No, I don’t mean like Apple phones, which are excellent, but more the exception than the rule. I mean things like tools or machinery or machinery parts. Absolute crap. Then there’s every conceivable little plastic widget a person can imagine: all future trash. But I certainly agree that it’s hard to compete. We used to compete in quality.
When the history of 2014 is written, it will take note of a large fact that has received little attention: 2014 was the last year in which the United States could claim to be the world’s largest economic power. China enters 2015 in the top position, where it will likely remain for a very long time, if not forever. In doing so, it returns to the position it held through most of human history.