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Are you afraid of products from China?

monsoon

By monsoon
in The Coffee House

Are you afraid of products coming from China?  

17 members have voted

  1. 1. If so, do you plan to change buying habits?

    • Yes
      10
    • No
      7

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Well, sure they want to make a profit, but you have to trust your suppliers to some extent. As soon as they start supplying you bad product, you either terminate them, or make sure they recify the problem.

When I was spec-ing parts in private industry, I took low bid if the product was of comparable quality or if the higherquality was in areas where it wasn't needed. I also changed vendors when the products started sliding. It isn't so much greed as it is business 101.......

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Captain Worley Burg

Captain Worley

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Sure, everyone looks out for their own interests. I've had to explain why a part went bad and what I was going to do to fix it.

According to a web site I found, they sell 1.5 million barbies per week. At 80 cents a pop, that's a huge savings for Mattel. I'd be hard pressed to explain not choosing a Chinese source to my boss at that savings.

As for the lead paint in toys, that was a failure of oversight from Mattel on down to the guy mixing paint. Mattel at least seems to be tryng to rectify the situation in the short run. I would like to know what they are planning on doing long term.

Does anyone in the Chinese government have control over issues like this? I'm asking because I really don't know.

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sleepy Burg

sleepy

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This isn't China's fault. It's the fault of American corporate greed. If they really wanted good quality control on their products, they could demand it, but it would cost them a few extra cents in profit. Instead they turn a blind eye while these toys are contracted out to basically slave shops with horrible working conditions. This is why a Barbee doll cost 30 cents to make in China which Mattel sells for $20 in the USA. Profits, all profits.
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sleepy Burg

sleepy

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Nope.

Mainland China is a communist dictatorship. Taiwan is a democratic free state. The PRC does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country but the rest of the world does. Taiwan has been an ally of the USA since the communists took over mainland China in the late 1940s. When that happened the nationalists excaped to Taiwan and continue to operate their government there where it exists today.

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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Yeah I think I agree with some of the others. I don't think I'd try to ban all Chinese products. For me it boils down to you get what you pay for. To clarify all the aspects of China. mainland China is a communist state 'experimenting' with certain aspects of a free market. But that doesn't make it a democracy. I think China realizes the Soviet model is a failure and it looking for others routes. Taiwan is an island off the mainland. The Chinese Civil War started in the 1920's. By 1949 the Communists had control and the Nationalist troops fled to Taiwan. China has been rather determined to get this 'wayward province' back under it's rule. Hong Kong and Macau were foreign territories. Hong Kong, British; Macau, Portuguese. Both went back to mainland China's control in the late 1990's. Both are 'special administrative regions'. Both basically have 50 years of being autonomous. Although if push came to shove mainland China could pretty much do what it really wanted with both.

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Charlotteman Burg

Charlotteman

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I can't help but to see a similar trend in the China junk controversy and the "off shoring" of jobs to India.

They both sound like such a great idea at first.........lay off American workers in call centers who make $12 an hour, and open facililities in India where you can get labor at a fraction of the cost. More profits!!!!

And of course what greedy capitalist wouldn't jump at the chance to open a factory in China and get his product for 30c an hour wages?

But it's all coming back to haunt us. Off shoring to India is being discredited more and more. Businesses are bringing some of those jobs back to the States. And now, products in China are becoming exposed for the true junk they are.

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FromCityToRural Hamlet

FromCityToRural

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I'm not really too interested in the quality issue. Buyers have always had to be aware of the quality of what they buy, so that's nothing new.

What I am worried about is the massive debt we owe them, its impact on our economy, as well as the fact that they have been quietly buying up our debt from various other countries. If they called even a fraction of the debt they hold, we would be in some serious trouble. I for one am entirely in favor of paying more if it means we quit owing them more and more money, and if it so happens that quality improves, then that's a real bonus.

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Gusterfell Burg

Gusterfell

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What I am worried about is the massive debt we owe them, its impact on our economy, as well as the fact that they have been quietly buying up our debt from various other countries. If they called even a fraction of the debt they hold, we would be in some serious trouble. I for one am entirely in favor of paying more if it means we quit owing them more and more money, and if it so happens that quality improves, then that's a real bonus.
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Charlotteman Burg

Charlotteman

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I agree Gusterfell.

Don't think the last Chinese junk controversy was the last one. There will be plenty more on the horizon, as Chinese products inundate our country.

And as the issues of low quality start surfacing more and more, "Made in America" will become a real plus. Those jobs will be returning to the States. Just like the call-center off shoring jobs to India are slowly returning.

The best workers in the world are in the States. best productivity hands down. "Made in America" will always be preferable.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Let's put the correct words on this, it's American Junk that is made in China. The Chinese are quite happy to produce quality goods at whatever specifications you give them, if you are willing to pay for it. But China really doesn't care if someone wants to manufacture shoddy goods as long as it is for export. There are 1.2 billion people in that country many of which who will take whatever work they can get no matter how bad. Corporate America is profiteering off this in the same way they profiteered in the USA before there were labor and product safety laws to prevent dangerous goods from being produced.

American high schoolers were once required to read some of Upton Sinclair's novels in school but I guess they no longer do because the corporations don't like it. The Jungle, which described the meat packing industry in Chicago in the early 1900s, would no doubt describe present day China.

The blame here is on Wall Street and in Washington DC, and not in Bejing.

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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

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Let's put the correct words on this, it's American Junk that is made in China. The Chinese are quite happy to produce quality goods at whatever specifications you give them, if you are willing to pay for it. But China really doesn't care if someone wants to manufacture shoddy goods as long as it is for export.
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