It was simple choice for me. Buy an import TIG welder that I can afford or don't have a TIG welder at all. I've had a Mitec 160P TIG Welder for 2 years and it has worked great. I wish it was American made and that there were plenty of American repair depots but that's not the way it is. 30 years ago the same rhetoric went on about Japanese goods being crap. Now all of our TVs, cameras, and half our autos come from Asia. If the US wants to compete as a manufacturing country, we need to change our expectations for a what a manufacturing job should pay.