Chinese Junk ( Attention, Mao-Mart Customers! )

National Review ^ | May 28, 2009 | John Derbyshire

[kellynla]

"You cut a deal with a Chinese manufacturer to import beauty lotions in plastic bottles. You give precise specifications for the product and container. The first shipments are fine. Then customers begin to complain that the plastic of the bottles is too thin. You squeeze a bottle, it collapses. It turns out that your manufacturer has quietly adjusted the molds so that less plastic goes into making each bottle. Neither the importer nor his customers has been told of the change.

The reason for this:

Factories did not see an attention to quality as something that would improve their business prospects, but merely as a barrier to increased profitability. Working to achieve higher levels of quality did not make me a friend of the factory, but a pariah.

In this, as in much else, the Chinese are great testers of limits."

[kellynla]

And just as we are funding the War on Terror on BOTH ENDS every time we fill up at the gas pumps...we borrow money from the Chicoms so that we can continue to buy their products...how dumb are we?

How do you say “SUCKERS” in Chinese?

[KevinDavis]

I would rather buy cheap Chinese junk than expensive union made junk..

[jjm2111]

Great post.

[rhombus]

I would rather buy cheap Chinese junk than expensive union made junk..

I would prefer to continue having the choice to buy either.

[JRios1968]

The California DOT has found this out the hard way. A lot of the iron and steel work for the new San Francisco Bay Bridge is being made in China, and CALTRANS has had one hell of a time monitoring quality of welds for this job.

[GingisK]

I would rather buy cheap Chinese junk than expensive union made junk..

That is precisely why our economy is now it the present condition.

[Blood of Tyrants]

“a love of excuse and pretense, the elevation of appearance over substance, admiration for unprincipled cleverness, shame a much stronger sanction than guilt”

Sounds like liberals.

[rhombus]

I would rather buy cheap Chinese junk than expensive union made junk.

That is precisely why our economy is now it the present condition.

No, not precisely. Unions bear a large responsibility for this as well and we've already seen that Smoot-Hawley type of legislation creates far too much misery to make it feasible. However, blaming the guy who wants to save a buck instead of spending it on union benefits is not the answer either.

[Calpernia]

ping

[Cringing Negativism Network]

“I would rather buy cheap Chinese junk than expensive union made junk..”

-

Translation:

“AMERICA LAST”.

Get a clue.

[MrB]

That was my first thought -

the Chinese are less destructive to our way of life than unions are.

[12Gauge687]

It’s not a matter of ‘Chicoms’ as you state. As long as China has had arbitrary authority, this behavior has been going on. It was like that well before the Communists took over.

The reason other countries with ethnic Chinese have progressed is the development of and adherence to contract law.

Too many Americans show outrage about Chinese products but do very little. I was in a bar three years ago when a fellow stopped by. After a few minutes, he started railing against China. When I bet him that his leather jacket was made in China, he took the bet because his brother bought the jacket and he would never buy anything from China. We examined the jacket together and I found the “Made in China” label. Unfortunately, he left immediately and I never got my Balvenie.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

China is the world’s biggest labor union! Why are “free traders” so blind?

And why in the world is the GOP supporting this foolishness?

GOP free trade campaign slogan:

“You’re all fired. Vote for us”.

[Red in Blue PA]

Great. We can all work for the Communist Chinese making crap.

Think that one through!

[GingisK]

However, blaming the guy who wants to save a buck instead of spending it on union benefits is not the answer either.

Our manufacturing base left this country because of WalMart and that model. I used to work for a company that supplied goods to WalMart. They would dictate our selling price until it became impractical to make the product. All the while, WalMart's margin for the product in their store was 1000%. I can assure you, "buy cheap" killed us.

[PGR88]

How do you say “SUCKERS” in Chinese? "Sha Gwa" 傻瓜 (literally Stupid-Melon) Means fool, imbecile, and in context, someone easily cheated.

[henkster]

I think I will go get Midler’s book. But the short blurb above does not surprise me. Read Tuchman’s “Stilwell and the American Experience in China.” What Midler deals with in international business today is exactly what Stilwell went through in dealing with the Kuomintang. This short blurb does not mention something Tuchman spent some time discussing: The Chinese are racists. They have always detested “the foreigner.” Chaing Kai Shek insisted on opening all the windows after meeting with Stilwell to “rid the room of the odor of the foreigner.” One of their favorite phrases is “we can always fool the foreigner.” I doubt any of this has changed.

Face it; the Chinese detest us, and when dealing with foreign companies they are double-dealing lying sacks of poop unwilling to honor any contract they sign. Anyone who does business with them is a fool, begging to get ripped off.

[kellynla]

“China is the world’s biggest labor union!”

BINGO!
We have a winner!

[Calpernia]

>>>During the Clinton administration, when Most Favored Nation status for China was debated in Congress, there was a chance for the United States to hold out for political and economic reform in China, but the opportunity was lost.<<<<

And why in the world is the GOP supporting this foolishness?

Pinging John McCain, Pinging John McCain, Question for you at post 14.