Dude if you can find a cheap VT30 or VT20 go for it! What size do you game on?

so what american flat panel tv industryis the US going to protect? plus during the latest APEC meeting they talked about entering into an asia pacific freetrade zone/agreement

The only USA Flat panel is by Vizio. And they started as a very low end, but have grown their reputation and quality.

And I think many parts are made in other countries, perhaps even some of their TV's.

I am really interested in their new 'Passive 3D' TVs, but I hardly think they are a significant enough industry to have much effect on the US Government.

For PS3 owners (watching blu-ray) a plasma is a must. LED's give movies that 'soap opera' look and have refresh rate issues.

Even the burn-in is better on plasma.

Oh wait...you were talking about the pluses, weren't you?

You do realize that none of Vizio's TVs are made in the USA.  They aren't even assembled in the USA.  They're either made in Mexico, China, or Taiwan.

First of all, you have no clue what you're talking about.

Second, the US is one of the largest importer of goods, electronic or otherwise.  We don't just have a national debt because we borrow money from China, we have a national debt because we import more than we export too.  There is one, only one, TV manufacturer that actually makes TVs in the US.  Almost all US consumer goods are manufactured in China, the exception are cars and furniture.

The dollar dropped in value, the Yen wasn't inflated.  After 9/11 the Bush Administration, in an effort to increase exports (thereby helping to decrease the debt) allowed the dollar to drop in value.  The US did nothing to keep the value of the dollar artifically inflated.  Again, the Yen wasn't inflated.

The only thing the US has ever done is ask Japan to make its markets available to US companies, something which it has not been so willing to do.  See, back in the 80's (are you too young to know this?) the majority of US electronics were manufactured here in the US or Canada.  However, US manufacturers were unable to compete with cheaper Japanese import goods and eventually they either went out of business, got bought up, or started to use China to manufacture their electronics.  It was Japan's protectionist government back in the 1980's that wiped out the majority of US/Canadian electronics manufacturing.

The US is not taking protectionsit actions.  Taking away tax loop holes that allowed US corporations to move headquarters or employees offshore and give them tax breaks for doing so, isn't protectionist.  Giving tax breaks to US corporations that move their manufacturing back to the US from China isn't protectionist.  Not only is it NOT protectionist it doesn't hurt Japan.  Protectionist would be refusing to allow Japanese companies to import products into the US or levying a tax on foreign goods imported into the US.  The US government isn't doing that.

Where in the world do you get off saying this crap?

The majority of cars sold in the US are manufactured in the US.  In fact, more Japanese brand cars are manufactured in the US than European cars.  The reason that's the case is because it's cheaper to manufacture the volume of cars sold here, than it is to manufacture them in Japan and ship them here.  That's been the case for years, it's simple economics.  That's why companies are moving their manufacturing BACK to the US, because the cost of shipping crap halfway around the world doesn't make things much cheaper than just manufacturing them where you're going to eventually sell them.

Japan isn't a threat because of it's manufacturing, Japan is a threat because in the past it has had a very closed market.  As I said before, the North American electronics industry was basically wiped out by the protetionist activities of Japan in the 1980's.  We couldn't even export US manufactured cars to Japan.  All the while, the US was importing nearly everything Japan could produce.  The fortunes of Japanese companies were built with US dollars.

I'm sorry, we hurt Canada?  How so?  We refused to allow an oil company to build a pipeline through the US so you could ship oil to China.  None of the oil going through that pipeline was meant for the US.  In fact, the amount of oil projected to move through that pipeline would have been just a fraction of what China has projected it will need and that Canada has agreed to supply.  And why doesn't Canada want to run that pipeline to the coast along British Columbia?  OH...because they're afraid of the environmental hazards of having a pipeline.  Gosh, it's Ok if there's an oil spill in the US, it's our mess to clean up, but it's a bad thing if Canada has to clean up it's own mess.

The US Government's refusal to allow the pipeline didn't hurt Canada.  It made Canada responsible for getting the oil it was selling to China it's own responsibility, not ours.   Boo fricken hoo.  Do you even realize that every day Canadian trash is shipped over the border into US landfills?  Or that your nuclear waste is?  Don't tell me we hurt you because we didn't accept another one of your lousy environmentally hazardous schemes.

Our unemployment isn't that bad?  Do you even know what your fricken unemployement is in Canada???  It's 7.6%.  Up .1%.  Ours is at 8.3%, down from a high of 10.2%.  The US poverty rate is over 15%, the Canadian poverty rate is around 5%.  Over 600,000 people in the US are homeless.    Canadian homelessness is somewhere between 150,000 - 300,000 people.  So, how does Canada have it worse off than the US again?  Heck, your money is even worth something again because of our weak dollar.

As I said before, the US is far from protectionist.  More goods from around the world come into and are sold in the US than any other country in the world.  We are the biggest and most open market in the world.  So for you to sit there and suggest we're protectionist because we won't allow Canada to violate our environment with an oil pipeline, or because the US government says it'll help create jobs in the US, is just outragious.  Not only is everything you say ignorant of the facts or reality, it's just ridiculous.

Sigh...you and me both. >.>