[quote=jpinpb]At the risk of sounding bad again, generally speaking only, China is not known for quality products. It’s known for cheap products (even their steel) and you get what you pay for.
As flu mentioned, seems a bigger problem is people’s desire for consumption, cheap consumption, that ends up discarded at a garage sale eventually.
If you sell your car in 5 years, sure, maybe it’s lost value. Hold it for 20. Wish I did that w/my Camaro. I’d have one heck of a downpayment on a house. (Never watch Mecum?)
I think we’ve come full circle again, though. The problem is that people don’t want to work for less money here, but people want to buy cheap. Buying cheap from Asia means someone potentially in the U.S.A. could be soon out a job.
So many jobs have been outsourced. Jobs that still seem plentiful are service-related jobs. They typically don’t pay very well. Unless you’re a doctor, which even then, selective surgeries, some people leave the country b/c it’s cheaper. Cheap dental, go to Mexico.
Between jobs being outsourced and people that do come over here taking jobs for less (whether Mexican day laborers or nurses from the Philippines) it is getting more difficult to find jobs. (Please – again – I am not being prejudice here. Trying to make a point about Americans losing jobs – not targeting any countries – forgive the stereotypical nature)
I did not expect to meet so much opposition to attempting this for a month, particularly in light of the continuing job losses. But as I said earlier, I’m not much of a consumer, so this would not be a big sacrifice to me. With so many people touting patriotism during war, I was thinking this experiment was an easy no-brainer. Think of it as economic war. No one dies from this. [/quote]
I don’t think you are sounding bad here at all. But I will mention that the “quality” of goods from china depends specifically on what type of goods you are speaking and on the oversight of the company shoving the product… In most cases, we (americans) are not buying directly from the factory in china or from the direct supplier. We are buying from U.S. companies that for whatever business decisions they make in terms of quality.
Electronics/hardware from china is not “crap” in general…You have varying levels of quality in electronics. You have crap Dell machines and you have higher end quality Apple machines. At this point in time, just about every TV manufacturer, whether it is korean brand, japanese brand, U.S. brand (yes some still exist) all use components with the majority sourced from china (except higher end sony which is still made in part in Japan and ironically Rancho Bernardo).
Same could be said for clothes. Places like Gymboree for instance make higher quality clothes..If you try really put their clothes through the test, you’ll find that they hold up much better than your cheap clothes you find at walmart.
The problem though is that media (CNN specifically) loves to report on these problems alone, and distort the entire issue as if the U.S. company is not at fault.
At this point, I should also bring up how many times have we seen food product recalls from domestic providers (some being “organic”)?
Gee, maybe organic farms shouldn’t let cattle poop near where vegetables grow…(I guess it’s really organic though…:))
The ultimate crapiness of a product is dictated by the company trying to push the product and quality control, all of which are completely within the controls of U.S. companies that try to push these products.
Mattel got into hot water with their toys, in part because they approached some of these foreign countries and said “make this product at this cheap cost and we don’t care about the quality.”
And the reason why previous said the majority of things from Walmart is crap is because that’s their business model is to sell the cheapest crap they can possibly sell to people (arguably the majority of things people shouldn’t really need to buy). Things like plastic $5 container boxes for filing papers and storing stuff. (Just use a fvcking cardboard box for christ sake.)
Also folks that think China is the cheapest place to manufacture stuff. It isn’t anymore….If you follow the latest trends, you’ll notice more and more companies are now moving operations to Vietnam and Eastern Europe (places like Lativia), because simply the cheaper labor cost can now be found in those places. Check out your baby furniture or stuff you find a Pottery Barn for Kids. A good portion of the labels are made in Vietnam and made in Lativia. China’s industry has grown up, and the push is to move into the stuff with the higher profit margins. U.S. companies will simply find a cheaper source of labor elsewhere, as they have been doing and will continue to do.
Again, I think the best thing to do is just to boycott purchases for these U.S. large corporations and buy from a local mom/pop shop or mom/pop supplier if possible. Boycott Walmart and say enough is enough with the crap you’re trying to push. Unfortunately, that might mean a few folks at walmart are probably going to lose their jobs, but it’s probably the right message to send for the purpose of this exercise. Mass mail to your big corporation that that you aint going to buy that cheap foreign made good no longer and you want to spend more on domestically produced things. Every time I stop by the local Ace Hardware store, I always ask the store manager is there a domestic supplier for part X (valves/plumbing made by brasscraft, which is getting squeezed). Usually they don’t stock it because it’s a lot more, but they usually can special order things. Tell your local stores that you want to see more domestic things stocked.
The last time I stepped in walmart was probably about 3-4 months ago, and it was to buy Mobil 1 oil. I hate that store.
