RonB wrote:
On Dec 16, 1:39 pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
This post is aimed at all you sinophobes out there.

I'm getting a little tired of hearing the complaint "___ is a piece of
****: what do you expect? It's made in China!".

Apparently some folks are having trouble with the concept of the
current global economy; and the history of our own manufacturing
problems.

Today, there are relatively few items truly manufactured in USA,
China, Japan, Mexico or anywhere. To slam a product just because it
is made in Taiwan or China doesn't make sense anymore especially when
you look at metal and woodworking tools sold by companies like
Grizzly. Many of the parts and castings in "old American" products
like Powermatic now come from the east. Much of the airframe and
wiring in venerable aircraft like the Beech Bonanza and King Air are
manufactured in Mexico and assembled in Kansas; avionics guts come
from the east. Most electronic components used in fine old American
TVs and audio components come from China, Japan or Korea.

On the other side, a complete lapse in U.S. quality control, during
the 1970's, allowed the Japanese to to run completely over the US auto
industry. But now look at Toyota. They are building cars, to high
standards, at several U.S. facilities. This is probably good because
the high cost of maintaining union demands has all but shut down
Detroit and other auto manufacturing centers. This is doubly tragic
because Detroit was finally starting to build some quality cars again.

The world is changing and made in ("anywhere") is a thing of the
past. We have seen a strong trend toward survival of the fittest
during the past year and those who can produce quality at a reasonable
cost will probably win (or be taken over by government).

My job is to take care of my business by buying the best I can with
what I have. If I can buy the same quality and function for 20-40%
less the decision is easy.

RonB


I think most folks are oblivious when it comes to the issues of cheap
vs. economical.....there is a huge difference.

I worked a few years in case management of Workers Compensation claims.
One employer had a dedicated department with about 16 nurses doing the
same work. I was the only one with experience in WC. One nurse denied
a $2 claim for a laxative for a client who needed pain medication for
serious burns. Narcotic pain meds cause constipation. My supv. was
constantly asking for paperwork after each client visit with physicians;
it was her first priority. Physicians don't sit down and type a report
after examining a patient - they dictate the report, it goes to a
transcription service, and gets published when it is ready. I didn't
bug my physicians for paperwork or anything else; in return, they picked
up the phone and called ME when there was an issue of interest,
including phony claims. I never chose a physician or provider based on
price....I regularly paid taxi fare to send a client out of town if the
appropriate specialist was not nearby. I saved $100K in one year (20%)
when I stopped using a particular "company doctor".

Unfortunately, the price of everything made in the US includes paying
for healthcare and the tremendous waste in the system - just fighting
over work-relatedness costs billions. If we had a one-payer system
(like Medicare), with built in serious audits, we could make cheaper
good stuff. Ain't gonna happen any time soon.