something made in china is not in and of itself junk, it is just a less expensive place to make a product so you thank whoever had their product manufactured in china because they just saved you a bunch of money. china has gotten a bad rap in the past because they have made some cheap stuff, but i look at a lot of electronics and i see many (all different qualities) made in china and the ones you suspect are junk before you find where they are made are usually the ones that are junk, and the ones that you suspect are nice are still nice eventhough they are made in china.

My new Tektronix digital o'scope was made in China, as was my Belkin computer UPS. Both products seem to be high quality.

Companies are moving production to China and other countries to save $$. The labor costs are a lot less and they don't have to put up with pesky envoronental and labor regulations to the extent that they would have in the U.S.

Strange, though, as companies "export" jobs to overseas, they still want to keep their U.S. customer. And I don't see any upper management exporting their own jobs overseas.

Paul

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the 1derful1

I wonder at what point it will be when we as a nation have exported enough jobs so as to cause us not to be able to afford anything, because we are not working!

I think the executives of some compainies don't grasp this obvious fact. It matters little how affordable products made in China are, if nobody here had a job to be able to afford them. My prediction is that in 50 years, China will be outsourcing it's manufacturing to the USA because we will all be unemployed and willing to work for peanuts in order to eat.

Mark my word - we will become a 3rd world country if this continues.

I suppose a North American manufacturer has at least two choices, which is the issue: make-it-at-home-for-more or make-it-for-less-elsewhere. The majority of consumers will choose to buy-it-for-less (unless there are obvious and great quality issues) and the majority of people working will seek to earn more. If I were selling a model 54004 for $899, made-for-less-elsewhere, or a model 54005 for $1099, essentially the same as the 54004 but made in North America, which would you buy? If you were a builder, would you like to build the 54005, or the 54004 and earn half as much as building the 54005? If I were selling, and I was willing to put up with the hassle, I suppose I could sell both models and let each consumer make up their own mind.

To many people it's a moot point - their jobs were outsorced overseas, and they can't afford to buy much of anything. It's a slippery slope of a problem that I am not sure there is a solution to.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited January 14, 2004).]

A decade, ago most people didn’t know what “dot com” jobs are. Little before that, a position called “IT personnel” was not understood as it is today. Past two decades, Bill Gates’ effort has made many people to have new type of jobs and many became able to retire early in this country. If you go back further, there were Wright brothers and Thomas Edison’s effort that gave a tremendous boost to the nation. What about Andrew Carnegie’s steel industry. New jobs are being created left and right in North America and this is nothing new. Perhaps free enterprise is a good system. In 50 years, we may be doing the type of work that other countries have not yet grasped. One possible example may be harnessing the energy source from our solar system which could create a whole new line of jobs.

Speaking of our solar system, wonder if any parts in that Mars Rover was made in China…

"...wonder if any parts in that Mars Rover was made in China..." : Spiker

No, China was too expensive, Nasa got some of the parts from Mars and had them shipped to the U.S. and then the completed vehicle was then sent to Mars.

Seriouly, so many types of consumer equipment has been made overseas for so long that, unless a customer is willing to spend MUCH more for high-end type of equipment, there is not the option of buying something that was "made in the USA". Even the US military gets some of their uniforms from China.

I just learned that Levi no longer makes any of their jeans in the USA: their last US factories closed late last year. I am in a somewhat difficult situation because I have always bought Levis BECAUSE they were made in the US (and of course they are of good quality and they look fabulous on my lean, taught, muscular bod. (wink-wink, ha-ha) Now, I'll have to look for some other (probably niche type) blue jeans mfr. in the US.

I would have liked Levi to have kept one factory open in the US, even if they had to charge more (maybe even significantly more) for these products.

I realize that the vast majority of US comsumers want lower prices, and it doesn't matter that OTHER people will lose their jobs. Of course, things seem different when THEIR job is sent overseas. Maybe we should outsource more CEO and politician jobs overseas. The people making the decisions to outsource are not at risk of losing their jobs. And Americans will consider a McJob a high-end career.

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the 1derful1

North America, as in Mexico...

In much the same way western countries set up fine high tech plants in China today. It is all about maintaining the standard, the location is academic.
Better strip your pure American cars apart, and find all parts made in China, or heaven forbid, even France...!