Ray From Cleveland
Diamond Member
- Aug 16, 2015
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China produces what importers want. If importers want cheap junk, China will produce. If they want quality, China will produce. The problem is not China it is American consumers who will buy the cheapest crap on Amazon or other retailers hoping they get quality merchandise.The Chinese make cheap crap but they also make some of the highest quality products in the world. Your beliefs reflects a long-standing view that products made in China are junk. This goes back to the time when China produces only the cheapest low end products. That is certainly not the case today. You can buy high quality Chinese products but you pay far more than the cheapest versions of the product. Last year I bought 4 braided 6 foot USB cables manufactured in China from Amazon and I paid $4.65. A year later one has failed. I could have bought quality cables made in China but I would have paid almost $4 each.I don't understand what you expect China to do. China hasn’t been pushing down its currency to benefit Chinese exporters in years. Chinese companies do steal intellectual properties, however China has announced stringent regulations and laws to deal with IP theft. Of the 50 nations with most trade with the US, China ranks better than most these countries in protecting IP.Trump is addressing our trade deficit. Other countries are (and have always) been tariffing our exports. Trump is only asking to make it more even.
In other words lets say you and I were alive many years ago, and we were both farmers. I would trade you a bushel of tomatoes for your bushel of grapefruits. As time went on, you kept getting away with me providing two bushels of tomatoes for your bushel of grapefruits, then three, then four.
China has been the worst offender in all this. They owe their economy to the American consumer, yet they've been screwing us all these years.
I don't like tariffs either, but what other option do we have to straighten this problem out but tariffs? After all, all our trading partners knew America was scared to death to address this problem. It won't be solved overnight either.
So let it play out for a year or two after the dust settles. If it doesn't work, then future leaders will have something to study so we don't do it again, or perhaps find a better way of doing it.
I suggest that the real problem behind the trade imbalance is not the lack of IP protection nor currency manipulation but the fact that Chinese companies are producing higher quality goods at lower prices.
Well then I don't know what kind of Chinese shit you are buying. China makes cheap crap. The reason it sells in America is because in most cases, we no longer care about quality, we care about prices.
A few of our customers went to China to buy their products or have their products shipped there for processing. Many quit using China because the workmanship was substandard. They kept having to ship all the rejects back, and have it shipped back to them after re-processing. It got quite cumbersome.
In the end, their customers became angry or they lost the customer altogether because of the waiting time. Even though a few bucks more, they actually did better dealing with American companies.
From personal experience, I would say China has gotten better. I used to hate picking up overseas freight because it was damaged most of the time. They would stack small crates on top of each other in a container. These crates weighed about 1,500 each. So the bottom crate always had 7,000 lbs on top of it, and it would crush on the way here. They simply didn't care.
Now when I pickup overseas freight, it's usually in good condition.
Today, the most reliable cell phones on the market according to consumer reports is the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. The Iphone is manufactured in China and over 75% of parts of the Samsung Galaxy is manufactured in China. If you have an operation today, you will likely find that much of surgical equipment is made in china. Where 30 years ago Chinese optics meant dime store binoculars and prizes in cereal boxes, today the Chinese are producing optics that come very close to best in world at a far lower price.
The chances are the most critical components in your computer, the CPU, Memory, or motherboard is manufactured in China. Today 90% of the motherboards in computers sold in the US are manufactured in China.
When you buy Chinese products you can buy cheap junk or more expensive quality products. It's the customers choice.
Believe it or not, the Chinese buy a lot of iPhones. But not all the parts are made in China. Most of their work is assembly. The design and technology comes out of California, and the actual parts of the phone come from all over the world.
Manufacturers like to produce close to their customers to minimize transportation costs. So it makes sense to have those phones assembled there. I've been an iPhone user for about four years now, and I never had a major problem with the phones. I have an iPhone X now.
Designed in California, made in China: how the iPhone skews U.S. trade deficit - Reuters
While technology may be on a different level, China still produces the cheapest crap when it comes to household goods which is probably the heart of the deficit. We used to deliver to a company that made cat scan kinds of machines. They sold all over the world. We delivered wood there because our customer was one of the only places that had bark-free wood. The crates for the machines had to be bark-free to pass customs overseas. Bark is where insects can hide. Eventually, China found out how to produce bark-free wood, and our customer lost that account.
That is absolutely correct. People blame big business, union deterioration, Walmart. But the truth is it all boils down to the American consumer.
I'll never forget the time I went to our first discount store in the area. This was back in the early 80's when I was very young. What you did is fill out a slip, pay the cashier, and then wait behind a counter where products were coming down on a conveyer belt from the second floor to fill the orders.
Next to me was an elderly gentleman. He kept looking around and shaking his head almost like in disgust. He noticed me staring and felt compelled to explain.
He said "I'm from Europe. I always come here to visit my children and grandchildren at Christmas. I love America. My children are American, my grandchildren are American, but what I see going on here is very disturbing. You see, in Europe, if you have a baseball, it's the best baseball money can buy. You are proud of your baseball, you take care of your baseball. What is happening in America now is nobody cares if it's the best baseball, they care if they have a lot cheap baseballs. If this keeps up, this will be a huge problem in your country."
At the time, I just figured it was some old guy not knowing what he was talking about. As time went on and I seen changes, that old man was a genius.