Fading Quality
China has terrible export quality goods. What's worse, is that China has far, far poorer quality domestic goods. We are being sold some terrible quality over in the East. Besides the obvious issue of food safety, there is also questionable structural integrity in new construction, outright lies rather than misleading advertising and virtually no consumer protection. The last few years has seen a lot of false accusations made about foreign "flawed" products in order to boost local business, since more well heeled Chinese truly prefer to buy Japanese lipstick or German cars. The sad truth is that even the Chinese don't trust their own products and must be compelled to buy them. If prices were the same, I'm very willing to bet that Chinese would buy imports exclusively.
Years, years and years ago Chinese goods were considered fine and valuable, which is basically unthinkable now. Every single thing is now made on the ultra-cheap. The Chinese have lessened their standards to the point that they have products for sale that don't even serve their intended purpose, or, at worse, are completely dangerous. I understand that Chinese cannot afford, for the most part, quality goods, but how is it that "Made in China" goods in America are of substantially higher quality yet the prices can be fairly similar?
From my experience alone I've had spoons that break in half on first use, counterfeit shampoo, pans that transfer metal grit to food, rotten food being served as fresh, plastic bags that instantly tear, a couch that has completely collapsed after 4 months of use, plastic hooks with weak adhesive, an unusually dull "new" knife, plastic water bottles illegally "recycled" using tap water, mattresses with no cushion and heavy springs, a clothes dryer that breaks after using it once, a freezer that randomly shuts off, clothing that bleeds and shrinks once it's washed, fruit that tastes as though it were picked out of the garbage...
I love this country, which is why I see the strong need for change. Of course this is just one of a host of incredibly immense issues in the mainland. The bottom line is that Chinese people want the cheapest of everything, and with no real enforced safety regulations businesses will take as many dodgy shortcuts as possible to get a product to a ridiculously low price. It's a cycle that creates garbage over and over again.
9/26/07
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2 comments:
SOAP BOX TIME!
There's a saying "You get what you pay for!" Simply put...Quality costs more. In America, we have some controls on the expectation of quality-certain things should last and perform well and we have guidelines in place for safety and inspection for products and food ...all that costs money. And our inspections and controls have been slipping in America because of failures in Government budget, rich wanting to increase profit and the syndrome I affectionately call the "Walmart mentality" where people pay less and expect less and throw things out instead of repairing them. Walmart grew on the MADE IN AMERICA platform, then deserted for profit!!!Americans are rationalizing the poor quality as a cost of the price they pay.
There used to be repair shops all over when I was growing up, TV's , stereo, air conditioners, small appliances, now we just throw the cheap shit away and buy new. Creating large trash heaps. Sad and
very damaging to the environment.
What is REALLY overlooked is the blow to the pride of the average worker worldwide, making cheap crap instills NO PRIDE in a job well done and does not allow any sense of craftsmanship. This is harder still in countries where the average worker cannot afford the cheap products they make hour after hour... Workers do crappy jobs making crappy products, consumers buy the crap and when it sucks they just say" Oh, well it was so cheap..."
and we add it to the trash heap...
Things will change as a middle class emerges in China, workers will want for more and the playing field will start to level a bit...American companies and Chinese CEO's will be accused more and more of exploiting the cheap labor by the cheap laborers themselves, and things will have to change...
I read one Chinese manufacturer
saying " if they want cheap goods-this is what they will get..." and as American's still flock to Walmart and Dollar stores they learn to expect less and less...What would solve this is a MORALLY FAIR worldwide minimum wage and rich people would cry as they make less money but more workers would have more pride in their jobs and a sense of accomplishment daily...that people NEED!
...Even better, crown me Queen of the World and quality control and specialized production would be stellar!!!
The motto of my kingdom would be "Just be nice!Just play fair!"
ah the perfect world...my dream!!!!
fascinating, No?
Love yer ma
...aspiring to Queen on a daily basis!
What great discussion! Yes, nothing is fixed anymore. It's settled I will NOT buy a new computer, I will fix my old one. Yes.
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