[CarrotAndStick]

Even I thought for a while that low cost workers slave-labouring in China produce substandard stuff. Recently I purchased a ThinkPad. The laptop was made in India, the power cube supplied was made in China.

I am a mechanical engineer and I am confidently capable of distinguishing the good stuff from the bad. In this case, both the laptop and the adapter were made as well, if not better, as any first-grade manufactured product would have been made, say, in the US or even Germany.It amazed me. But far more, it scared me.

[Dominic Harr]

Even I thought for a while that low cost workers slave-labouring in China produce substandard stuff.

There are quality issues, no doubt. And software is not like making a mechanical thing, you can't tell them, "do this this way, every time". Software dev just doesn't work that way. Every new project is at least slightly different from the last. The languages, environments, platforms, requirements all change constantly. In software dev, you can't get thru one single day without having to deal with something unexpected.

And even when (like with t-shirts) their lower quality is at least good enough -- then you still have labor issues, govt issues, transportation issues, supply issues, and on and on.

There is no free lunch. And Americans *can* compete.

Never count an American out.

[kezekiel]

I am a mechanical engineer and I am confidently capable of distinguishing the good stuff from the bad. In this case, both the laptop and the adapter were made as well, if not better, as any first-grade manufactured product would have been made, say, in the US or even Germany.It amazed me. But far more, it scared me.

Sure, but let's not confuse the assembly of the product with the product itself. That Indian factory is the tail end of a process that started on the drawing board, moved through engineering and prototyping, to final design and fabrication. Much of this work was likely done by Americans, even if Indians put the pieces together.