By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
When the origin of an item is difficult to determine, it can be for no other reason than the seller is trying to hide something.
And they've been able to buy their way into making it legal. Such a huge amount of the corporate sector is deserving of at the very least rotting in prison.
It would help if some layers on the path would not be so 'agreeable'. Money gets slipped under the table at numerous levels. Sometimes ignorance and rationalization is so prevalent that many likely truly don't realize the harm they are doing when accepting the bribe. But certainly at some point up the ladder (down?) there should be accountability. A prison without A/C, internet/TV sounds about right.
According to my brother, many do not realize that the Chinese roll their garbage into the products they sell. Apparently they have been doing this for ages.
Apparently you will not find lead in the toys available in their home market. So they really care enormously for us don't they?
And yet we trip over each other standing in lines for ...what's it called down there, Black Friday? when there are tons of sale items..
And this all has not happened over night. :sick:
A prison without heat, hot food, hot water, etc is deserved at the very least. These people are traitors to the very society that lets them get away with their excessive insane compensation.
I don't know if their domestic market goods are really any better...they have a government so corrupt that it makes anything on this continent look like choirboys. Just look at the poison food scandals there over the past few years.
All one can really do is vote with their wallet. I try to avoid anything from that place whenever I can, and moreso, I try to buy first world whenever I can.
A few months ago, I had to replace a window, and went to Hardware City to get some glazing points. Took awhile before anybody there even knew what I was talking about! Anyway, they had two different boxes, same price, about $1.99. One was made in the US, and I think the other was made in China. And interestingly, the ones made in the US looked to be higher quality!
You'd think that with something simple like a glazing point, there wouldn't be much variation, but even here, they found a way to make it cheaper quality. Yet charge the same price! :confuse:
I thought the products from the Far East were all superior to US made items: that's what we've been told about their vehicles for decades... :P
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Other than being cheap, I can't see why anyone would buy such things not made at home, or in a nation with similar standards. And sometimes, there is no significant savings.
We need to be buyer-beware more than ever in the next 10 to 15 years as we try to claw our economic stability back. How's that for optimism??
But at GM, who did use a hoary Chinese 3.5 (I think) for a short time, maybe it works.
Things like dishes, silverware, utensils, luggage, some appliances...you can do well on the secondary market.
Heck, I still have the kitchen utensils my mother bought in 1964 when she got married. They are still in use at my place to this day. Good cookware is another thing that lasts forever. I bought my wife a set of All-Clad cookware after seeing a documentary showing them manufactured in their Pittsburgh-area factory. All-Clad cookware would probably survive a nuclear war.
When I was young and naive, I had a cheap set of Taiwanese sockets. I was changing the U-joints on my 1968 Buick Special Deluxe and use a sledgehammer and a socket to knock out the bearing. One whack with the sledgehammer mashed that cheap socket like it was made out of bees' wax. I then got one of my Dad's S.K. Wayne sockets, (made in U.S.A. in the early 1960s) and tried again. The bearing came out with no ill effect on the socket.
I use old made in USA Fiestaware for my dishes, I have old utensils and copper clad Revere Ware pots from my great grandmother's house, I have a set of made in USA Hartmann luggage I bought on craigslist for the price of one suitcase made god knows where from Costco, so on and so forth. Quality is better and price is lower, it's just not brand new. I can deal with that.
that was pretty funny...sorry though if were not really grinning when you typed it
Regarding old vs new. Another thing I have noticed regarding all forms of plastics. Plastics made in the last 20 years are more prone to drying out and failure, than plastics of, say, 35 years ago. I attribute it to the intentional more-easily-recyclable nature of the manufacturing.
Still works as good apparently.
"The book [Nathan Myhrvold's 2,400-page 'Modernist Cuisine'] puts traditional cooking wisdom under scientific scrutiny, destroying old assumptions and creating new cooking approaches.
Among the book's revelations: Expensive pots and pans are a waste of money."
The Game-Changing Cookbook (Wall St. Journal)
Why pay more for something when a cheaper item works as well? (Which begs the question of why you should buy a $625 cookbook!).
A good old American name offshored...I'd be really leery of preparing food on metal from a place known for such flagrant safety issues. Luckily, I don't have to worry, as my pots are probably 50 years old, so I know they were made. Same style as the ones my mother has, that I remember from when I was a kid. When I was in school, my great grandmother finally went into an assisted living home at the age of 99, and we were able to take what we wanted from her place. I didn't take much as I was not really settled, but I did get a lot of kitchen stuff...I know it is all safe and decent quality. And now the greatest generation era is fading fast, it'll sound crass to say it, but a lot of this stuff can be bought for a pittance at estate sales these days. Smart way to buy.
After spending 20 years in the tool business, I would never trust a Chinese made tool on anything critical. I would never get under a car sitting on Chinese jack stands.
A lot of the Chinese wrenches look great but the jaws can spread or they can be too brittle.
I once saw knew a guy who bragged about how he had bought an oxygen sensor socket for half the price of a quality one. He managed to round off his oxy sensor to the point he had to bring it to a shop to have the manifiold removed.
Still, given the crazy prices of quality U.S. tools I can't blame people for trying to save money.
I recently bought a 3/8 inch cordless drill from Harbor Freight for something like 18.00. It is a powerful drill too! I know it's a cheap Chinese drill that won't last long but sinceI may use it 3 times a year, I don't care. When it breaks, I'll throw it away.
If I were a professional whose living depended on my tools being top notch, I wouldn't have bought it.
My first set of wrenches, in a plastic roll-up holder, was SK...got them in the early 1970s...while I don't use them a lot, they are still in my toolbox, and they are still my wrench set today...
Making it in China is the functional equivalent of drop-shipping it from China to here...no fuss, no muss, no regulations, NO UNIONS, no aggravation from anybody here...
Did I mention no unions???...that alone may be sufficient reason to leave...
Yeah, and I sort of miss the soot in the air and the flaming rivers. Nothing like canoeing down a bright KoolAid Lime-Green stream.
China water pollution:
A few days later, I happened to be at a mall, and stopped by a Stride Rite. I spot checked around a dozen shoes, and none of them were made in the US. I don't think they were made in China-- maybe India or Indonesia, if I recall. Obviously, their little made-in-the-usa experiment failed pretty quickly.
So, to keep OUR air clean, we send that stuff overseas...and the loss of 500 million Chinese would make the Chinese govt VERY happy, as they would only have a remaining population of about 750 million...
Even with all our regs and unions, US factories still managed to out-produce the Chinese by 40%. (lubbockonline.com).
Sewage Geyser: Yangtze River
Soil Pollution: Ma’anshan Chemical Industrial District
Chemical Waste Water: Yangtze River
Seven year-old Chinese laborer
They don't want Wal Mart to come to their town but when they arrive, they forget about that if they can save 50 cents on a can of dedorant.
They will buy Chinese brake rotors for their cars because they are 15.00 cheaper. Then they complain when they warp!
fintail talked about Revere Ware. If you compare an old US made one to one of the newer Chinese made pots there is a MAJOR difference.
I am asking you the same question. We don't want to pollute our air (a good thought) but we still need to make the steel from dirty foundries...what do you suggest we do, if not farm it out overseas...
Is it possible to have clean foundries???...I really don't know... :confuse:
That is correct...they will fight to keep out WM, and then line up to shop on the day they open...
But wait...we can criticize them for selling products made in China, but what about US made items that they sell cheaper because of volume buying???...why do you have a problem with folks who want to save 50 cents on the same can of deodorant or bar of soap that they will pay more $$$ at Kroger???...I see folks in Bankruptcy, and every 50 cents they save is important to them, why judge them for saving money because Sam Walton was a shrewder retailer than everybody else???
A can of Dole pineapple or Del Monte green beans is the same item everywhere...what is wrong with buying it cheaper at Wal-Mart???
Still a lot of problem plants but they can do ok (my nephew works for a US steel company).
The solution is to sanction those who do not wish to operate with at least some slight ideal of responsibility. China certainly does not.
The financially ignorant American public is very penny wise and pound foolish. The cheap goods distract the masses from their own darkening future.
I don't remember Philadelphia ever looking this bad, even when we still had heavy industry.
Quality goods. Well, I already posted a link saying that Revere Wear doesn't cook any better than a cheap pan. I had a $100 Mont Blanc fountain pen for a couple of decades. It worked pretty good for about two years and then the nib lost its set and it wasn't much fun to use after that. Too much hassle and more expense to send it off. It held its value ok, and I had little trouble selling it for $50, but .99 cent pens work better. You wanna jot something down or try to impress the Joneses?
Do you want to risk cooking in something that might leech heaven knows what into your food? And I bet thrift store or estate sale Revereware can be had for less than the worst cheap stuff.
I prefer gel pens, all seem to be made in Japan. First world nation. In Europe I noticed virtually every pen was made in Germany, France, or Denmark - I didn't see a one made in China.
Purple river!
45 year-old woman can no longer move her hands and feet due to industrial pollution
Deformed infants abandoned by their parents
11 year-old child dying of bone cancer