I'm tired of poor quality stuff made overseas failing on me all the time...

[frogger]

I'll try to read that thread sometime today. In the mean time, how many US workers (vs. foreign workers) were employed by the production of the IPod? What multiplier is appropriate for the additional American jobs that are supportable by those US workers as they save/spend their wages on other products and services? (I hope my sentence was intelliglible, as I'm rushing to a meeting).

Random thought - Service-based economy is unsustainable. We need a strong manufacturing sector to keep our economy strong. IMO.

[campbellcj]

Originally Posted by 911pcars

"Why do you have to travel halfway around the world to adopt a child?"

Same reason - cost and/or the hassle, length of time required for adoption procedures in the US. Chinese girls are plentiful (see aforementioned posts), thus the sale prices. The same applies to other countries as well but not w/o controversey about the practice.

Sherwood

There are also serious legal shortcomings with the adoption system in the US.

[rnln]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

I once got an unpleasant letter from a person of Chinese heritage that didn't like it that I told people not to by tools "Made in China" in my 101 Porsche book. He went on to talk about how the Chinese built the great wall and a whol bunch of other great things.

Big Whoop. Tools made in China still suck.

-Wayne

P.S. There is an exception to the rule. I do have some Chinese-made sockets that have such thin socket walls, that they can often fit in tight spots where SnapOn or Craftsman would have problems. These often break after one or two uses, but when you can't fit anything in there but these cheapo tools, it really does save the day.

This makes me remember about the fight (friendly fight) among a bunch of friend when we talked about the old corvette. One of us mentioned about how bad the old corvette handles, most agree. One, who own a 79 corvette, fought "american can make a giant machines which can fly up in the sky and carry hundreds of people across the world. American can even make machines which can fly to another planet. Of course, american cars can handle very well"

[techweenie]

Here's what I find ironic about this thread -- perhaps because I'm older than most of the posters here -- in the 50s and 60s you could have substituted "Japan" in most of these 'quality' comments, and that would have been the national dialog. Detroit stuck to that opinion about 2 decades too long, and by that time, their lunch was eaten.

The Chinese make subassemblies for Boeing and other aerospace manufacturers and will continue to progress in quality output where it is rewarded.

The war on Chinese-made products reminds me of the 'war on drugs' and the 'war on porn,' People will act in their own short-term interest, ignoring the long term consequences.

[Speedo959]

Originally Posted by jluetjen

The Chinese people and the Chinese culture are every bit as capable of succeeding as the US. You need to look no further then the success of Chinese immigrants to the US to appreciate the potential abilities of China. It's not what country you or your ancestors came from that matters -- it's how effectively you use the resources available to you that matters.

I would agree on the success of the Chinese immigrants. I was good friends with a kid from China since grade school, he could barely speak English. Very, very motivated and moved to the top of everything he did. He was always talking about his future, which at the time I thought was weird. I showed him my score on a math test once and he freaked!

I remember years ago at the family's restaurant his "idea". He's now a multi-millionaire, the founder of Mainland surf-ware.

Chinese tools still suck.