"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
m...

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
What a load of utter nonsense. The reason more production is going to
China is
that more and more manufacturers are trying to get their products made at
the
lowest possible cost without regard for quality. The cost of doing
business in
China is very low for at least two reasons: 1) very low cost of labor -
and
for a good reason, I might add - and 2) little or no environmental
regulation.

There really is no reason
in the world that a nail gun should cost $300, other than to pay a high
salary.

More nonsense. It pays for *skilled* labor. It pays for high-quality
steel.
(How many times have you twisted the head off of a Chinese-made screw?)
It
pays for a clean environment. (Of course it costs less to manufacture
products
in a country that allows the factory to just dump whatever crap they want
to,
wherever they want to, than in a country that requires factories to keep
their
surroundings clean.)

I agree about the lower cost due to lack of regulation and cheaper labor.
While a lot of stuff coming from China is crap, they are also very capable
of turning out high quality goods also. We use some products made in
Korea and China that are superior than what we can get in the US. The
days of making generalizations that China = crap are pretty much gone.

Right now a cargo plane from Korea is bringing in some tooling we ordered.
(better quality at half the price in a third the time) One of the US
companies we requested information from has not even provided a quote yet.
One day they will be out of business and blame others for their plight.
Among my travels I have visited every province in China, and speak Mandarin
and Cantonese. I had started to think I was the only one who recognized
that China produces low end AND high end products. The product specs define
what components are used, and a skilled worker in a Chinese production
facility is almost certainly a more skilled and experienced worker than the
counterpart in a U.S. plant, but probably also better educated, as well.
You only have to go into some of the U.S. factories -- especially in the SE
U.S., to realize how little education or work ethic "our" workers have.

Side thoughts -- (a) if Chinese tools are so bad, how is it that Chinese
wood products -- especially wood carved products -- or of such exceptional
quality?

(b) Perhaps it's a lack of government (e.g., OSHA) interference. The
Heritage Foundation a few years ago found that in terms of economic freedom,
a Chinese special administration area placed first (MOST free!) in the
world. Singapore was second. The U.S. placed fourth.

(c) Did you know that the Chinese refrigerator producer, Haier -- a
world-class producer -- has a plant in South Carolina so that it can better
handle the U.S. market? Are Haier refrigerators now a U.S. or a Chinese
product?

(d) The problem is multi-faceted -- an under-educated U.S. workforce which
lacks a world-class work ethic, an education system that produces these
unmotivated and unready graduates, a standard of management that does not
motivate or make up the shortfalls of the educational system, and a
political system that can't (or won't) address these problems.

Regards --