BOYCOTT "MADE IN CHINA"

@whowasthatmaskedman Conventional wisdom that's certainly helped China and some other nations, but there is another aspect there.

The Chinese make vast numbers of integrated-circuits or engine-parts, but they are astute enough to import a lot of the more specialist production machinery, which is very expensive to design and build for a relatively small market.

Even before the present war, Russia was not exactly as wealthy as it seems or might be expected; though it seems to find enough cash for its Armed Services. Well, for the equipment, if apparently not paying the personnel too generously. Its main income is from exporting oil, natural-gas, some metals and agricultural produce, mainly wheat I believe. The minerals will not last for ever, and what will happen then? This is already being addressed by Saudi Arabia, planning now for when its own oil reserves run dry.

There is another possibility and it's one that dwindling resources and rising populations with rising expectations will hasten. This is that countries and some blocs will become much more self-sufficient, even protectionist and insular; with international trade reducing to necessities that cannot be made or grown at home.

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Even now it's hard to justify a lot of international trade on mere cost. For example, not ever so far from where I live (Southern England), the National Grid is installing a new electrical transmission-line with a new deign of tower ("pylon"). Not the familiar lattice-work of steel angle-section bolted together, but a tall pole with two arms, shaped like a shallow-angled 'Y', of welded steel tube. The design is Dutch or Danish. The manufacturer is in China.... They mean to say they could not find a British steel-fabricator capable of making these things to specification at sensible cost, to compete with making them some 8000 miles away? (I wonder how they arrive: probably by sea but I think that until the present war a lot of freight came to Western Europe from Asia by rail, across Russia.)

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What this will mean for everyone I would not care to guess with any confidence; nor is it really safe to say who will be the Big Cheese in say, 50 years' time; and in what sort of economies. For example, in all the headlong dash to avoid using petroleum-based fuels, no-one stops to mention what else that dwindling mineral gives us... Such as the raw materials for the plastics in all those Chinese-made integrated-circuits and flat-screen TVs.

I wonder what my great- nieces' and nephews' world will be like when they reach retiring age. Somehow I think our own or maybe our children's generation will have seen the best of times - or more accurately, the "least-worst" of times.

@ArishMell I share many of your concerns and you have looked at the future way longer than most governments are doing. Those who are beholding to Capital like America and Britain (and Russia right now) look only as far as the next balance sheet. While the more Socially minded governments look not much further than the next election cycle. China alone still has a long term view and it is starting to bog down with its own financial issues.. It will be interesting to see if they crack down on the money markets internally.
You touched on a shipping distance issue briefly I can clarify. The cost of shipping by sea per tonne or cubic is almost nothing compared to the cost of transshipping on and off or in and out. So bunging something massive and awkward to handle on a ship in Shanghai and sailing it via Suez to Liverpool may well be no more expensive than roading it down from Glasgow, as ludicrous as that sounds. I share yourconcern of the world my grandchildren will grow into.. While I dont believe they will face the Zombie Apocolyse, I am doing my part to see they have the practical research and financial skills to deal with the world they are likely to face. I cant save the world. But I can give them a chance..
One thing is certain.. Change will never be finished with us.. So stay on the board ahead of the wave.😷

@whowasthatmaskedman Thank you for explaining how the transport costs work.

By the scale of things those towers are not very heavy, but fairly bulky, especially if moved with the arms fitted. (I don't know if they are.) Even so they can probably be transported by ship carrying cargoes other than containers.

Self-perpetuating systems like those of the Communist and hard-line theocratic nations have a big strategic advantage of having no elections. Well, they do but only for personalities of the same party; with any opposition sidelined or silenced into a minority.

A lot of China's financial problems seem connected to property speculation in their own country: too much money flowing in building too many properties of one sort or another. Any rapid expansion in any trade will reach a peak then decline to steadier progress though, because it has gone as far as it can for the time being. So I think China will recover fairly well, without much long-term damage.

I am not expecting an apocalypse either, but I think the overall standards of living and choices available to everyone now, will diminish over time.

The most worrying factor is the apparent lack of any effort to address what will happen without the minerals we rely on, especially petroleum. The desire to replace hydrocarbon fuels with electricity generated by other means, takes so much attention that those who should be looking beyond that, do not do so.

I suspect a lot of politicians and campaigners are simply and genuinely far more ignorant of anything technical than they like to think; and will not take the trouble to learn.

Oh yes - I agree about change! It's just that the rate of change is accelerating so much that it raises questions of humanity's coming ability to cope with it.

@LeopoldBloom Thats a double blow. First, the cheap labour for basic processes. Second, the easier shipping into the continent itself, which is an emerging market, and as part of the one belt, one road initiative, to influence politics through loans disguised as "development assistance" When the loans default (as they usually do) the Chinese extend them indefinitely, in exchange for trade deals , fishing rights or a favourable vote in the UN.😷

@whowasthatmaskedman It's basically their version of colonization. In the late 19th century, Africa was exploited for raw materials; today it's for cheap labor.

@LeopoldBloom Exactly!!!
😷

@ShaneMckay Sadly quality comes at a price, and when it comes to mass-produced goods for domestic purchase (one of China's main export lines), for very many customers price matter, not quality.

This is even more marked when the goods have a spurious fashion element, such as "smart"-'phones or cinema-sized TVs. There is no point making a costlier instrument capable of working for two decades, save only for battery replacements, when so many buyers deem it "old-fashioned" only a year or so later.


(Then - and this is a digression - throw the still-serviceable equipment in the land-fill rubbish-bin. This combination of appalling waste of materials with possible environmental problems is behind the European Union's "Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment" Directive, which also and supports incorporates the International Standard Organisation's ISO14000-series accreditation.)

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It's worth looking at how Japan gained so much in the automotive industry. For decades British, European and American manufacturers thought their products superior. That was reinforced when the Japanese shamelessly copied their designs but initially manufactured the vehicles to rather lower standards.

The Japanese realised their mistakes though. They refused to be complacent. Nor unlike so many Western companies, refuse to be kept behind by shareholders and accountants who did not know a micrometer from a micrometre, but demanded quick sales returns now, not future profits from long-term investment in engineering design, production and QA.

Instead they carefully analysed the weak points in the existing products they had copied, and their production methods - then spent money on correcting the weaknesses and developing more advanced, more reliable versions proudly under their own names. They developed manufacturing methods and physical working conditions well beyond those common in many big, complacent, Western firms. Further, they could sell the goods abroad more cheaply than the rivals they were overtaking.


China does not seem to be as innovative as Japan, but can and does make high-quality goods, especially if pinned down sufficiently by the Western companies giving it the manufacturing contracts. Their success though relies on relatively lower labour costs, and as anywhere you have to be prepared to pay extra for the better goods.

@ArishMell Absolutely true, through and through!

@ShaneMckay Thank you!

@FreestyleArt Too true. So, we go AROUND Biden and do it ourselves!

@Northwest LET'S GO BRANDON!!!

@Graylight Walmart started and grew being a predominantly made in the usa company. Sam walton would only sell foreign made products if they met his standands for quality and value.

@Notanymore Ah, so it's okay for them to sell foreign made products at a discount...

@Graylight 🤦‍♂️

@Elessar ?

@ShaneMckay indeed we do!!

@ShaneMckay Maybe entice corporations to move their facilities back to the USA, maybe with tax incentives.
The problem is Americans are lazy and don't work as hard or as cheaply as other countries. Made in America costs more, just a fact of life.
I see people complaining everyday about the cost of gasoline and the price of food going up.
No easy answer to your question.

@SooperSarah Oh really? They were working in them when they got shut down and relocated overseas. I imagine if the government removes the teat from people’s mouths they’ll get hungry enough to accept a factory job.

@cherokeepatti all these people graduating with a ton of student loan debt for their masters in liberal arts are too good to work in a factory. The factory I work in pays well with great benefits and we still can't find people.

@SooperSarah well that’s on them, their interest rates are accruing, if they don’t want to work to pay off their loans they don’t need hand-outs. I’d bet they are playing the system every which way they can.

@Notanymore Thank you! FINALLY a good idea!

@ShaneMckay if you order from them, prepare for lots of emails from todd

@ShaneMckay I've bought stuff there several times. Some things are really affordable

@Keepitsimple Russia has already won they are getting exactly what they wanted forcing Zelensky to give in and forcing Ukraine to bend to them and guarantee they wont join Nato ect he is basically taking away all the "freedom" that they have been fighting for

@ExperienceDLT Perhaps not! Keep listening, but make sure you are hearing the truth! Not the socialist bull sh*t!!

@ShaneMckay

It would help if America had a real leader, and not some brain-dead loser.

@StrawberryMilkshake with automation is this even an issue?

@Tastyfrzz

Automation is the answer.

@Fukfacewillie simple, Trumpists are lazy not capable of making anything of quality.

@iamnikki China - human Rights Violations, CHEAP Labour = Expensive CRAP

@nedkelly Right! And so, why do Americans buy that crap???

@nedkelly not to mention cargo shipping costs and pollution and delays, shipping stuff from the other side of the world is not exactly “green” is it? Cargo ships spew out a huge amount of air pollution

@NestChicken Well, that was an easy flag and report.

@ExperienceDLT More than half

@Lilymoon Doesn’t hurt to try. My niece shops at thrift stores, consignment stores, yard sales and she’s got $ to shop at any mall for the same things she looks for. Buying used items may keep a person from buying new items made in China.

@whowasthatmaskedman


When I said "we", you weren't a part of that. I could give two shits what happens to you or your country. I hope you can figure out what that means.

@JimBeam Now that is just sad. Because I care about what happens to your country. And the good people in it. You, not so much..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman

Mother Teresa? Is that you? LOL
😂😂😂😂