China

[endmill]

Don't forget child labor laws, does China abid by them? How about dealing with a communist county? I don't care how good there quility is it isn't right!!

 

[burnrider]

For those of us who saw Japan's economy skyrocket, Japan could have blocked out China's rise for several decades. Eventually, some of their quality product was brought to the US as car manufacturing. Don't remember their owning huge American debt, but they were a primary supply of consumer goods. They also shopped scrap, timber and raw materials having none as an island nation.

Today China and other nations have taken the jobs, market, even the plant machinery. The last paper plant in our area shut down last year. 200 jobs gone along with all the equipment to the far east. Foreign countries are not to blame. Brazil has a new Ford campus manufacturing everything Ford on one huge tract of land to cut costs, have access to power, etc. ect. Volkswagen is soon to follow.

How do we compete with all this, or do we just become something else?
The UK lost it's manufacturing base, becoming a financial based country. For the U.S. Canada, and Australia, what does that leave us? What do you tell kids looking for a job? About the only thing I can see in their future would be living outside the U.S. for some part of life- in the next 20 yrs.

 

[ScrapMetal]

Don't forget child labor laws, does China abid by them? How about dealing with a communist county? I don't care how good there quility is it isn't right!!

It may not seem right to us in the present day but if you look back a number of years here in the U.S. during the "industrial revolution" we also employed what are now considered "children" in factories, sweat shops, etc. etc. Those jobs actually raised the standard of living for the workers, that's why they took the jobs. If a similar thing is happening in China are we not being a little hypocritical when we criticize their policies? Heck, I remember all kinds of stories from my grandfather (born 1901) about the jobs he worked as a "child". I never did hear him complain about having them though.

-Ron

 

[dickr]

OOPS Thought this thread was about tools, machine tooling & fixtures. Scuse me !!!
dickr

 

[HSS]

You're not alone there. I have a bit of trouble wrapping my mind around that as well. It seems to me that things have to be made very cheaply, incredibly so, in order to be able to tack on the handling/shipping and still sell the product for a fraction of what a domestic product goes for.

On the other hand, they don't have to deal with all our enviromental regs, H.R. regs, health care costs, corporate taxes (ours are about the highest in the world), and liability laws.

-Ron

Or union wages. Oh, and my wife belongs to a union, so I'm not complaining, just saying.....