Hyundai Made in USA
Toyota Made in USA
Mercedes Made in USA
Most GM Made in USA
Ford Made in USA
Saturn Made in USA

The list goes on and on.

Being very involved with a major automotive company I can also tell you that with every automotive plant there is a multitude of satellite plants that provide the parts. This in turn creates even more skilled and unskilled jobs in the US. Turns out the American workforce builds a pretty good car.


<“I think this whole idea of "Buy American" is silly or possibly even worse”>
It might also be worth mentioning then, that Loomis, St Croix, Sage, Lamiglass, and most of the most sought after rods in the industry are made in America. Is that silly, or do we make a superior product?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2005 07:49PM by Mike Anderson.

Being involved in the auto industry you should be well aware of the fact that parts for these "assembled in the USA" cars come from all over the world. When I bought my first Honda, it came from Japan, long before any of the Japanese auto companies were even talking about building plants in the US.

I'm not knocking the quality of US made blanks and rods(I have a Sage and a Winston), but remember that one of the reasons these blanks are considered to be premium is perception and perception is heavily influenced by marketing. These companies spend enormous amounts of money creating their brand image. If they decided to move their blank production offshore, do you think that would change the quality? It would certainly change the perception of quality, whether or not the quality actually changed or not. A quality product can be produced anywhere in the world as long as the technology is available and there's sufficient commitment to doing it.

My only interest is getting a quality product at a fair price, not at a price that's inflated in order to feed someone's marketing department. I won't automatically rule out a product just because of the country of origin, that's just predjudice and there's already more than enough of that in this country.

The United States' trade imbalance with China hit $103 billion, the largest ever recorded by the United States with any country, in 2003. As of late 2004, the deficit was 22 percent above that pace. For every $6 in products that China sells in the United States, US companies sell $1 worth to China.

China has manipulated its currency to expand their exports to the United States by keeping prices low and making Chinese goods cheap to import. That's not playing by the rules and it's boosting our trade deficit. The larger the trade deficit the more decent-paying jobs we lose. What's more, Chinese companies are routinely disregarding American trademarks, software patents and intellectual property rights. It isn't predjudice, we just shouldn't be giving permanent trade benefits to a country that flat out refuses to follow the rules.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2005 11:13AM by Mike Anderson.

Mike but see it from my point as well, Australia one of America's biggest allies who imports more from the US than it sells there is hog tied even in its free trade agreement. America can export nearly what ever it wants to Australia, but Australia can't compete fairly in the US due to protectionism and tariffs that it provides to its farmers and business. But this does not stop the US farmers and business competing in the open market of Australia. If the US wants to compete in other countries markets it must be also let those countries compete in it's market.

Point taken Myles, all this is making my head hurt, let's go fishing and drink some beer... I'll do my part for Australia and drink some Fosters.
It is much easier to enjoy the simple things in life then to stress over the things that you can do anything about...
Later
Mike

Your right mate, I wasn't trying to change your opinion, just thought I would let you know how it happened here it was more of a storm in a tea cup, and we weathered it down here, now China is one of our biggest trading partners, so will the States over come this hurdle as it has done many times in the past when it is challenged.
By the way I thought the US big 4 motor companies owned most of the Japanese, Europe, and now starting on the Korean car manufacturers this is such a good example of how your country has over come the problem, can't beat them take-em over. LOL
Better have a few beers mate, always got to have a few when drinkin' with friends.

Myles Boon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Your right mate, I wasn't trying to change your
> opinion, just thought I would let you know how it
> happened here it was more of a storm in a tea cup,
> and we weathered it down here, now China is one of
> our biggest trading partners, so will the States
> over come this hurdle as it has done many times in
> the past when it is challenged.
>

As a middle-aged computer scientist who was laid off from a company that sent a huge amount of work to India in order to save a few bucks, I am not so sure that we will be able to pull it off this time around. "Corporate America" is eating its seed corn; namely, its scientists and engineers. Within a decade, there will be nothing left but middlemen because students are no longer pursuing technical degrees.

I am currently completing a master of science in computer science program and plan to start a doctoral program next year. Over seventy-percent of my classmates are foreign born. Next year, more than eighty-percent will be foreign born. Enrollments in undergraduate technical programs are down by as much as fifty percent. This situation, if left unchecked, will have a devastating effect on the country.