Interesting Article on Chinese imports

[Aurelius95]

Seems like inflation in China is affecting the price Americans are paying for imported goods or at least they will be by 2009. Where will the next new "China" be?

http://www.slate.com/id/2188409/?GT1=38001

[Tahyo]

I really have to avoid these kinds of threads as I tend to go overboard with my commentaries. If I said even 1% of what I thought, I'd get banned.

[Sam Reeves]

Well, since we are the new Mexico I reckon Mexico is the new China.

Is China the new U.S.S.R.?

[Ole WV Coot]

I'm with Tahyo. I don't want to even get started, it's just plain greed and I try and check everything I buy to see where it comes from if it's marked.

[beerrunner13]

Maybe if the prices go up high enough folks will start buying American made products. Being poisoned or made crappy hasn't stoped us, maybe higher prices will.

[bulrush]

Well, Tahyo, don't hold back, we're not pansies here.

Anyway, Americans want cheap goods, China provides them, so lots of our stuff comes from China.

[Rick]

If you scan through my posts you'll find one in which I said this very thing would be happening. My comparison was of 1960's Japan vs. Japan today in relationship to China. I'll reiterate, this is no different that buying only within your clan, within your town, within your state. No one on here practices buying only Minneapolis or Atlanta or Los Angeles. Why would you get annoyed about buying American? It's the same thing and just a natural extension of growing trade from the clan to the world.

Greed? Of course. It's the age old quest of producing more goods at a cheaper rate to improve the profit margin. Companies are in the business of making money, after all. And not all of them are evil. Believe it or not some just want to make a profit and really are concerned about how they do it. Mountain Equipment Co-op is a really good example.

Where is the next China? Probably Mexico in the short term. But, like China, we've been there long enough that those prices will begin to rise as well. We didn't think it terrible when we wanted a raise or a better standard of living but we do when the Chinese or the Mexicans ask for the same thing. Shame on us. You're seeing the same thing in Pakistan and India as prices rise in those countries.

There are still a LOT of third world countries that manufacturing probably will migrate to in order to maintain lower costs. Who knows? One day soon you might be reading Made In Ethiopia. And when you do, remember it will be raising their standard of living and improving their living conditions just as it has done in China and is doing in Mexico, India and Pakistan.

[Tahyo]

Bulrush, I wouldn't even know where to start. I have a tendency to have a lot to say about a lot of things, but either: 1.) It doesn't come out like I mean it and I end up offending someone in this day and age or 2.) I start yammering away about one thing and get off track about something else.

I'll just say this and leave it at that. I'm 53 years old, grew up in a southern/cajun culture. I've learned to suppress a lot of old prejudices while cultivating new ones.

[BraggSurvivor]

United States of China?

[bulrush]

As the standard of living grows in China, so will the price of Chinese goods. Same idea goes for Mexico. I for one, try to buy American goods, however, to be blunt, they cost anywhere from 20% to 300% more than similar foreign goods, and money don't grow on trees. I have to take care of my family before anything else, so in effect, American's have mostly priced themselves out of the American market so that only the rich can afford American goods.

America has the best goods and technology in the world that's true. That doesn't mean the average Joe Schmoe can afford it.

And I could talk about education too. However education doesn't seem to matter, at least in the case of unions. I know a lot of union guys with no college that make twice as much as I do. I know a truck driver who earns about 25% more than I do. I have a 4 year college degree. However I choose to work at a company I like with people I like, and I pay for it with a lower salary. I think the lower stress is worth it.

There is a cost to stress, you know. But you don't pay for it today, you pay for it tomorrow (or 40 years from tomorrow).

Well, that's my choice and I'm content with it. But I could always use more money for this or that, so I try to buy cheaper goods, American or not.

[Sam Reeves]

Well, that's my choice and I'm content with it. But I could always use more money for this or that, so I try to buy cheaper goods, American or not.

We'll pay for these cheaper goods in the long run. The more cheap junk we buy, the more competitive the foreign companies become and at the same time the less a American company such as ours will be able to pay us.

If we let this go to far it will become an inevitable downward spiral:
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2509



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[beerrunner13]

With the trade deficet the way it is we are on that downward trend , we have gone from a productive country selling our excess, to a cosumer country, based on service and goverment jobs that produce nothing but lazy drones. Increase the taxes on these imported goods and American goods become more competive with the slave wage produced crap the consumers lap up.

Why are we giveing more powers to the Fed when they are the ones that got us into this debt crises in the first place. There is an old saying"remove the cause and the effect goes away" it seems the current thought is incrase the cause and the effect will go away. WTF?

And don't get me started on the education system................end of rant.