The same could be said about 100+ American corporations who chose greed over quality, along with the millions who support their position. When we think of the big rigs rolling down the major highways of America do we think Kenworth or Peterbilt Romania, Bulgaria? The least we could do is give Starrett credit for attempting to have some sense of quality control. The entire economy of the eastern seaboard was decimated by Americans willing to by cheap imports. Name the tool manufacturers who closed their doors and moved to China in order to support the stock holders. Most of the people who lost their jobs were machinists, not Hobby-Machinists, but machinist who supported their families by making a decent living making quality tools and were proud of it.
And of course, when American corporations sent manufacturing overseas, they also stopped buying the tools needed to manufacture things. I imagine this had a much greater impact on Starret and other tool companies
than the buying habits of a few Hobby Machinists.
I am old, too, and so are my nice old tools, Starrett, B & S, Lufkin, Union Tool, and others. I got them much more recently from the estates of other geezers who passed on or gave it up, cleaned them up, checked and calibrated them, and put them back to work. I find that a win, win for everyone. Seriously, I find the old tools bearing the names or initials of men who have passed on to have much more soul than tools bought new, no matter how expensive or shiny or how 'top brand' they might be considered by others. I smile more when I pick up the well used old tools, and think about those old boys...
But having said that, we are all complicit in this. How many of us have tools made overseas in our tool boxes? Probably almost all of us. And they don't have to be cheap tools. I have Mitutoyo calipers, and an older Tesa
micrometer in my box, and they are hardly junk. And, NOT to pick on you Bob, because I like the old tools too, but when we buy used tools in preference to new, we "hurt" domestic companies like Starret just as
much as if we bought something from HF.
And, of course during the years when Starret and other American tool companies were going strong, (say the late 40's and the 50's), there wasn't any significant overseas competition at all and Europe and Asia were still
digging themselves out of the rubble of WWII. But, we all know how that played out. How many of us have a Honda in the driveway? Maybe companies like Starret will have make sure they don't make the same mistake
the the domestic car companies made: letting the bean counters focus on cost above all else, and forgetting that to compete, a company still has to make products that people want to buy. It took GM management
several decades to figure that one out. I work for a company like that, and the bean counters are slowly, but relentlessly damaging our product and our reputation. But, the senior exec's
are getting massive bonuses as a result, so it's all good...
