fly-boy wrote:
Thousands of American companies have production off shore in China and other third world countries- And I don't worry at all about quality. I would have no problem buying Michelin, Toyo, BFG... tires made in China because I would know the quality was there.
Not to turn this into an anti-China thread, but quality can be an issue in that exact situation. Reese began moving more and more of their production offshore. I remember several threads showing up here and other forums over the years with inexplicable failures of components like shanks. Someone would always ask, "Does the box say it was made in China?" The answer seemed like it was always yes. Their lack of oversight and regulation allows for the production of quite inferior materials. Due to the lack of regulations, metals are often created with high levels of impurities which ends up making a soft/inferior product. Reese had pretty good quality before when everything was made in America. Sometimes when a company moves production offshore, quality gets left behind.
My avoidance of Chinese made products goes quite further than just quality. When you buy a Chinese made product, some of that money goes to their government. There's a whole host of ethical issue within the country that the government is directly involved in. The Three Gorges Dam is just one example. There's also a cost to having cheaply manufactured products and we don't see the effects here in this country. Employers cut corners whenever they can to save on cost even if it endangers the workers. Chinese factory workers are 3 times more likely to be killed on the job that US workers. They are also only paid around $1.36 per hour. Yes the cost of living (more like standard of living) in China is much lower, but it's not that low. Sometimes workers are required to live in some pretty sad conditions and abused, all to benefit the factory. The country has deceptive and unfair trade practices like currency manipulation and turning a blind eye to the counterfeit market. The list goes on and on and on.
Our current unemployment rate is 6.2% and Canada has a 7% rate. That's a lot of people who aren't contributing to the tax base. That's money that should be going to schools, roads, and other governmental responsibilities. Moving more production offshore will only increase that number. We talk a lot about oil independence, but we really should be looking at manufacturing independence. That would have a huge impact in this country. Our love affair with offshore production may have peaked as more and more companies move production back to the US. Big names like Dow, GE, and Caterpillar are moving their production back to the US. Bridgestone Golf moved all of their production of golf balls back to the US this year. This is all a big plus for our country.
