Many good thoughts here on all sides of this question-- and in some ways it's a very big question. I've known Harbor Freight for at least 15 years. I've been to their HQ, I've been to their stores, the magazine I work with (woodworking) has cashed more than a few checks for advertising. I've watched the whole USA/Taiwan/China manufacturing question evolve over the years.
Food for thought. Is lowest price the most important thing to you or the society you live in? If so, remember the personal savings to you comes at a real cost to American society and often your community. Could be your neighbors jobs, could be the value of your home because of a shrinking middle-class, could be the quality of education for your children because manufacturing facilities (many now gone) contribute to the tax base that supports the schools your kids attend. Could be your health insurance benefits because your USA employer can't compete with Asia. And, of course, it could be your job!
Most of us here on the forum are "shade tree" mechanics who don't ask a lot of our tools. We don't expect those tools to earn us a living, their use is occasional. And often, they will get the job done so long long as we don't ask too much of them. We don't look to pass them down to our children. And, HF tools, like many sellers of import tools (and not just Asian) have the total range of quality from garbage to acceptable. Harbor Freight, like many of their kind, will source products based on lots of criteria, but mostly profitability. Sometimes they can find decent stuff that's being liquidated and pass on the savings. Sometimes they find every day stuff everybody wants (big volume sales) and will offer marginal product at a really low price just to keep you coming back.
Believe me, they know a lot about their product line and what it takes to keep you interested and coming back. Like most things, you can "game" their business and come out ahead, so long as you devalue the "other" costs to your community.
It's really a big question and especially difficult to answer in the economic depression we all now live in. I'm not against Harbor Freight. And, as I'm sure you know, just about every US brand, Craftsman, DeWalt, you name it, has most of their products made in Asia. One real difference is they actually have employees there, and sometimes their own plants, who really watch the quality of what's being made that their name is on. You can get any level of quality you want overseas, but just like here it comes at a cost. And often, if you don't have someone on-sight keeping tabs on what you are buying, suppliers will find every shortcut they can to compromise the product-- like melamine in baby formula and pet food!
Like I said, it's really big stuff to think about.
