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October 21st 04, 11:54 AM

In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
In article t, "KØHB"
writes:

"N2EY" wrote

On the subject of "MADE IN CHINA": There was a story in the local
paper's
business section about the bottleneck at various West Coast ports,
specifically
Long Beach and Los Angeles. Imports from Pacific Rim countries,
particularly
China, are arriving at such a rate that ships wait as much as a week
to be
unloaded because the port facilities can't handle the flow. New people
are
being hired and the facilities expanded, but such expansion takes
time.

Of course what's less visible is the flow of money in the opposite
direction.

If US manufacturers don't want the business at that price, then they
have no reason to whine when an offshore firm does.

Would you be willing to work for what your Chinese counterpart is paid? And
work under his conditions?

Would you be willing to repeal most environmental, safety, and child-labor
laws? How about intellectual-property protection?

So what's your solution?

Long term thinking.

Shut off Pacific Rim imports and "Buy
American"?

No.

Then cheerfully pay maybe $2,000 for a 21" Motorola TV
rcvr?

In the very early 1980s I paid about $300 for a 19" TV set. It lasted almost 20
years with one minor repair. $300 then is what - $600 today?

With all the improvements in the intervening years, I'd expect a US made 21" to
cost less than $500, not $2000. And yes, I'd pay more for American-made.

Or do you actually think that by shutting down imports from
China we can "reform" them?

Where did I say we should cut off imports from them?

Now, you answer my questions:

Would you be willing to work for what your Chinese counterpart is paid? And
work under his conditions?

Would you be willing to repeal most environmental, safety, and child-labor
laws? How about intellectual-property protection?

On that last item, note that one of the prime problems foreign firms are having
in China is dealing with underpriced knockoffs. Like a major software company
finding copies of their products for sale in China at less than 10% of the
price of real ones - and the authorities won't do anything about it. Not
because they're corrupt, but because they don't consider that sort of thing to
be wrong. To them, it's more important to get the software into use in China,
so that it can contribute to the build-up of the economy. Their concept of
production cost appears to be the cost to burn the CDs and make the packaging.
A perfect example of "From each according to his ability, to each according to
his need".

73 de Jim, N2EY