not exactly sure why we do what we do but at $4 gas and a lap-dance in Montreal which because of inflation now costs $20, we might want to reconsider a few things
Let's stop talking and start doing.. Forget bailouts, handouts and groundouts, it's time to grab your sack and muster up the courage to stop acting like a bunch of self righteous pansies.. We are in a world of $120 a barrel oil but it's our addiction to a manufacturing center in China which is about to burst if they don't allow their currency to float.. It's gonna cost more to get your stuff from the other side of the earth..
What does that mean... It means that shitty blender you are buying for $19.99 ain't gonna cost you that anymore.. So either stock up on household appliances or learn to speak Chinese cause this ride is gonna be bumpy.. And it will force the American workforce to prove its resiliency and start doing what it does...produce a high quality item.
I like to save a buck as much as the next guy but I do realize something about Chinese made consumer goods.. As a manufacturing center they have gotten better, but its to the point where they are generally just good enough to last just long enough for you to feel like you can justify the cost..
You buy a crappy walkman and after 2 months one of the earpieces stop working, well you think "I spent $14.99 so I got out of it what I could expect"
That's only cause we have lowered our expectations so much that if it withstands the beating of 2 months of use we feel like we got a deal.. Now the AM reception sucks, and the earbuds are taped together and the lead paint is peeling but you justify it cause it didn't even cost $15.
But in general it is just "good enough" and we have started consuming so much of these cheap Chinese products that we can't imagine living without it. If you took an inventory of all the made-in-china items in your house and stored it all in your living room you'd be watching TV in your garage.. oh wait you wouldn't you'd be sitting in your garage staring at your garage.
We're addicted to this stuff and when it becomes more expensive it's gonna suck and it's gonna suck hard.
It's a three part issue
1) The manufactures out in China don't want to be a low-cost manufacturing center, they want to start enjoying life and reaping some of the rewards of their hard work.. but i guess we can always find a place where NIKE can make our sneakers or WalMart can make well everything they sell.
2) The RMB will start to move which means that it's gonna cost more more to make goods in China.. but again the Chinese government knows that keeping the RMB artificially low will keep the country as a major exporter of goods (low-end and high-end
3) But the bigger issue is maybe not the fact that the worker wants to make more because the Chinese Government can control that.. The bigger problem is that now it's gonna cost more to get it over here because of fuel costs..
I know we are addicted to Foreign Oil but let me tell you, we are just as addicted to cheap foreign goods and when the RMB starts to float and it's gonna cost us $30 for a shitty walkman it's gonna be very hard to justify it when Radio Disney bleeds into WFAN after only 2 months
Time to move onto something better...
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