Craft Value: Part 2

Here’s the conundrum weighing on me on a hot August night. When we make something for a friend, a friend of a friend, a neighbor, or a local business, they’re effectively paying us a ‘locally handmade’ tax. We don’t charge much for the labor. It’s mostly the materials, but those aren’t cheap when you’re aiming for quality. And it’s awesome that people value that enough to pay more than they would on Wayfair or Amazon.

So for me, a conflict arises when I shop for tools. American-made tools aren’t super common, and they’re crazy expensive. The Chinese-made tool market is expansive, and its quality is all over the place, but I’ve dabbled in them enough to know two things: 1) there are extremely well-made Chinese tools out there, and 2) they’re way less expensive. This is precisely why the U.S. doesn’t let China sell its electric vehicles here. They’re awesome, some say better, and they’re much, much cheaper.

As usual, I’ve done some research. Classic American tool companies like Grizzly Industrial, Powertec, Jet, and DeWalt use mostly Chinese manufacturers, but also other Asian and Southeast Asian countries (and also Mexico). They all cost more than their Chinese-owned counterparts with names like Banggood (one that I was a little worried about Googling), ENJOYWOOD (also potentially sketchy), Hongdui, Wnew, and Ganwei. But here are the names of some other Chinese tool companies: Harvey Industries, Bridge City Tool Works, and Maxpower Tools.

If the question is about quality alone, there’s no reason to dismiss all Chinese-made tools. Couple that with the price difference and the fact that most American-owned tool companies produce their stuff in China anyway, and it becomes hard to think of a good reason for scrupulously avoiding Chinese counterparts. Unless, that is, you either disdain China and/or feel a moral compulsion to support the very small handful of remaining U.S. tool manufacturers by spending a whole lot more on the things you buy. I’ve been pondering another way of looking at it: Why shouldn’t I want to support workers everywhere and hold corporations and politicians responsible for the decline in U.S. manufacturing instead of consumer choices and China?

My thoughts on China, as with most things, are always evolving, but here’s where they stand right now. What they’ve done since the 1970s, by integrating capitalism but with the state at the wheel, is, from a human well-being standpoint, pretty astonishing. They have single-handedly reduced global poverty by something like 20 percent. The Chinese middle class is soaring because of decisions they made at the government level, whereas the U.S. middle class has been shrinking because of decisions made by our government. They’re leading the way in the green revolution; we’re withdrawing from it, doubling down on dirty energy and asserting that global warming is a hoax. In every advanced technological industry, they innovate faster and bring prices down more quickly than we do. The U.S. has consistently been losing its standing and influence in the global South, first because its institutions for supporting economic development (the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO) come with strings attached that, in the end, leave countries spending more on debt than education and health and reap profits for us. Second, those stipulations are always about privatizing public services and industries to pave the way for U.S. investors. It’s never about what’s good for the countries seeking help. In most cases, a small local elite becomes rich while inequality increases. Meanwhile, China’s approach to development assistance focuses on infrastructure: electric grids, roads, transportation, sanitation, and water. No wonder they’re gaining the edge in Latin America and Africa.

I’m not naive. I know well that China is imperfect, to say the least. The international community condemns their human rights record. They may well have dropped the ball and responded poorly to COVID with grave global consequences. They steal intellectual property. They’re overly strict about media and dissent. They’re poised to try to take over Taiwan. They make economic missteps from time to time, like their recent overproduction of housing construction. And their history is littered with imperialist aspirations and regional aggressions. China can be a real dick sometimes.

But America’s anti-China whining seems a little hypocritical to me, and frankly dumb. Dropping the ball on COVID? Spotty human rights record? Wants to take over other countries? Strict on media and dissent? Economic missteps? Imperialist aspirations and aggressions? We’ve done all that. We’re still doing it. Who are we kidding?

If I don’t hate China and Chinese goods, it’s not because I love all the bad stuff they do, which we also do. The story of American production of oil and gas, cars, machines, steel, and agriculture - and tools - that people are so nostalgic about is one of intense federal subsidies, the very kind of subsidies that poor nations are prohibited from using to protect local producers if they accept IMF or World Bank loans, because we want to make sure our subsidized goods can outcompete them in their own markets. In the streets, that’s called a racket.

We won a World War, rebuilt Europe, invested in global aid, made the U.S. dollar the global currency, and used it all as leverage to screw people over. China has been taking notes. Their approach to global economic development, known in some circles as the Beijing Consensus, would be radically different from ours, the Washington Consensus. Let us invest, and we’ll do you right, they say to developing countries. We say, throw you poor and your working class under the bus, and we’ll make a handful of you rich, and us as well. If Iran or Venezuela or some other country nationalizes their oil industry, robbing Exxon or BP (British Petroleum) of the opportunity to profit from it, we’ll go to war with them. If unions demand higher wages under conditions of dramatic increases in worker productivity, we say no and take measures that lead to wage deflation at the bottom and soaring rates of increasing wealth at the top.

I don’t like that one bit. And I’m not saying China’s a saint, not by any means, but when I compare the pro/con list, I see one country that seems to always do right by the rich and another whose goal seems to be social uplift, domestically and abroad. I also see one country systematically dismantling its expertise in a variety of professions and industries, including manufacturing tools and the like, and another hell-bent on developing that expertise and making what it produces affordable.

‍Will I purchase a high-precision miter gauge for our table saw at a quarter of the cost of an American-made version of a similar quality? I won’t say I’m not torn, but I’m leaning toward yes. And if I could buy a Chinese electric car for $18k, hell yes I would. The point of some of these posts is to show how even something as mundane as woodworking can send me into the mire and muck of some super messy moral and ethical quandaries. It’s not to persuade anyone of anything, but to share and be open with you. I don’t know if my current take is right. I never do. It’s like woodworking. The point is to think, ask, do, and repeat, in the hope, eventually, of a more satisfying outcome. The value of craft isn’t that different than the craft of shaping our values.