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Look

The Chinese bashing comes from the frustration that a Chinese product CAN BE (although not always) better than an American companies product for 1/2 or less the price. They can make the same thing for far lest money - less labour, no environmental or human rights or health care for employees etc to worry about. And most of the suppliers are near by as well so shipping is dirt cheap.

So as a defense mechanism people will point the disastrous products that come out of China and paint them all with the same brush stroke - the entire country makes bad products because they found 8 companies that made bad products out of 8 million.

And no one then looks at the history of the US where gee class action lawsuits against US companies are abound from health and environmental disaster caused by companies who skirt such things for profits to companies taking out insurance policies on employees so if they die young the company can make even more profit. Ahem Walmart.

American companies like Krell has had recalls on amps that could catch fire - ARC sounds okay when they actually work which is rarely ever. Theta Data bought $399 Philips (Japan) Laser disc players put the ENTIRE machine, casework and all, added a $50 SPDIF connector and charged $5,000 and found some tone deaf hack reviewer to give it class A best CD player in the world ranking kind of thing. Everyone wins I suppose - reviewer has his own publication called TAS. Philips does 99.99999% of the design work and sells it for $399 while TD adds a connector and charged more than 10 times the amount! And Ford alone you could go on about their history from supplying Nazis in WW2 to deciding that lawsuits were cheaper than lives.


Now the Chinese business has huge advantages - no environmental issues to pay for or to be taxed. No unions or health care concerns or for that matter any safety standards - die on the factory floor and they broom you to the curb and replace you an hour later if that. 200 million Chinese workers live on less than $1.25 A DAY not an hour. 80 million live on less than $1.00 a day.

That is a staggering workforce to compete with. You can't hardly blame many Western companies building in China. Having lived in China and Hong Kong and Korea though the concern is that the middle class will take the beating. Companies want money - it is the sole engine. Which is fine I suppose - survival of the fittest and pick yourself up by the bootstraps and everything. But spend 6 months in Shanghai or Wenzhou and putting your money aside do you take the Honda Civic hatchback and a modest watch and stereo with fresh air - or do you decide to live in a toilet bowl after 6 sumo wrestlers finished with it without flushing and drive 2 Mercs, own 8 Rolex watches and have a $500k stereo. Hey you can always stay inside and buy an air purifier. Breathing and drinking fresh water is overrated anyway right.

The society has to decide what ultimately holds value. The highest income versus the highest quality of life. A town of 100 people where 1 person has all the money and the 99 are scavenging for scraps means the town will look like a big dump which is what many of the Chinese cities are. I fear places like Wenzhou and Shanghai will be viewed as Capitalist juggernaut examples of what SHOULD become of all cities. Uggh.

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