Spehro Pefhany wrote:

On Fri, 08 Apr 2005 11:29:32 GMT, the renowned "Pete C."
wrote:

DeepDiver wrote:

"DeepDiver" wrote in message
...
"Pete C." wrote in message
...

The quality of the Chinese / Taiwanese stuff is definitely improving.

Do realize that their is a big difference (in quality and price) between
products made in Taiwan and products made in China. They are not directly
comparable.

Oops... "their" should have been "there".
I just hate that!

I didn't say there wasn't. The key point is that both have been steadily
improving.

20 Years ago much of the stuff from Taiwan was crap, now much of it is
quite good. 20 Years ago damn near all the stuff out of China was crap,
now there is a growing amount that is pretty decent.

Since progress seems more exponential than linear, in another 10 years I
expect that Taiwan will be producing stuff on par with the best "big
name" countries and China will be up to where Taiwan is today.

After the pending re-unification it may not matter much...

I think it's pretty unlikely that we will see any change in the status
quo anytime soon. I expect there will be plenty of posturing, but
neither side has the will to make a move given the inevitable
consequences.

Folks in Taiwan are fairly happy with the current situation so they
aren't likely to change much. China will posture up a storm, but they
know it would be disastrous to invade Taiwan.

Even if the US did not assist Taiwan militarily, a US embargo on China
trade would pretty well implode their economy.


Since the quality target is somewhat static eventually it won't matter
which country an item was produced in, there will be comparable quality
available from all.

Pete C.

As long as buyers chase the cheapest carp (sic) around the world,
there will always be a place for stuff that's a bit cheaper and a bit
lousier. Bangaladesh, Nigeria etc. However, rising commodity prices
might work against that. The old communist economies were impressive
in that they could take perfectly good raw materials and degrade them
into shoddy manufactured goods that were unsalable anywhere an
alternative existed.

True, but the point is that the differences in quality are steadily
shrinking. In the not too distant future you may well be able to buy an
item made in China or Taiwan or wherever that is cheaper than one made
in the US or Germany or wherever, but the quality will be comparable.

Pete C.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
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