Posted by cawson@onetel.com (A) on June 27, 2017 at 12:35:26

In Reply to: RE: Made in China.. For some folks this matters.. Not quality, trade wars.. posted by 3+4=5 on June 27, 2017 at 10:54:28

Everyone can choose whether to buy or not to buy anything. Imbalance of trade should not be a reason though. For years the Japanese were building excellent quality stuff for less that it would cost to build in UK or US, but I guess you have a camera - where was it built? Not in the US I'd bet a penny to a pound! They were simply more efficient than the Germans and other camera builders.

The Chinese are filling the gap left by the Japanese who are making their money in more sophisticated ways. They are doing things "by number" that can be done with relatively little skill. The designs of much of what the Chinese build is American or British, but it's cheaper to assemble in China. Provided the quality control is there - and it will be with British or US companies controlling Chinese production, what's not to like?

If you could get the workers in US or UK to do these assembly jobs for a relatively low wage, these companies would remain in their home countries. In UK, we just can't get our own citizens to do these jobs, or picking vegetables, etc, so we farm out these jobs to Chinese-manned factories, or we get immigrants from Eastern Europe (and I guess you get Mexicans or Puerto Ricans) to pick our vegetables.

If you really want to pay 50% more for your camera or hi-fi just to have them assembled in the US, you probably still can. If you were the owner of a US company offering hi-fi to the world market, would you assemble in a US factory? Probably not if you wanted to sell your stuff at a sensible price or in sensible numbers. Sadly, a fact of modern global life.

Quad production may by in China now, but they are still based in Huntingdon, England where their design team, service centre and marketing teams are based.

I have no qualms whatsoever in trusting Quad to ensure that I get a quality product - wherever they choose to build it. The price of their top-of-the-range 2912 electrostatic is highly competitive at £8000 including 20% tax. It's refreshing (to normally ripped-off UK buyers) that the price of the 2912 in US is €14000!