"Make America Great Again" and the leather trade

[TinkerTailor]

So someone has to do it:

America was once the world leader in manufacturing across the board. They made the products as well as the machines to make them. They harvested the raw materials and refined them into end products. Every part of every item was made in the USA. Thousands of farms grew healthy cattle, and they were tanned to the highest standard by multiple tanneries right here at home. Millions of acres of hardwood trees in the north east of the USA were allocated to leather tanning and it was exported to the world. Foundries mixed base metals and cast or forged them into hardware of quality. Linen thread was lovingly spun here from locally grown flax. Things were good.

Then the factories and machines were sold and scrapped. Manufacturing in general was moved offshore. Now there are very few suppliers of products left in the USA. USA made tools are prized. There are only 3 tanneries of note, and neither is even close to what they used to be. Us hides are tanned in mexico. USA made buckles, few and far between. All the leather machines are made in asia now. Thread-china, Tools-china, Tools to make the tools-china.

Here is a quote from a wall street journal article about Howard Shaffer and his attempt to start a shoe factory in Florida around 2008. He was the man who set up the original shoe factories in china for the big names in the seventies. He failed due to lack of supply chains. If anyone had the connections and cash  to do it, it was him and he failed:

Quote

What killed his U.S. factory isn't just competition from Asia's cheap labor, he says. It is the lack of infrastructure needed to make a factory tick, a problem that has bedeviled the few remaining independent shoemakers in the U.S. Finding technicians to fly in on short notice to fix shoe machines was a constant and growing challenge, Mr. Shaffer says, because the number of U.S. companies that make and service machines has dwindled. The suppliers of shoelaces, leather and other basic materials insisted that he buy in batches far larger than made sense for a small-scale producer.

 

I question, How can America make itself great again without starting from the ground up? In Tuscany there are water treatment plants built just to treat the effluent from tanneries. This is smart planning. Planning from the ground up. There are dozens of tanneries within a few hundred miles making some of the best leather in the world with basically zero pollution. None of this infrastructure exists in USA unless it is owned by the tannery. This keeps out the small guys.

If all the machines to make stuff have been sold for scrap or shipped overseas long ago, and the skills and techniques to utilize the machines have been lost to time, Where do you start? The vast track of trees to tan leather are gone....The foundries dismantled....The rail lines to them sold for condos....The agricultural land has been sold for residential. The water is used up for lawns......Going to be a long hard road.

[CaptQuirk]

You need trees to tan leather? I have 25 acres with oak and sumacs, come get them

[LumpenDoodle2]

Agree, if you don't have the basics in place, you can't build a proper production system.   In the UK, we seem to be happy to let farmers sell off land to build housing.    They forget that a country who cannot produce enough food for their own people, becomes dependant on outside forces.   Lose trade with that country providing your staple foods, and you lose a vital resource.

Same with production, rely wholly on other countries for your heavy industries, and you weaken your infrastructure, possibly to a point of collapse.

Both farmland and industry iare difficult, even impossible to replace.

[TinkerTailor]

6 minutes ago, CaptQuirk said:

You need trees to tan leather? I have 25 acres with oak and sumacs, come get them

You can do it with piss too.

[JLSleather]

LESS industry would be a good idea actually.  

• Species driven to extinction
• polar ice disappearing (seriously, this is not a 'test')
• millions of acres of woodland "cleared" (destroyed) to make more ethanol fuel
• streams and rivers often cant sustain fish, and some of which can hold fish that can't be safely eaten in any quantity
• the New Zealand "they" now reports that the air quailty is so poor that cycling to work is no longer a health benefit

and all for what...so some genius can carry the latest phone... and use it to sell you some more things you don't need ...

[TinkerTailor]

3 minutes ago, JLSleather said:

LESS industry would be a good idea actually.  

• Species driven to extinction
• polar ice disappearing (seriously, this is not a 'test')
• millions of acres of woodland "cleared" (destroyed) to make more ethanol fuel
• streams and rivers often cant sustain fish, and some of which can hold fish that can't be safely eaten in any quantity
• the New Zealand "they" now reports that the air quailty is so poor that cycling to work is no longer a health benefit

and all for what...so some genius can carry the latest phone... and use it to sell you some more things you don't need ...

Agreed, however the first start is to reduce the transportation element of the cycle, which forces you to buy local. Farms that raise animals and crops at the same time do not need  fertilizer input. The animals fertilize the plants and the plants provide food for the animals. We as humans just glean the fat off the system. When you go to feedlots and huge mechanized farms, you now need to truck the feed to the animals, which frequently requires intermediary processing and you also have to buy and transport fertilizer to replenish the fields. People won't tolerate rail cars of stinky manure crossing the land,  so again processing or just using fossil fuel based ferts. If an area does not have enough water, like vegas, people are just going to have to leave. Period.

North America CAN support industry and all the people in it if they stop with the obsession on having a Cadillac for each kid and grow some vegetables. The People, as represented by the government, need to suck it up and get their hands dirty and build the infrastructure that CLEAN industry needs. This will not be cheap and will require huge sacrifice from all. This solution is very detrimental to the profits of big business, and will contested greatly.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

6 hours ago, TinkerTailor said:

So someone has to do it:

America was once the world leader in manufacturing across the board. They made the products as well as the machines to make them. They harvested the raw materials and refined them into end products. Every part of every item was made in the USA. Thousands of farms grew healthy cattle, and they were tanned to the highest standard by multiple tanneries right here at home. Millions of acres of hardwood trees in the north east of the USA were allocated to leather tanning and it was exported to the world. Foundries mixed base metals and cast or forged them into hardware of quality. Linen thread was lovingly spun here from locally grown flax. Things were good.

Then the factories and machines were sold and scrapped. Manufacturing in general was moved offshore. Now there are very few suppliers of products left in the USA. USA made tools are prized. There are only 3 tanneries of note, and neither is even close to what they used to be. Us hides are tanned in mexico. USA made buckles, few and far between. All the leather machines are made in asia now. Thread-china, Tools-china, Tools to make the tools-china.

Here is a quote from a wall street journal article about Howard Shaffer and his attempt to start a shoe factory in Florida around 2008. He was the man who set up the original shoe factories in china for the big names in the seventies. He failed due to lack of supply chains. If anyone had the connections and cash  to do it, it was him and he failed:

 

I question, How can America make itself great again without starting from the ground up? In Tuscany there are water treatment plants built just to treat the effluent from tanneries. This is smart planning. Planning from the ground up. There are dozens of tanneries within a few hundred miles making some of the best leather in the world with basically zero pollution. None of this infrastructure exists in USA unless it is owned by the tannery. This keeps out the small guys.

If all the machines to make stuff have been sold for scrap or shipped overseas long ago, and the skills and techniques to utilize the machines have been lost to time, Where do you start? The vast track of trees to tan leather are gone....The foundries dismantled....The rail lines to them sold for condos....The agricultural land has been sold for residential. The water is used up for lawns......Going to be a long hard road.

 

5 hours ago, TinkerTailor said:

Agreed, however the first start is to reduce the transportation element of the cycle, which forces you to buy local. Farms that raise animals and crops at the same time do not need  fertilizer input. The animals fertilize the plants and the plants provide food for the animals. We as humans just glean the fat off the system. When you go to feedlots and huge mechanized farms, you now need to truck the feed to the animals, which frequently requires intermediary processing and you also have to buy and transport fertilizer to replenish the fields. People won't tolerate rail cars of stinky manure crossing the land,  so again processing or just using fossil fuel based ferts. If an area does not have enough water, like vegas, people are just going to have to leave. Period.

North America CAN support industry and all the people in it if they stop with the obsession on having a Cadillac for each kid and grow some vegetables. The People, as represented by the government, need to suck it up and get their hands dirty and build the infrastructure that CLEAN industry needs. This will not be cheap and will require huge sacrifice from all. This solution is very detrimental to the profits of big business, and will contested greatly.

I've actually been thinking about this all day. The American people have gotten lazy.  That's a generalized statement and doesn't apply across the board, but many would rather sit and play on their smartphone than get their hands dirty.  Greed has turned America into what it is today. It's not enough to farm 1000 acres, let's farm 10,000 and run all the little guys out of business.  Those people are in every community.  Enough is never enough and when you go to the site that shows how much those guys have gotten in government subsidies, it'll make you want to puke.  The very same people who elected the new president on the promise of making America great again are some of the same who shop by price and will bitch and complain when prices of consumer goods go up due to increased labor costs (and other costs) of moving industry back to this country. The very same people who bitch and complain about everything being made in China are the ones who order online garbage because the "Made in the good old USA" stuff is too expensive. It's going to take one heck of a smart and dedicated bunch of people in government to turn things around and if it happens, it won't happen overnight, or in 4 years, or even 8.  I don't plan to see it in my lifetime.  I'm not the brightest bulb in the socket, and I don't even pretend to know much about politics, economics, or how to run the country, but I do know that it's going to be one hell of an undertaking to make this country what it once was. Lots of wisdom in what you say Tinker.

[AngieNZ]

"They New Zealand"  - nope air is fine to cycle in here

5 hours ago, JLSleather said:

LESS industry would be a good idea actually.  

• Species driven to extinction
• polar ice disappearing (seriously, this is not a 'test')
• millions of acres of woodland "cleared" (destroyed) to make more ethanol fuel
• streams and rivers often cant sustain fish, and some of which can hold fish that can't be safely eaten in any quantity
• the New Zealand "they" now reports that the air quailty is so poor that cycling to work is no longer a health benefit

and all for what...so some genius can carry the latest phone... and use it to sell you some more things you don't need ...

But I think the bigger problem world over is everyone thinks govements should supprt them .We have a mentality here where the younger people dont want to work ,especially when the govt hands out money left right and center.

We have heaps of jobs this time of year in orchards and on farms and we are importing workers to do the work ????

Lazy youngsters these days ( not all but alot)

[MADMAX22]

Way too many people in the world. 

Oh and whats with the people in CA, wanting to succeed and all that because they didnt get what they wanted, however if you turned it around they would be all happy. Its a "democracy" right or is it only that if you get the person you want in office. The northern half of CA has been wanting to get away from the southern half for oh 100 years now but thats not good because all the farm land and water is in the north. Those idiots in southern CA I guess dont realize they are dependant upon several other states to keep them fed and watered. 

Ahh well. 

Edited November 10, 2016 by MADMAX22

[cdthayer]

 

19 hours ago, TinkerTailor said:

How can America make itself great again without starting from the ground up?

Trump campaigned that he would concentrate on building up the American infrastructure.  Global markets caught that, and I see this morning that copper and other commodity metals are seeing yuge gains world-wide.  An aluminum maker in Russia jumped by the most on record, making me glad that I began stock-piling cast iron (sewing machines) and aluminum (empty beer cans) a decade ago, back in 2006.

 

19 hours ago, TinkerTailor said:

reduce the transportation element of the cycle, which forces you to buy local.

I think that the transportation industry will eventually take itself out of the equation, as the west coast strike a while back, and the Hanjin problems recently, seem to indicate how fragile the “just in time” delivery system really is.  

CD in Oklahoma