Telescopes & EPs to be made in Trumps America

[Tropo-Bob]

Interesting to see Trump intent on bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US. What will this mean for the US market in telescopes & eyepieces?

So much equipment is designed in the US and manufactured elsewhere as per Televue. Other fine equipment is completely made elsewhere, like Vixen & Taks.

Will US amateurs loose access to the best that the world has to offer? Will we in turn see more expensive equipment coming from the US? Or it could be the reverse, US manufactures overproduce for a domestic market not prepared to pay the higher prices, and thus that equipment is dumped at cheap prices on to the world market.

Interesting days ahead....

[Wavytone]

Nothing new IMHO... he can't shut down the Chinese manufacturers, while the rest are just labels slapped on the gear made in China with a very few exceptions eg Questar, Takahashi.

Fancy paying Questar prices or Skywatcher prices ?

[LewisM]

Half of Vixens line up are rebadged Synta (supposedly qc'd to higher spec than Skywatchers own line up). Most of the Vixen mounts are made in China, assembled in Japan.

Tak is for the foreseeable future entirely Japanese.

With Trump claiming he will close borders entirely with Mexico, Meade will probably bring manufacture back to the US. Celestron will continue to be Chinese, since they are owned by Synta anyway. The American obsession with SCT's has not done them any favors globally either hence their diversification over the past 10 years or so. Televue still seems to have their EPs made by Vixen in Japan (though that has been contentious for years).

Not sure much will change really. China is dominating the market (not bad for a supposedly evil communist country dominating America....) and will continue to do so. Chinese quality has come leaps and bounds, and their optics are catching up.

[Stonius]

Trump got his inauguration caps made in China. It doesn't bode well...

If he does follow through it will make US companies uncompetitive on the global market. Corporations are no longer tied to any one sovereign entity and it will depress their economy more, IMHO.

All those people that voted for him are going to be sorely disappointed I'm afraid.

[skysurfer]

I have heard his inaugurational speech. It is very nationalistic and this will "make America expensive again..."
His promises look unrealistic.
"We all will unite" and he refers to God and the Bible, but actually he builds barriers between the US and abroad. It seems that he talks about the 'evil' other countries and unions. We (the US) against others.

So we, as foreigners (for the US) should not worry about increasing prices: the Chinese (and other Asian countries) will get even more competitive power on the equipment and electronics market.
That will even be an opportunity for manufacturing products in the EU or Oz.

[sil]

Supply and demand plus people will pay beyond what they say they will for stuff they want. Petrol prices, iproducts whatever. In the short term we might see local prices rise as retailers with stock on hand panic.

I'm happy for America to wall itself off or sink into the sea. It'll force them to fix their own problems and product quality will increase as the market decides who to buy from from or not. Its how its always worked. It also means other countries will be forced to fix their local problems too instead of depending on America to hold its hand, like our Australian government operates. America can vanish and the world will continue to turn and only the rich elsewhere will be really effected. I can't think of a single product where Made In America is a preferred choice for consumers. China is slowly improving its quality control and manufacturing attitudes so it won't be long before Made In China is something to look for like Made In Japan has over the last few decades. I don't think Made In Australia has been anything to be proud of so maybe Trump means our government starts to support Australian manufacturing and research.

Regardless its useless to speculate, what happens will happen. Our government has never paid attention to what the public wants anyway and it not accountable for its messes. Perhaps Trump heralds the rise of Corporations controlling the world like so many scifi movies predict, it could also be a tie in for the Bladerunner remake or a new series of Big Brother.

[Nath2099]

America make pretty good guitars, just sayin'...

[OICURMT]

http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-hat-china/

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/oct/07/tweets/tweets-say-donald-trumps-make-america-great-again-/

[julianh72]

And this, folks, is exactly how "fake news" works!

I'm absolutely NOT a fan of The Donald, but isn't it interesting that whenever we read something on the interwebs which reinforces our beliefs and preconceptions, we assume it is true, but when we read something which challenges or offends our world-view, we assume it is fake.

Everybody, please, Please, PLEASE, get in the habit of fact-checking before you "share" anything.

It's not always easy to confirm the true facts (or expose the "Alternative Truths"), especially on breaking / trending stories, but you can often get a pretty good idea by simply using Google or Snopes to check "Did so-and-so really do such-and-such". You will often get lots of links to the trending "fake news" stories, but just one or two key links might tell a very different tale.

E.g.:

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=did+donald+trump+really+ge t+his+caps+made+in+china

http://www.snopes.com/search/?q=donald+trump+caps+china

[redbeard]

Yep, great guitars 👍

[AstralTraveller]

True, but these days so do China and Vietnam.

[gaa_ian]

Well Bob I think this will serve to make US Manufacturers even more insular and inward looking. I have found little interest from US manufacturers suppling outside the US. Chinese suppliers on the other hand is only to keen to supply, innovate & improve their product when as a reseller I give them the feedback. So I can see that the USA will only lose from this.