briggs selling off more

[StarTech]

I thought I read somewhere that Husqvarna was getting out the consumer [ie the Big Box store lines] market.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I'm a typical homeowner that has purchased and replaced various mowers, tillers, snowblowers and choppers. I have had John Deere, Simplicity, Cub, Toro, White, Honda and MTD units. They either had Honda, Briggs, Kawasaki, Kohler or Tecumseh motors. Never in any of those units did I ever have a motor problem or repair. I see a lot of opinions on this forum and most of them are well earned opinions based on performance, observation or experiences. I, like so many others appreciate the many options we have to choose from. Some of them are stronger than others and that is usually reflected by pricing. I would like to see a pull-back from dependance on China and reestablishment of American labor and engineering. I would rather pay more for good quality than pay less for equipment that is going to disappoint me. I hope Briggs and the others survive and continue to build quality products.

A nice sentiment but it goes a lot deeper than just paying a bit more and you will be paying a lot more, not a little & by a lot you are talking around 50% .
Then there are other consequences like a reduction in your pension as well because that is where the pension funds make their money.
Finally your government has to grow testicles.
Since the Regan administration the US government spending has been more than it raises in taxes to the tune of 5 % to 15 % of GDP.
Regan got it very wrong with the "Trickle down effect" and the total tax take did not go up, it went down because the only people who actually pay the full tax rate are the PAYE employees and their incomes have not kept pace with inflation .
Inflation which does nothing apart from protecting the value of the assets of those with a lot of assets and prevents those without assets obtaining them became a manditory part of all governments fiscal policies .
So governments have to make sure the very wealthy pay their fair share of tax ( remember President Trump bragging that his companies pay no tax ) and stop using tax cuts to rich to get them to donate for the parties .
Then the anti trust laws that the USA pioneered in enacting, have to be used to reduce the power of companies like HF & Walmart & Amazon & Stanley B&D , Microsoft , etc etc .
Once any business gets to a market share over 20% in their sector, the benefits of competition fail because a single entity gets to the position where they have effective control over the market.
So in place of Walmart finding products in a price range they dictate what major suppliers will charge them or they will refuse to carry any of that companies products ( including service parts ).
Now because all big manufacturers have gone down the high volume low margin path, a small drop in volume sales can send them bankrupt in no time flat and is is what ultimately sent Tecumseh to the wall and was a large part of B & S going to the wall , bad management and top end greed did not help .
And when retailers get really big then they simply send quality locally made products to a third world country, get an exactly visually identical product made then flood the market with it such that the original factory looses so many sales they go broke.
Then the vultures ( pension , Hedge & investment funds ) move in buy up the assets , flog them off at massive profits , build houses on the land then go on to pick the bones of the next victim.
Back at the end of WWII the top 10% of incomes controlled 20% of the money & 30% of the assets
Now the top 10% account for 70% of the money and 90% of the assets .
The system is broken because the regulating of it has failed and the governments hide behind slogans like "Too Big To Fail" because they are dependent upon the good will of that top 10% .
The perfect example of this is the banking collapse , The government bailed out the banks , thus protecting the assets of the share holders and not the working people who lost their houses .
Bailing out the banks in place of allowing them to collapse or taking them over then refloating when they in a stronger position ( standard liquidation practices ) the government printed money to give to the billionairs to save the banks and within 2 years they were back to stealing from the poor & paying the executives multi million dollar bonuses , business as normal .

China is not the problem.
America is the problem
China will be replaced with North Korea or India then any one of a dozen South African or South American third world countries

 

[bertsmobile1]

Briggs and most of the other domestic engine and mower companies need to get out of the mass merchant box stores, and concentrate more on their higher end dealer products. The Chinese products are going to dominate the box store market and the domestic companies will be fighting tooth and nail to even survive in that market. And if Briggs is going to farm out their homeowner lines to third party companies like Husqvarna, MTD, Ardisam, then they need to just sell off those lines. The last Snapper and Murray mowers I saw at my local Walmart were made by a company with no contact information past parts@chinese company.com

And the merchant Big Box Stores need to be properly regulated according to the anti-trust laws the USA pioneered back in the 1800's but conviently forgot about back in the 60's .

 

[StarTech]

I agree the whole system is broken but getting fix is impossible due to ones that running or here lately not running it. If they had to live within their means by earning a honest wage they couldn't do it. They rather run it like the payday loan predators that legally rob the poor to get rich.

 

[bkeller500]

A nice sentiment but it goes a lot deeper than just paying a bit more and you will be paying a lot more, not a little & by a lot you are talking around 50% .
Then there are other consequences like a reduction in your pension as well because that is where the pension funds make their money.
Finally your government has to grow testicles.
Since the Regan administration the US government spending has been more than it raises in taxes to the tune of 5 % to 15 % of GDP.
Regan got it very wrong with the "Trickle down effect" and the total tax take did not go up, it went down because the only people who actually pay the full tax rate are the PAYE employees and their incomes have not kept pace with inflation .
Inflation which does nothing apart from protecting the value of the assets of those with a lot of assets and prevents those without assets obtaining them became a manditory part of all governments fiscal policies .
So governments have to make sure the very wealthy pay their fair share of tax ( remember President Trump bragging that his companies pay no tax ) and stop using tax cuts to rich to get them to donate for the parties .
Then the anti trust laws that the USA pioneered in enacting, have to be used to reduce the power of companies like HF & Walmart & Amazon & Stanley B&D , Microsoft , etc etc .
Once any business gets to a market share over 20% in their sector, the benefits of competition fail because a single entity gets to the position where they have effective control over the market.
So in place of Walmart finding products in a price range they dictate what major suppliers will charge them or they will refuse to carry any of that companies products ( including service parts ).
Now because all big manufacturers have gone down the high volume low margin path, a small drop in volume sales can send them bankrupt in no time flat and is is what ultimately sent Tecumseh to the wall and was a large part of B & S going to the wall , bad management and top end greed did not help .
And when retailers get really big then they simply send quality locally made products to a third world country, get an exactly visually identical product made then flood the market with it such that the original factory looses so many sales they go broke.
Then the vultures ( pension , Hedge & investment funds ) move in buy up the assets , flog them off at massive profits , build houses on the land then go on to pick the bones of the next victim.
Back at the end of WWII the top 10% of incomes controlled 20% of the money & 30% of the assets
Now the top 10% account for 70% of the money and 90% of the assets .
The system is broken because the regulating of it has failed and the governments hide behind slogans like "Too Big To Fail" because they are dependent upon the good will of that top 10% .
The perfect example of this is the banking collapse , The government bailed out the banks , thus protecting the assets of the share holders and not the working people who lost their houses .
Bailing out the banks in place of allowing them to collapse or taking them over then refloating when they in a stronger position ( standard liquidation practices ) the government printed money to give to the billionairs to save the banks and within 2 years they were back to stealing from the poor & paying the executives multi million dollar bonuses , business as normal .

China is not the problem.
America is the problem
China will be replaced with North Korea or India then any one of a dozen South African or South American third world countries

I do not disagree with any of your comments and in fact they are very enlightening. The only response I can come back with is......"We can't keep going like this". We are on a one-way street and it is a dead end. I don't blame China for taking our money but I blame us for not realizing we went to far. Money makes the world go around. it's a mater of earning it, and sharing it and passing it on to the next group. It has to circulate. Our tax system is a economy of it's own. The government collects it and decides where to spend it, thinking they can do a better job of it than we can. You cannot continue to support your neighbors when you can barely support yourselves. Everyone knows that when you spend money it's taxed. When that money creates profits, those profits keep business ( the economy) alive and as that money is divided among workers that earn it, they spend it and it's taxed again over and over. A dollar spent changes hands 7-times before it evaporates. When the the government spends it, the cycle is broken and the results are compromised.

 

[StarTech]

All I can say is that I not paying this year's taxes on my income and probably will not for a few years. When the government finally decides to pay me what is now owed to me then I will start paying again.

I don't mind paying my taxes when they are due but they must be offset by what is owed in my direction. Currently the US government is $3200+ in arrears plus interest.

 

[billypumper]

If you can't find parts for your Snapper, try Simplicity, lot of parts are interchangeable, especially in their zero turn mowers.

 

[ILENGINE]

If you can't find parts for your Snapper, try Simplicity, lot of parts are interchangeable, especially in their zero turn mowers.

Just have to be careful with the push mower line because some are built by Snapper/Briggs, Some are MTD, some are Husqvarna, and some are Chinese company with no support.

 

[StarTech]

Just have to be careful with the push mower line because some are built by Snapper/Briggs, Some are MTD, some are Husqvarna, and some are Chinese company with no support.

Enough to drive a crazy person sane.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I do not disagree with any of your comments and in fact they are very enlightening. The only response I can come back with is......"We can't keep going like this". We are on a one-way street and it is a dead end. I don't blame China for taking our money but I blame us for not realizing we went to far. Money makes the world go around. it's a mater of earning it, and sharing it and passing it on to the next group. It has to circulate. Our tax system is a economy of it's own. The government collects it and decides where to spend it, thinking they can do a better job of it than we can. You cannot continue to support your neighbors when you can barely support yourselves. Everyone knows that when you spend money it's taxed. When that money creates profits, those profits keep business ( the economy) alive and as that money is divided among workers that earn it, they spend it and it's taxed again over and over. A dollar spent changes hands 7-times before it evaporates. When the the government spends it, the cycle is broken and the results are compromised.

But we will keep on doing the same thing till it is too late
only two outcomes, those who are on the bottom arm themselves and incite a revolution.
or
We consume ourselves to extinction
Communism , socialism capitalism
None are perfect , all of them have their good points & all of them have their bad points
All work well when properly managed , the trick is properly manageing them and that trick has not been carried off from the day we crawled out of our caves.
Americans actually think that Bill Gates is some sort of hero & deserves to live his life of luxury , when in reality he is a thief & extortionist
The people of Nt Korea believe that president Kim should live in oppulance while they starve .
We get taught from the cradle to believe in heros that will save us then in adult life we enact that fantasy
President Trump made people believe that he was a hero and he would end unemployment , return large scale manufacturing to the USA and make every one rich.
In reality he could not do any of those things because he does not have the power and where he dose he can not use it because it would dissadvantage the people the parts relies upon for financial support .
In reality President Obama did more to bring manufacturing back on shore than Trump even did .
PRofessor Tobin proposed a very tiny & extreamy efficient form of taxation often called the Tobin Tax.
He proposed that every conversion of currency be taxed at 0.01% or 1¢ in every $ 1000 and it to be administered by the World Bank to alleviate 3rd world poverty.
Even better was 1/3 of it would go to paying off 3rd world debt and within 10 years most of the impoverished countries would be debt free.
Now this money would be going to the governments & big organizations in the 1st world who loaned the 3rd world countries the money in the first place .
His proposal was howled down because the 1st world countries need to keep 3rd world countries in perpetual debt so they can control them economically and exploit them.
Nothing has really changed since the days of capturing your enemies army and dragging them back in chains to work as slaves