I don't know about you, but I get the flyer from Harbor Freight about once a month. If you don't get it or if you have not been to one of their stores, you should take the time to visit one. Here is why I think that a visit to a Harbor Freight store is a reality wake up call.
All the stuff is made in China. China is part of the economy of this world, like it or not. We do not have exclusive rights to the economy of this planet. We have to complete on a level playing field for a change. Today, you are only worth what you can produce. Unions or governments can't change this basic fact. If some one can make it for less, then you have to compete on that basis and produce it for even less. If you can't, who is going to give you food for your family? No one! Get used to it. The world has changed and it is not "round" any more. It is "flat" and we are all equal for a change. How is that? Now back to Harbor Freight.
Here is some data from the November 2012 issue. You can buy a 9 piece wrench set for $6.99. You do the math. That works out to $0.76 per wrench. Now let's look at you. Let's say that you make $25 per hour and that you would have to produce a total of $75 of value per hour to justify that wage. I think these numbers are about right. For you to justify your $25 per hour, how many of these wrenches do you think you would have to be able to make per hour? That is what we are talking about here. To keep this simple, it works out to 100 wrenches per hour. That means you would have to be able to, alone and all by yourself, make 100 of these wrenches per hour. That is almost 2 per minute. Do you think that you could do that? If not, it will only be a mater of time before you are caught up with and you will not have a job. Those are the facts. How about another item from the flyer?
Here is another one. They have a "High Volume Low Pressure Gravity Feed" spray gun for $9,99. This is the kind of spray gun that auto shops use to paint your car. It is a complex device with at least 25 precision parts. How many of those do you think you could produce in an hour? Figure it out and that is exactly what you are really worth, not the hourly rate that some union has extorted out of some weak kneed company. Meet reality.
How about a 60 piece SAE/Metric Tap and Die set for $24.99? This is what is used to put threads onto metal rods and to tap threads into holes in metal. These are "tools" and "tools" are what separate us humans from animals. If you can't make or use tools, you are not very much higher than an animal on the food chain. In a way, making tools is the most important thing that us humans have done. It is what got us to this point and now look what is happening? We can't or don't make tools anymore, but who does? China.
Go get a copy of the Harbor Freight flyer and read it from one end to the other. If this does not make you wake up, I don't know what will. You could call the flyer the "Reality Bible". That is how significant it is. Wake up!
