Topic Posted by: fee
Date Posted: Sun Oct 11 22:38:30 2009
Additional Comments:
I certainly was not one who wanted trade started with China. Seems like RIchard Nixon was the one who began instigating that. I could have gone my whole life without our trading with them.
But now that 99.98 percent of our imports are from China (and without my approval I might add), I would like to know exactly WHO is responsible for the Chinese products?
Specifically:
1. Who is responsible for the children who died from lead in their toys?
2. Who is responsible for all our pets who died and were sickened from the melamine that they
put in their food products, knowing that it was dangerous and lethal? It was just a little
additive, I guess to stretch the product, as far as they were concerned; and
3. WHO is responsible for the Chinese drywall purchased from China that has totally ruined the
houses of so many Americans? Cuz from where I sit, the HOMEOWNERS are the ones
that are paying the price of this tainted material. The latest I read was this. People
who have applied to their insurance companies so they can redo their homes (usually
app. 1/3 the value of the home to fix) are told the insurance does not cover it. THEN
a few months later they are contacted by the insurance company, who tells them that
they have not received proof that the home has been renovated, and they are therefore
dropping their homeowner insurance. We have a LOT of this in Florida! I read about it
every week!
I consider our trade with China to be a travesty. To my remembrance, there is nothing that even comes close to the problems we've had with Chinese products. They certainly don't stand behind their products. I keep thinking to all the melamine turning up all over the place, and the pets dying. Fortunately my babies didn't get any of it. But I remember how we had to keep up DAILY to see what products it had creeped up in that day.
Posted by: maggimae Date posted: Fri Nov 6 21:04:25 2009
Message: JUst to add a little humor to this topic, I'd like to tell you what I saw when I visited China in the mid eighties. In a store, I saw a Christmas ornament. It was Santa Claus on a cross. I wish I'd bought it.
Posted by: maggimae Date posted: Fri Nov 6 18:27:57 2009
Message: Well, I'm not all that worried about where my clothes were made. But I will tell you that I will NEVER buy a car made in another country or even one that is manufactured in the United States by a foreign company. I know that for a while Japanese cars were better quality, but I think the US companies have stepped up and met the challenge to improve their product. I would hope that those people who bought foreign cars in the past would give the US cars another chance. My sister bought Toyotas for years but her latest car is a Chevrolet Malibu (same as mine) and she loves it.
Posted by: silver Date posted: Thu Nov 5 11:28:39 2009
Message: As I dressed this morning, I paid attention to the origins of my clothes. Underpants (Bali) - Costa Rica. Bra - Thailand. Generic Jeans - Mexico. Chicos shirt - India. Shoes (Clarks) - CHINA and that surprised me. Based on my wardrobe, I don't think we are being swamped with garments made in China. I gave up artificial Xmas trees some years ago in favor of harvested trees because the thought of girls in Chinese factories making Xmas trees for me was unacceptable. I hope my harvested (cut down) tree is not depleting some forest; I hope it is farmed. I have been told that electronics made inJapan are superior to those made in South Korea or China, so I prefer Japanese electrical things if I can find them. And I make my own dog food. I am somewhat selective, but I think a world economic system is probably preferable to an isolated economy. JMHO
Posted by: dandyfop Date posted: Sat Oct 17 13:26:47 2009
Message:
Who is to blame? You and me.
Look at the cost of living over the last 50 years. Then look at wages. The only way to keep up the appearance of a thriving economy and support the *middle class* is cheap stuff, and lots of it. How much do groceries cost here and what percentage of your budget is spent on groceries? Compare that to the true cost of food every where else in the civilized world.
The word in this country has always been growth. Capitalism is about consumption. When the money is not spread around as it should be but is siphoned off to the top few percent it has to be made up somewhere. People must be able to afford their comforts or they get angry pretty quickly and above all profits must be protected. Send those jobs overseas, manufacture cheaply and sell cheaply back to the people you once employed. Your next job you will simply make a little less and take a hit on benefits. And so it goes.
Who is to blame? WE ARE. Every time we vote against our own class. Every time you accept that allowances must be made in order for business to thrive in this country- at the cost of a working man or woman. PRO-BUSINESS. Capitalism. That is at the bottom of it. It is not a way of life that can be sustained forever- at some point the smoke and mirrors come in.
Posted by: Sammie Date posted: Thu Oct 15 23:25:44 2009
Message:
Three months ago we ordered plantation shutters from Lowe's. They told us the shutters were made in Georgia and it would take about 3 months to get them. We wondered why it would take so long to get them and when our order came yesterday we realized why! Stamped on all the boxes in bold letters were ''Made In China''!! Two of the shutters were made 6 inches too short but we cannot return them because they are special ordered. Our print out receipt does not show the actual inches that we ordered, so we cannot prove we gave them the right measurements even though we still have the paper with the inches on it that the man from Lowe's used to place our order. The shutters are expensive but it is or loss. Who can you trust anymore??
Posted by: maggimae Date posted: Thu Oct 15 17:52:50 2009
Message: Fee, ABC had a report on the people who bought houses with drywall from China. There is a strong, unpleasant odor and neither the builders nor insurance companies will do anything about it. So I guess the people are stuck. Can you imagine paying to basically have your house stripped of the drywall and replaced with other drywall? Besides the expense of having this done, where would you live while it was being done?
Posted by: Sammie Date posted: Mon Oct 12 20:34:42 2009
Message:
Fee, I agree with you that the US imports too much from China. I know it is important to trade with other countries but we import way too much. It is rare that I pick up something that is made in the US. I know that a lot of cars are made here, but I understand that some of the parts are made elsewhere. There is a store in Springfield, Il. called Hobby Lobby and everything in the store is made in China. On the front of most of their clocks there is a gold plate that says 'made in China'! They are so proud of their country they think people will buy clocks with their name on the front!! How tacky! I quit shopping there. Our factories are full of Hispanics, most of the workers for the landscapers are Hispanics, our Medical field is being taken over by foreign Doctors, and you can hardly get anyone to work on your computer that speaks English so you can understand them. Our jobs are going overseas and what jobs we have here are being taken over by foreigners. Don't get me wrong. I love our Oncologist who is from another country (can't remember where), our Dermatologist who is from India, and my gynecologist who is Oriental. Our family Dr. is from the good ole' USA. In the future, China will still be Chinese, Japan will still be Japanese, most other countries will still keep their culture, but what will U.S.A be?? Think about it!
Posted by: dolphina Date posted: Mon Oct 12 15:55:43 2009
Message: Yes, that's true. Oil and gas, minerals, timber, maybe even water and electricity by now. But also manufactured items such as automobiles and parts, foodstuffs, furniture and I believe paper products.
But what about Mexico? And Japan and Germany? We're certainly not getting oil or raw materials from them - it's all manufactured goods. No matter how you slice it, not even close to 99.98% of imports come from China. Nor can we blame China for manufacturing policies any more irresponsible than our own.
Posted by: dolphina Date posted: Mon Oct 12 11:14:05 2009
Message: I'm curious about your assertion that "99.98% of our imports are from China." Where did you find such a statistic? It is patently absurd. The US imports almost as much from Canada as from China.
U.S. Trade Balance, by Partner Country 2008 - http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/cy_m3_run.asp
*********** Partner country***********Imports for Consumption in millions of dollars
Posted by: dolphina Date posted: Mon Oct 12 10:04:28 2009
Message: Answer Number One to your questions about who is responsible..... major US importers, many of whom establish THEIR OWN FACTORIES in China in order to maximize their profits. It's infinitely cheaper for them to do THEIR OWN MANUFACTURING off-shore. The responsibility for oversight and quality control is THEIRS. Due to Chinese laws these factories must be "joint ventures" with a Chinese entity (thus ensuring that Chinese citizens share in the ownership), so the real (foreign) ownership/investor often escapes detection.
Answer Number Two is..... the US government agencies charged with protecting consumers from unsafe products. Regulations and restrictions - and the man-power to enforce them - were severely weakened under the Bush administration. Importing giants like Wal*Mart, Home Depot, and the big toy companies (I probably shouldn't name names at all, so take Wal*Mart and Home Depot as rhetorical examples only) have enormous lobbying clout to further their own profit-maximizing agenda, and that can be a particularly effective tool when dealing with an administration already committed to an ideology of "smaller government."
Answer Number Three.... the Chinese themselves, for ardently embracing capitalism after seeing how wealthy it made the West, primarily America. They're following our lead and beating us at our own game (look who's got all the money now).
I think perhaps you've forgotten that product safety standards in this country are a relatively recent development. There were many similar disasters to consumer health and safety from products manufactured right here at home - and a few still crop up from time to time. The scandalous peanut processing plant in Georgia early THIS YEAR for one. Bagged spinach just a couple of years ago, for another. Let's not forget that the US ships tobacco products all over the world, and we all know how safe THEY are. In fact, US cigarette manufacturers continue to use dangerous additives that other countries do not.
So who is really irresponsible? Who victimizes whom?
