Thoughts: For small electronics companies "Made in the U.S.A." seems to be a signifier for "we have actual quality control in place". It's the difference between a $3 item from eBay where they skipped all the smoothing caps, didn't bother with a strain relief on the cord, and used a set of components that failed QC compared to the $20 item they copied that is actually constructed properly. As such, only the final assembly and QC steps need to be in-country to make this work right. On the other hand, "Made in the U.S.A.", for products in general, includes prison labor, with all the attendant human right abuses, and there's no good way to tell the difference between that and something made by union labor; it's the same sticker. It's a way to make people believe that something was made without abuse while still engaging in abuse. Because of this, I view "Made in the U.S.A." as a bit of a red flag these days. On one foot, I care less about how something wasn't made in the U.S.A., and more about how we've moved all our manufacturing to China specifically, thus giving them undue power over us. Transportation is cheap, and it makes sense for a batch of capacitors to be make in one country, shipped across the world, used to manufacture circuit boards that get shipped to a third country where the finished product is assembled. That's just specialization. It's a bit of a problem when it's just one country doing everything, for every product, for the entire planet. On the other foot, the capitalistic race to the bottom is an extremely good way to move all manufacturing to the country that's most willing to tolerate worker and environmental abuses. If you need to create a toxic chemical in the process of manufacturing an item, a country that lets you just dump that chemical into a river will be cheaper than a country that requires you to dispose of it in a safe manner, while providing less incentive for you to research ways of dealing with that chemical. (This is a gaping loophole in a lot of environmental laws.)

I run a handmade perfume company in NJ and its really easy to make things here if you are small and want to keep it that way.

I like how a lot of Australian foods have a little bar gauge showing the percentage of Australian sourced ingredients. So even if it says "packed in Australia" you still get that instant visualisation of what that means and text clarifies e.g. "from at least 46% Australian ingredients" or "only 4% Australian ingredients" A little more difficult to do with electronics ;)

'It's entirely about the bottom line'. Thanks, Fran for speaking the truth.

The problem is not where it is made. The problem is how it is made. If everywhere in the world the salaries, the working hours per week, the safety, the environmental regulations, the taxes, the social systems …. would be same, companies would make everything as local as possible, just to save shipping costs. So instead of faking a „Made in USA“ we should put efforts in having the same standards of production in the whole world.

I fully agree - that's why I get really angry when politicians talk about bringing back manufacturing. Even if you have workers ready to accept miserable wages, there is still the matter of sourcing raw materials.

Hi Fran! I manufactured a laser used with medical imaging from 2009 - 2014, (the absolute WORST time!) and when I say “I” I mean myself, my best friend, brother, and two kids! We only built a couple of hundred, but we were in some major hospitals all over the US. I can’t really express just how difficult it was to source “made in USA” components! I even made our circuit boards using the magazine paper/ laser printer/ clothes iron method, (would have been impossible if we made more!) Never made much profit, but knowing that there are MANY people who received much lower doses of radiation than they otherwise would have is all the profit I need. Thanks for the video, and I apologize for the self indulgent comment.

US (PE) Plastics are generally made in Texas refineries, by companies like Exxon. US (PLA) and other Bioplastics, (usually made of corn cellulose) in the American Midwest by companies like Cereplast. And Kaiser Aluminum is made right here in Spokane, WA I've been in the plastic industry for 25 yrs.

Nice video. I loved the clips of the Frantone boxes getting built.

I'm Canadian and back in 2012 I started a business in the microcontroller/prototyping space. The only thing we farmed out was bare PCB manufacture. Everything else done in-house. It did not take long before we found folks from the far-east marketing products that offered exactly our previously unique features and at a tiny fraction of the cost. Not only that but the mail services here and in the US were more than happy to deliver our far-east competitors goods to our customers at another tiny fraction of the cost they would charge us. That went on for 3 years then I had to finally stop the bleeding. When your customers do not see the value in keeping their neighbors employed it is hard to make a living selling a hand crafter product for $125 + $25 S&H vs. a distant competitor selling essentially the same functionality for $25 including free shipping.

There is "Made" and then there is "Assembled."

I too used to be in small scale manufacturing. I was very aware of sourcing parts difficulties and strived to ensure I had alternative suppliers. Yes a fair amount of components and a few bits of hardware came from Asia. But, I made the finished product, I ensured rigorous quality control, I tested components and finished product for function and long life. I therefore was happy to stick the Union flag and 'Made in the UK' on them. Because I did make it in the UK from my idea, design, ingenuity and skill.

I have a Makergear M2 dual at home, and we have an M3 ID at work. I like the Makergear printers, and I wish the company success in navigating this difficult time. I agree with Fran that "Made in USA" usually implies fine print about where in the process the USA-made begins, particularly if there are any electronics in the product. Still, I respect Makergear for doing as much of their production locally as they can, even with that implied fine print.

It would be interesting if MakerGear were to be more specific about what supply chain issues they are having in their rebuttal. I make a specialist circuit board in the UK, and in the last year I have had a lot of trouble buying FTDI serial converter chips due to lack of stock worldwide. I hand assemble my units using circuit boards imported from the US, which are most likely sourced from China, and I believe the original origin of the majority of my components are from SE Asia.

I did not know about Frantone - it looks like you made an excellent product! This is a very good video but you are looking at it from the 100 foot level (individual components) and I am talking from the 1000+ foot level. The bottleneck, at the moment, is in the US. Our US suppliers have increased prices from 20%-40% and lead times have gone from one month to five plus months. Much of this has happened in 2022. It was like getting hit by a flash flood - costs and lead-times have gone up faster than we can react. It takes months to switch suppliers and it can be an expensive process to do it. If you look at the label on your M3, it says, Made in the USA Using Domestic and Foreign (or Global) Components. That is the terminology that we are required to use for what we do - it is a "qualified made in the USA claim" per the FTC. The majority of the content for our printers is sourced in the US. Why does this matter? Because over the years of our existence we have put tens of millions of dollars into the US economy with most of that going into Ohio (we are located outside of Cleveland). This has paid for welders, machinists, assemblers, etc - the type of blue collar jobs that have long been outsourced. We also pay for engineers, support personnel, etc. We've also paid at least $15/hr for full-time employees for many years. We created a company that was focused on building quality products, supporting our customers and doing as much as we could in the US. We use a lot of cast aluminum - it is made in the US but if/when we can't get it from the US we get it from Germany. And, yes, some of the parts that are sourced in the US contain elements that are made elsewhere - that is simply how it works today and that is what you discuss in your video. However, the bottlenecks and challenges today are primarily related to our domestic suppliers raising prices and lead-times. It is not the result of foreign parts being unavailable. We've had plenty of issues over the years with the international part of our supply chain but that is not the acute problem.

It depends in which region of the world you live. Here in Europa / Austria Made in USA is also a kind of overseas... Of course, people always have a kind of relationship with locally produced products, and in the case of Frantone, of course, a lot of respect for honest craftsmanship. but the country of production has nothing (anymore) to do with quality - there are excellent quality products from China and inferior products from the EU and USA...

I think the best way to reverse the trend is to encourage improving the living standards and work safety of the workers in the overseas factories, refineries, and mines.

It's nothing new, back in our younger days and when there were still alot of manufacturers here in the states that would import parts like electronic components, motors, coils, etc from overseas and assemble in plants here in the U.S., stick a badge on the finished product and market it as 'manufactured in the U.S.A. but we were hip to the scheme even way back then. But the really big thing I like about Frantone is that Frantone product is as about as American made as it gets, preserving the true 'Made in U.S.A.' concept. We need more people here in the States as ambitious as Fran and dedicated to the concept of 'Made in U.S.A.' for generations ahead of us.

As a side note, I love the pictures of all those pedals. You have a wonderful design aesthetic.

Well said. And even more the case here in the UK.

My previous Toyota was assembled in the US. Parts from elsewhere, Japan. Makes better sense than shipping the whole car. Your knowledge and talent never ceases to amaze!!!

My two uncles who worked at Kaiser Steel who I commented before, one died of a heart attack just as he was leaving the change-up room, so I guess the company didn't have to worry about him anymore after that. And my other uncle retired a few years before the plant was shut down; if he'd stayed on the job longer, he would've been among the thousands of workers who would've been laid off. The plant may have been closed in the name of efficiency, but it was efficiency in terms of maintaining and improving the corporate bottom line. Several years ago I worked for a very small company that distributed and sold products under a brand name that was very popular in the 1970s-80s. And, to make ends meet, the products were made in Taiwan and China; there wasn't any way around it to keep the doors open and lights on. One day I got a call from a potential customer if our products were made in Asia or the US - and I told them the truth. They were irate and how could we do such a thing, blah, blah, blah. But the product they asked about cost about $400 retail - it would've cost about $1500 if it were made here, but they couldn't accept that and the call ended with this angry person who would not accept the economic realities of the business we were in. Americans are spoiled when it comes to the cost of almost all consumer goods sold in the US - with the possible exception of firearms and diesel-belching pickup trucks. But they want high quality, high reliability, and low price. To that I say, "Pick two out of three - you can't have it all, no matter how hard you wish." The global economy may be some horrible monster to some people, but, as you say, this is the way things are. The downside may be that countries are interdependent on each other to maintain their own respective commerces and vital interests. BUT, the upside is, unlike the pre-global days of a century ago, today you don't go to war with your business partner (aka China) because it would be economic disaster for everybody. I'm sure the billionaires in both the US and PRC would agree and actually would do something before things ever got to that point. The proof is in what's happening in Russia; it's suffering for what it's doing in Ukraine, and it will be decades before it will recover what it's lost over the last few months because of its position in the global economy. Anybody who doesn't understand the importance of this should have their head examined. I'm just being polite. Thanks for the explanation and breakdown, Fran. Keep up the good work. You are the best.

Like some of the other comments on here and yourself Fran, I run an electronic repair company in the UK, and we are also suffering extremely long lead times on very many electronic components. I don't know where the main problem exactly lies, but it just seems to be across the whole spectrum of components.

You are spot on. Here in the UK, over 40 years ago, we showed Japanese shipbuilders our shipbuilding skills and emerging technologies. The end result: they looked at that skill and processes, improved on them, and could build ships quicker and cheaper than any shipyard in the UK. Even today they take our scrap metal and recycle it.

I guess the questions is: how specialized the working is being done, and how much value is being added at the manufacturing step. "everybody" can make a bolt, hence why it's not that important if it's not done locally, now a 3D printer is a different story

Not every country has access to raw materials so it would be impossible to manufacture solely in one country. For example, we couldn't make a lithium based battery design in the UK because we have no lithium mines, no deposits have been found. To say that you need to manufacture everything from raw materials within that country is very limited perspective.

Great follow up video Fran 👍 You are 99.5% correct in your opinion and analysis of USA manufacturing. The hypocrisy of thinking you can buy a totally USA made flat screen TV for $500 to $1500 while the employees of said manufacturer, not to mention the supporting industries demand $40/hr plus Healthcare, pension or 401k, paid leave etc. etc. !!! This country has evolved into a consumer vs a creator in the global market.

Thanks for your explanation what made in America really means. America was so proud of what we did in the past ,but as time went buy people's value's changed, make it fast, make it cheep. CEOs wanted more,so on and so on, fill in the blanks. Good luck to all of us..

Made in the USA generally means assembled from parts kits made in the far east or Europe. I too watched our masters in the UK give the Chinese our electronics industry back in the late 80s. They then compounded it by dismantling the supply chains and other support systems to make sure that it was impossible to recreate them. And Now they want to create a problem with China. That is going to work out well is it not.

I had a significant manufacturing business (140 people), here in the UK. While you're right about lots of parts, our raw metal was generallly EU and UK sourced. Also, injection moulded parts were UK injected, using material sourced from UK and EU. When it came to the PCBs though, although we assembled in house, both the boards and parts were made in the far East.

This was a great video, Fran. You know your stuff. Thanks!

I fully agree Fran, I have worked for a number of blue-chip companies and it's the ones that have resisted moving production overseas that actually have profited from the fact that their products are longer lasting and the customers can't get enough so sometimes moving production overseas for short term profits can be a curse and not a blessing in the long term. I am not going to name any names but i know one famous company that after 100 years of solid production in the UK moved part of its production to Asia and the result was a nearly bankrupt company 5 years later.

The Chinese economy was built on 5-year plans, while the American economy was built on quarterly earnings reports

in defense of making special limited edition frantone pedals for birthday gifts, my birthday is coming up.

I can’t agree more. My company says made in England and that is true but the component parts are from England, France, America and Thailand. If anyone were to ask I have sourcing maps for every component part.

I once had a very small company that made a product called the PHOTO-POD. It allowed hang glider pilots to take still photos while flying from a camera remotely mounted on the glider. I was reminded of it while you spoke about making your own circuit boards. In my case, I had to modify an existing (made in Hong Kong) circuit board in order to make my product. I also modified a couple different Japanese made point and shoot cameras to create my product. I had looked into having my own circuit board made locally, and found a business that could do it but I didn't have the capital or the customer base to afford the up front costs. Of course, I could never have built the quite complex point and shoot cameras I needed. The circuit board I modified stopped being made (for its original purpose) so my company had no where to go. For some perspective, my product was an early version of a (non video) sport camera.

My wife and I have two vehicles. She's on her second VW that was built in Puebla Mexico. I'm on my third GM truck. The first two were built in Fort Wayne, but the latest one came from Guadalajara. Both the "German" car and the "US" truck are Mexican-made.

Whilst I agree with your points ( I've been in manufacturing most of my life), I contend that everything we do is political - every choice we make, the things we eat, what we wear and buy, and where we go. Politics goes back with us to the dawn of humanity, it's even present amongst family members and - animal groups.

My spouse worked for DHL managing international shipments. One of her accounts was a major US auto manufacturer. Those American “made” cars were still getting all the parts from China

Nations eventually go into a post-industrial stage where the base level (or all) of the manufacturing pyramid gets shifted to a poor location with lower wages (because, profit) and THAT location will eventually go post-industrial, sifting its base level to a new area. Japan->Taiwan-> South Korea->China. When China gets too rich to do factory grunt work, there's India, South America, Africa. By then robots or maybe replicants should be ready.

I'm so happy to see you sportin' that GBV glyph. Ain't it cool! Excellent precis this morning. You're loud and clear in Seattle!

Fran is so absolutely right about this, thank you for this video. I love assembly or as mush of the process here as can be, but this shift of what “made is America” means and is being used is frustrating to see and misleading.

Great video about the topic, Fran. And I just checked out your website, I didn't know you made effects pedals, really cool! :D

The world is the way it is because we have allowed it to be that way. You are correct about the money part. Money has no political party, or maybe it would be better said, money is the one true political party. I wouldn't say we are never coming back as a manufacturing powerhouse, if we have learned nothing from the past few years, we now know we must be self sufficient above all else. Conservative or liberal, if we can't take care of ourselves as a nation we will cease to be a nation sooner than later. We now know that those in charge, (the money handlers) are a group without loyalty to any one nation. Their loyalty is to the money and to wherever it makes the most.

Nowadays to me, "Made in the USA/UK/Wherever" means fully designed and sub/final assembly done in the USA/UK/Wherever. I don't really care if the raw PCBs are assembled in China, if the enclosures are CNC manufactured in wherever because we have to get real about costs........but just as long as the company responsible is hand on heart about the statement. My own electronic products are "Handmade in Great Britain" and I feel very, very comfortable with that statement......albeit I also assemble my own PCB's here in GB.

Can't highlight enough what you say here. But also astonished that you have to explain. The same here in Europe.

We have been manufacturing Stirling engines in England for 20 years now. We machine most of the parts. What parts we buy in, we sourced from local firms. With the exception of one currently (local firm go purchased by international conglomerate). We know we have little control where the raw metal comes from, but we know by value and weight it is mostly made by us. To keep product competitive the manufacturing process has to consistently improve. But admittedly our product is mechanical.

Wow, when I stumbled across your channel some while ago I had no idea of your background and history. Respect!

The ultimate problem is that we don’t live naturally, so almost all items we want will require something harmful in the process. I feel like this headache is really just the bad karma of our lifestyle and will not be solved by the “made in…” trend. Nevertheless I fully support Fran from the perspective of a consumer.

I'm hardly the first commenter, but just in case, what about the efforts at automated manufacturing? It seems like producing those copper-clad FR4 boards would be something that could be automated. I realize this also doesn't answer the question about raw materials. I dunno... I've been burned by the word "never" too many times to think that the manufacturing in the US will _never_ be possible again, but you're probably right it ain't happening anytime soon. Good on MakerGear for trying though. 👍️

You’re right. I had a long conversation with a friend recently about what it means to be an “American” car (other than being substandard). There is no clear answer.

I'd like to see a video about you. Experiences at schools, work etc. Like - I'd like to hear about your first job, what your best job that you really loved, what projects you've worked on, how young you were when you decided to be a technical super-hero? Do have plants in your house or do you have pets? If so, what kind? Is there a cow level?

Simple thing to show how global everything is, look at the staple of US food, apple pie. Apples grown almost everywhere, most likely China and other temperate climates. Flour from Ukraine, USA or also China, butter from somewhere in the USA or the EU, high fructose corn syrup from the USA or Mexico, sugar from South Africa or Brazil. Then the aluminium pan, ore mined probably in Australia, refined in Iceland or Mozambique, or South Africa ( basically where electric power is cheap), or Canada. Then made in Mexico, frozen and shipped to a warehouse, where you then buy from your local store. Almost nothing in there can be guaranteed to be only sourced from the USA. Look up the origins of most of the groceries you find on the shelves of stores, a vast majority came from other countries. Then consider all your medication, very little is made in the USA, almost all, aside from some very expensive top price lines, is either coming from India, Pakistan, Korea or China, and the vast majority of the raw materials for the things still made in the USA come from there as well, almost all of them in fact. Then consider the price charged in the USA is often hundreds of times the price for the exact same medication, same brand, same box, same company, different country, and different language insert or multiple languages, not English and Spanish. Not to mention generics that are also a lot cheaper as well. The US machinery suppliers outsourced production to China and India a long time ago, but pricing did not decrease, it increased even more, while the quality went down.

The supply chain missing link in the USA is from not having enough goods. I worked for a company that produces books. It wasn't the parts/supplies that were missing (normally, though those do occur). It was from companies who were inundated with orders but did not have the workforce to fill them.

This is really unrelated to the topic but your videos might be the only ones I watch until the end. Gotta stay for the song at the end. hahah I have a poor attention span and clip the last 10% off of most videos before jumping to the next. But not in the lab. 😂

Chase Bliss Audio is charging people $399 a pop not for made in America, but for sophistication. The foundry of yore is but a stage in business; we can do everything circuit board wise with graphene-and yet no one has done it yet… There’s so much to make out of these changing trends.

Fran, I was going to make a neat little prototype voltmeter for RC model airplanes. I tried to get to get the PCB board made here in the USA and when I found that I could get 5 made for 5 bucks each from a vender in china. Guess what I did of course I bought them from china. I worked for a joker back in the 1990's who had a PCB board lab in his building! It was locked up and no one was aloud to go in it! I was told that the us government made it to hard to make boards there and they buy from other venders to keep our costs down. What you say is so true and when I tell people that there is no such thing as real American made product they think I'm Nutzz. if you look at the sticker on that so called new American made car it says made with domestic and foreign made parts! keep up the good work Mike Johnston

I used to talk to a very intelligent young kid. In about 2005 he said to me. The western world made an error that will cause it's downfall because "China have all the machines". I have never forgotten that and it's just about the most profound thing I ever heard. He was referring to the west taking all it's industrial manufacturing machines to China

This reminds me of a Bruce Cockburn song, " Mighty Trucks of Midnight": " This used to be a town but the factory moved away/ down to Mexico where they work for hardly any pay....."

Thanks for your very thoughtful discussion. I believe you are spot on.

Great video Fran! A topic that more people need to understand.

These days, "Made in America / Made in the USA" means it was assembled in the USA with mostly if not all imported parts.

It could come back, but it would require a lot. Likely more than anyone is willing to spend in most cases. New methods and techniques could reduce that cost though. And bigger conflicts could make it necessary, or at least shift production elsewhere at the very least.

Do a google image search for productivity vs pay. In 1973 or so it started to diverge and has continued to this day. At that time companies also started to view employees a drag on the bottom line. Also at that time shareholder value and ceo pay became the only factor at-all-cost. That cost was at the expense of the employee. Just adjusted for inflation minimum wage should be about $~24 per hour. Adjusted for productivity and min wage it is about $~40 an hour. It really does just boil down to profit and greed.

Well in the UK it's the County where the last manufacturing process took place, So all the parts can be made anywhere in the world (Mostly China), and just assembled.

The us also had limited natural resources, so even if you got one part here, you still need raw materials from the earth to make something completely USA made. And unfortunately with things that use electronics you need raw copper, raw steel, raw plastics and so many other natural resources that need to be mined and a source to mine it.

I agree with a lot of what you say about American made. It was both parties which signed and managed those treaties and these markets, banks, industry... which participated.

The answer seems simple. All they need to do is get enough parts for one more printer. But it needs to be a reality big one! Big enough to start 3d printing out the regular sized ones to sell to us. Pretty sure that's how it works. Problem solved. You're welcome.

At the very end of the video, when Fran waved bye, she reminded me of Garth (Dana Carvey) from Wayne's World. Same hair, same glasses, and the same facial expressions. I wonder if she's ever noticed???

im pretty sure Product of Canada is put on the labels of tuna cans even though it's fish caught by China and canned over there. they just made the label here.

Such a great video!

Brilliant presentation! Economics, boring as it is, provides the best understanding of the world.

DAMN lLADY! You are an absolut legend! How have I never heard of you? Thanks for your intelligent explanations of very complex subjects. 👍

This is akin to a Fast Food chain serving a vegan/vegetarian option and slapping it on the same flat griddle with the “beef” products. I truly appreciate you and your standards.

Your video title is "Made In America" and you keep saying "America", the correct phasing is "Made In U.S.A." as the MakerGear guy uses, it's quite funny when people find out their "All American Made" pickup truck was actually mostly made in Mexico. I also really have to scrutinize the claims of MakerGear, sure they list a bunch of things they do in the USA and qualify for the USA being the last point of major manufacturing, but they're all rather low complexity items. The key components like the actual PCB components, ICs, motors, lead screws, linear rails, bearings etc are all likely made in Asia otherwise they would have mentioned it, and despite that their entry level 3D printer costs almost 10x that of competitors and has fewer features.

Watching your handmade in USA segment was inspiring. You are a perfectionist; did you employ a local manufacturing team to achieve your excellent final products and output?

Companies build what customers demand with their dollars. They usually know less about a product than they know about the dollars they are spending. We all need to value our own product more highly. It's not just about us in this moment. It's about contributing to an ecosystem, our way of life here is preserved and improved. Companies make what you will trade your dollars for. Nothing is made in more than sample quantities without being demanded. We must not get fooled into blaming the other before we've dealt with our own hearts.

You are so right Fran.

I've talked to many people that are very capitalistic minded, anti regulation, that refuse to acknowledge the full implications of the profit motive. When they see something they don't like that is driven by capitalism they always blame politics. Thank you for pointing that out.

Fran with the truth and realtalk...love it.

Wall Street way of doing business kills anything it touches, is not just a question of making a profit is the maximum possible profit whatever it destroys on the way. You folks have to rescue your industry from those sociopaths and bring it back together with the pride of doing really good stuff. Just my opinion.

Don't worry - the apocalypse of economy is already here, which means that overseas manufacturing might come to an end. We'd best make our own stuff like we used to do a few decades ago! The problem is that the added overheas of transport, organization/communication and all that kind of trouble is just too tiny compared to the savings, meh. If China, Mexico and other "to-go" countries had proper environment and worker protection regulations, it'd kill the overseas manufacturing because there would be nothing to gain, too many losses, so the companies could as well set up shops in US and Europe. With the advent of the Internet, communication was made really easy and quick. It is now more of a 8th / 9th layer of the OSI model (ie. human and organizational layer) issue than anything on the usual 7 layers stack. As long as some form of the net exists (which will until the nukes fly), there's no going back and let it stay that way. Something different is a problem here: mass volume long distance transport is just too cheap for the energy it consumes and the waste it generates. That's what makes the overseas manufacturing economically viable: first packing up and moving the operation up there to China (or another country), then sending the products down from China regularly. I kinda miss a few things from the times before '90s, though I don't remember them myself (I was a wee little kid in the '80s, how could I even bother about engineering - other than taking stuff apart of course?). You just didn't see foreign (as in Western rather than Soviet) stuff here unless it was really high tech, and thanks to the COCOM embargo, it was super rare. All else was made in Poland. Whenever I took apart an old device, I knew that all those teeny tiny screws, standoffs, resistors, tubes, semiconductors etc. were made in the country. Electronic parts were far from perfect, sometimes not even good at all... while I wouldn't use them in amplifiers in modern times, I still got a stock for restorations and funky projects. Mechanical parts, switches, connectors, knobs, transformers etc. were really durable and I keep them and re-use them with some cleaning and oxide removal. Try to find a Chinese switch, cable or jack/binding post that's gonna hold up and won't be super friggin' expensive! Materials were of course made in Poland too. Maybe in other Eastern Bloc countries, when you needed something really special and the home industry couldn't cover that - other than that, your mundane stuff (steel, brass, aluminum, plastics, glass, whatnot) was made here. It was taken for granted. I could bet my ass off that it was just like that in the States. Oh, and back then all wires were made of aluminum or copper. You always knew which was which. Aluminum was used only for mains wiring, not for electronics (maybe except for the cheapskates in the Soviet Union who used an aluminum wire for windings in the "Rubin" TV mains transformers) which means there was no CCA or CCS rubbish. Today I really have to double-check every speaker wire to prevent buying that nuissance. Ugh! I like your manufacturing process. I'm definitely a builder, as opposed to manufacturer - which means when I make something (guitar and hi-fi tube amps on one hand, computer control systems for old Monotype composition casters on another, for that matter), I make a single unit or just a handful of them, which requires vast flexibility and ability to modify the design on the fly, rather than going for cheap and easy repetition. TCS&H Tek 564B proudly featured!

The inter-connectedness has ALWAYS been present. Does the USA make Brazilian coffee? The factors were never just the profit motive. This motive may be more important nowadays but originally it was more about geography and what was available around the globe. The cheapness came from conquest and theft.

I read an article a few years ago that talked about how it is not just moving manufacturing overseas that is the issue, there is also the issue of automation. . The example they used was an automobile parts manufacturer. This manufacturer employed 1,000 workers in the US. They closed their US factory, and built a new factory in China with newer, more automated equipment, so they ended up with 600 Chinese employees. Further automation reduced that to 100 employees within a few years, and they expected that number to get down to 20 employees when their automation plans were completed. Now, if they were to move this back to the US, there'd be 20 employees where there used to be 1,000. Maybe even less than 20, since higher US wages may make it worthwhile to automate things even further.

I do machining work and 90% or more of the raw materials I work with are produced in the USA. Kaiser Aluminum and Nucor or US Steel. You do not even save any money at all when going with cheap imported materials because so often there are quality issues like porosity or incorrect mill reports that cause parts to fail QA. Always a dice roll when the customer insists on supplying their own materials and I make them sign a waiver. The increase in raw materials costs that we are seeing has driven away a lot of customers for me the last few months. Worse than during the pandemic. Some of the overseas suppliers I work with for exotic materials are getting hit even harder.

We must let go of the myth of independence. We are all inTERdependent and national (and state) borders are artificial and arbitrary. And what is the purpose or intention of buying "made in USA" or "made in UK" or "made in NZ"? It's not a guarantee of quality. Keeping profit/taxes here? Keeping jobs here? Keeping knowledge or expertise or capability here? Safe work conditions and other protections for workers and oversight of conditions thanks to regulation and unions? Nationalism? Prejudice? idk.

Assembled or packed is not the same as made in. I'm glad someone at least explained that to a wider audience. It's shame that a lot of brands are laying by selling products with hypes ala '' We have better quality products due to our items are made in the usa''.It's sad

I have been told if >50% value add, you can put made in yourcountry on it. So if you import finished product fully made in Asia cost $20, and you box it after testing it for $50, you can put the Made in USA on it (but wear product liability too). The USA defense Dept wants security cameras galore, but you guessed it- they and the firmware - all made in China. Germany makes stuff, because all the tax breaks are for making stuff and employing people, not on profits and speculation, via the Bahamas. Smart companies do not trust Asian production - because it will be cloned, overruns will be sold, and because over time quality downgrade substitutions are made.

SeeMeCNC is another 3D printer company that makes a lot of their components in house. They make the dies and injection mold their own plastic parts as well as CNC machine all the metal components for their printers. Even the PCB for the hot end assembly is populated in house. The chassis metal is bent locally as well I think.

it is not only profits and shareholders - it is also that fact that consumers do not want to pay 5 times as much for their products.

Fran, I love your videos. You are dead on here, no one would want to admit it but this is the reality of it. Nearly all roads lead to over seas at some point. Plain and simple.

You are correct in some respects. The Buy America Act specifies that I believe more than 50% of the value of a product be produced in America. The manufacturer I work for have some customers who require raw materials NOT be from China . This is because in the case raw steels made there are of lower quality because the steel mills there make such large batches that the ingredients are not evenly distributed. That is part of the reason Chinese buildings outside the tier 1 cities fall down after only a few years. Actually one for the steels we use is only made in Sweden.

One point of order, economic systems and their functioning is 100% a political issue, it just that both political parties in the US (and most countries) fully embrace capitalism and profit over anything else. Although the Republicans seem to be slipping and thinking authoritarianism might be more important than profit in the short term.

It why I used to use US Foil from NJ for my PCB Boards..

They still make copper clad boards and non clad right here in Warren ohio and it is a union shop.

Fran, the supply chain lies with the truckers. Diesel is over $5/gallon. Most tractor trailer drivers are filling their tanks for $1200. Small truckers that run one or two trucks still pay over $3000 a week even for local trucking. There used to be a shortage of truckers because of covid. Now there are plenty of truckers willing to bid on the reduced number of trucking jobs, diluting their profits even further. So even if it is made in the USA, it still has to be shipped and that is the bottleneck! And the lack of refineries and high cost of fuels drive up the prices.

Every problem with supply, that Fran describes, is equally if not more a problem for Canada. Same issues. Sadly the golden era in consumer electronics, for Canada, was from about 1935 to 1960. We had fantastic manufacturers like Electrohome & Clairtone that were pushed out of business by cheap imports from Asia. We made quality Clairtone Colour TV's that were tested, extensively burned in, and again we were flooded by cheap Panasonic & SONY TV Sets. Simply put our workers wished for better pay and working conditions and could not compete with workers employed in China or even Japan. Even today much of China employs what amounts to slave labour, sometimes people in prison, and it seems nothing will stop this happening. I do not know what to say, I feel for American business trying to make things at home but I feel also for Canadian business with the same desire to manufacture products at home. The only disruption large enough to change this, sadly, will be all out war with China. Then we are forced to build components and every assembly and sub assembly in North America.

Hi Fran speaking of effects units, could you please do an episode on Modeling effects compared to actual circuit board effects and explain how they both work? I feel many companies are just selling modeled effects that do emulation algorithms and not real processing. Thanks - David

Safety and regulatory issues could also force the price to be astronomical. A few years ago one of the few remaining companies that processes lead in the US shut their doors. Health monitoring and downtime for worker who were exposed to too much lead must be costly.

Thanks, Fran, for truth-telling and excellent analysis of the "Made in America" hype and subterfuge. Now on to how to work with global "interconnectedness" and the entire global manufacturing process.