[Amps] Soft start

[Manfred Mornhinweg]

Jim, Ken,

> Support the Chinese or support the US.

I just had a look at both sales. It's interesting to note that the US seller 
charges more money for the bare board, than the Chinese seller does for the 
complete, assembled unit!

It's sort of hard to defend one's own country, when facing such facts. 
Congratulations for your patriotism.

Anyway, if you buy that board and then buy the components at Mouser, to assemble 
the circuit, you will find that they come mostly from China, with some from 
Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, India, Mexico, etc - but hardly any from the US.

I recently bought about 500 dollars worth of electronic parts from Digikey. Out 
of 33 different items, one single item, that is 10 parts out of roughly 770 
parts ordered, has the US stated as country of origin. Everything else comes 
from other countries. Even Germany and Austria are better represented in that 
mix than the US.

It's just how things are.

While I have nothing at all against China, I don't like the situation of a 
single country acting as the factory for the entire world. But when buying 
something, there is rarely any choice anymore. Either all suitable products are 
Chinese, or any non-Chinese ones are so much more expensive, that I end up 
buying the Chinese ones anyway.

There are some areas in which US-made products are still competitive. But 
electronics isn't among them.

Manfred


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