On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 12:13 PM, Mike S <mikes@flatsurface.com> wrote:

> At 02:20 PM 7/22/2011, Alistair Bell wrote...
>
>  Heaven forfend that one would take the time to go look for a USA made
>> tool :) After all, the price is what matters, not quality.
>>
>
> Interesting comment on a discussion list for German vehicles.
>

  Good one!

  The nearest Sears store is also an hour away, I think.

  Alistair did pique my patriotic instincts, and though I recall looking at
a Sears tool catalog in the past and almost dropping my load at the price, I
went online and priced a 3/4 breaker bar at the Matco tools site....
Ready?.......$229!  plus shipping.

   Ok, now I am as American as the next guy who has citizenship here in the
USA...but I am also an unemployed tradesman...a residential
carpenter....with the state of our US building industry, now and  for the
past 4yrs or so...I am not holding my breath till I can expect to find
employment at a decent wage again in my particular trade (my last part time
journeyman carpenter gig, I was paid a whopping $15/hr......same wage I drew
in the 1990s)...and flipping burgers at minimum wage, or working at Home
Depot, it would take me about 4 full days wages (before withholding taxes)
to earn the cash to pay for that  Matco breaker bar... It doesn't, BTW, say
where that tool is made..

  The HF breaker bar is $18.99....so that tool, which I'll likely use once
or twice a year, at the most, is $210 cheaper, which is significant to me,
being unemployed and living on savings and SS now for about 3yrs...

  Don Hanson