Posted on 08/21/2007 5:31:03 AM PDT by shortstop
I'm not saying Chinese products are crap.
I'm saying they are dangerous crap.
I'm saying that you can only have trade with people who have integrity, and people who poison kids and animals don't have integrity.
And, unless I'm misunderstanding all this, we had thousands of American pets killed by Chinese crap products. We've had almost 20 million American toys recalled because they were made by Chinese crap manufacturers.
We've had poison Chinese crap toothpaste – with a lethal anti-freeze ingredient included – sold to Americans and other people around the world. Just yesterday, consumer advocates in New Zealand warned that formaldehyde levels in crap clothes made in China was as much as 900 times the safe level. Over the weekend, it was reported that two New Zealand children were burned up when their flame-retardant Chinese crap pajamas burst into flame.
On Friday, the Bloomberg News Service said that Chinese counterfeiters had flooded some 700 American pharmacies with fake Johnson & Johnson diabetic test strips. These strips, essential to help diabetics regulate their blood sugar, were worthless paper. There is no estimate of how many Americans were endangered, harmed or killed by the counterfeits from a Chinese crap manufacturer.
It is an amazing string of coincidences. Time after time Chinese crap companies make adulterated products that dishonestly save them money and immorally endanger American lives. That's all just a run of bad luck, or it's evidence of just what they think of us and just how different our cultures are.
We value human life, they don't.
And it seems that the Chinese are intent on killing the goose that laid the golden egg – literally.
As our nation flushes its prosperity and independence down the toilet by abandoning manufacturing to slave-labor wages in China, the Chinese don't even have the good graces to give us quality products. They don't even have the humanity and decency to meet the terms of the contracts they sign and the safety standards they agree to.
And so we've gotten this string of recalls and warnings.
Americans will have to shell out more taxes to hire more inspectors and impose more regulations because the Chinese can't be trusted. In the name of neighborliness and political correctness we've got to pretend all is well with the Chinese and then search everything they send us with a fine-tooth comb in hopes of finding their latest attempt to defraud and deceive.
Well screw that.
This isn't a matter to be settled at the border, this is something to handle at the cash register.
In the words of the ancient Romans -- “caveat emptor.” That means, “Don't buy anything from China.”
And that's what Americans ought to do.
Individuals and families ought to put some value on their safety and their patriotism. “Country of origin” ought to start meaning something. Buy American when you can, from our friends when you must, from our enemies never.
And China is our enemy.
By any understanding of the word, the posture of the Chinese government and industrial establishment is antagonistic to the people, prosperity, government and industry of the United States. This long run of recalls is an insight into the Chinese world view and their fundamental disregard for our country and people. What might in smaller proportion be explained by sloppiness or incompetence can only be accounted for by willful disregard and deception. They're not idiots, they're crooks – crooks who are willing to endanger countless innocent people around the globe to put more filthy lucre in their pockets.
The Chinese government is, of course, seeing the world's recoil from its tainted products as some sort of trade-war stunt, or some racist revulsion to their national identity. They claim they are the victims in all this. They claim that other governments are trying to damage their profit streams.
Well, it wasn't some foreign government that put a poisonous chemical in rice flower in order to cheat the tests for protein content. It wasn't some foreign government that put poisonous anti-freeze in toothpaste in order to avoid paying for a wholesome and costlier ingredient. It wasn't some foreign government that systematically used poisonous lead paint on toys destined for millions of children across the world. It wasn't some foreign government that made counterfeit test strips and snuck them into the supply stream.
It was China.
And we can do something about that.
We can turn over the products we buy and find out where they're from. We can make the resolution to do all we can to avoid Chinese products.
Granted, Chinese hegemony of world commerce leaves their country as the only source for some useful products. In some situations, you are forced to buy the Chinese product or go without.
But there are still some situations in which non-Chinese products are available. Whenever possible, buy them. Whenever possible, avoid buying things made in China. Whenever possible, avoid putting money in the pocket of a country whose trade practices have been ruinous to your own homeland.
Buy American when you can, buy from our friends when you must, buy from our enemies never.
And right now, China is our enemy.
And so are its products.
Neither you nor your country can afford your continued support of made-in-China crap.
Precendent, please? Keep in mind that the American ideals of social and personal freedoms have little currency in eastern cultures.
I just traded in a worn out rose clipper (Cratfsman) at Sears and got a Made in CHina pair in return, chews up the branches rather than cuts them off, piece of crap.
I just spent several hundred dollars at Sears, buying Craftsman brand tools for my shop. Screwdrivers, wrenches, tap& die, files, pliers, dykes, balldrivers, etc. All Made in USA.
No rose clippers, though.
They have the Craftsman label on it.
Colour me disgusted. Yet another place I have to read the fine print ...
Fiskars sells a nice line of outdoor clippers and trimmers. Most are made in Sweden or Finland. But I can't think of a single manufacturer still making garden nippers in the USA. Corona went to China sometime in the last 7 years; my pair are USA-made and I bought them in 2000. The same model is now proudly stamped "designed in America and made in China to our exacting standards". No thanks.
I don’t have any objection to buying stuff that was made in countries that are more-or-less friendly to us, and in some cases the quality may be better than USA made. I recently needed a portable table saw; when I went shopping the winner was made in Germany. Swedish or Finnish scissors would be just fine. Red China is not fine, either on “friendliness” grounds or “quality” grounds.
The insurance company replaced my Bosch with a Craftsman joiner "assembled in USA" (from Chinese parts, no doubt). It was trash compared to my old one. I used it once and sold it on eBay.
Products for your RV...made in the USA.
Just got my order...
Pop-A-Plate, Pop-A-Napkin and RV Mini Dish Drainer & Tray
http://www.camco.net/Menu.cfm?SupCategoryId=10000&SubCategoryId=205
Japan seems rather prosperous, and has more social freedoms than most others.
Keep in mind that the American ideals of social and personal freedoms have little currency in eastern cultures.
Been there lately? Talk to any college aged kids?
Apples and oranges. We have not:
1. Bombed China into the stone age.
2. Rebuilt their entire country.
3. Written their constitution for them.
When the day comes that we have done these things for China, the survivors will have a great deal more freedom, indeed.
Been there lately? Talk to any college aged kids?
No. Have you? Do college aged kids speak for an entire nation? I sure hope ours don't.
Almost daily.
Do college aged kids speak for an entire nation? I sure hope ours don't.
True, but you noted that western ideals had no currency in easter cultures. I was providing a clear counter-example, and as is usually the case, college-aged reform-minded young adults have a knack for changing their worlds in the long run. Remember Tiannenmen Square? Clearly, some easterners support western ideals enough to put their lives on the line.
I do. it was a generation ago. The "college-aged kids" of that time are in positions of power now and nothing has changed.
but can I still have won-ton soup and egg-rolls?
Ok. You say scrap it. And that means what?
Punitive tariffs? Not a hot war, but an all out trade war?
They've done so much, so consistently, for so many years, I've just got them down on the harmful until demonstrated otherwise list.
At the very least it means revoking MFN, stringent Country-Of-Origin labelling laws for all products and strong quality controls.
What I would rather see is a spontaneous, voluntary boycott of Chinese goods by American consumers. I'm not holding my breath, though.
So then at least we're on a prudent course according to you.
The market is devaluing chinese goods even further, and the fedgov is overtly banning/recalling various chinese products in a very public way.
Remember, a grass-roots consumer boycott of Chinese toys in the US is piddling pin-prick to the chicoms. You might get 20% of FReepers to go along....maybe a few thousand people.
Yet, what the US Fedgov does, trickles down to dozens of entire countries, large and small around the world.
If you tried to go head-to-head confontation in a trade war, you get into a Cuba-vs-USA situation where everyone else in the world supports the poor American-Oppressed victim.
But the US Federal Government recalling lead-toys is not a transparently provacative state-to-state trade-war action, as it is merely done "to protect the safety of AMerican children."
Uncle Sam is the trusted big brother, and the little guys will eat the same cereal as big brother...but maybe not follow him into a fist-fight.
Dominican Republic health department seizes 'made in China' toys
Bush's yuan-revaluation-plus-china-stuff-is-crap policy is pretty deft, in my opinion.
We put the big hurt on them precipitating de-facto international boycotts while pressing them to further float the yuan, all the while, we look like the horribly aggrieved party.
Having a bumbling prez candidate come out and try to rile the local populist anti-china fires gets nothing. Which is why I think Hunter shows himself to be naive when he's dealing with this stuff, and that the sneaky chinese would roll that guy like a dumpling.
I am Australian.I have for years observed with alarm the trend toward Chinese made.In spite of my concerns I have still succumbed to the urge to buy cheap.No more!Four bikes/A chainsaw/Lawnmower/whipper snipper/and various sundry items,all lay in a pile,silent testimony to the chinese manufacturers total lack of concern for their customer.However,I am now confronted with another problem!!I find that I am unable to buy good quality anymore as most of the major manufacturers of good quality have been driven out of business.I am left wondering if this was all part of the grand design.
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