Dkatz wrote:
Mr10Percent – I completely agree with you. Perhaps the problem is with the consumer and the throwaway culture of today. But let me ask you. Would you want to buy an iPod dock that plays compressed media, that's made in China and is much lower grade than the other products, yet costs 900 pounds and will only be good for a couple years... Or would you rather invest in a good pair of BL3, BL4000, BL5 speakers (depending on what you can afford and what you like) that will last you decades and will produce the best quality, look amazing (and will not go out of style soon), and are made in Europe with fair wages and working conditions. I would choose the latter and I am sure you would too but unfortunately many people today are not the same.
Dkatz, the problem with your argument is that it is complicated and rather personal/individual. I shall try to honestly explain; I would not have an iPod or anything made by Apple. Personal choice. That choice comes down to Steve Jobs himself, the near-monopoly of sales of media-players which with their locked media platform has done irrevocable damage to the music industry and the quality of recorded music. I may be wrong on this but THAT is how I feel.
Next, I have to say, I have done rather well for myself over the last 20 years through hard work and relative hardship. This has been at a cost; I type this response from a 20-foot metal container where my bed and desk sit, with no air-conc, internal toilet and its raining hard in central Africa. My office non-field accomodation is slighly better apointed with a BV7-40 which has travelled with me for I think 7 years now and a BS5 which is a couple of years old. In my flat in the UK, I have another BV7-40, a newish BV10-46, some BL5's and 3's (which until recently also travelled with me to assignments and are now 9-10 years old each and still as good as new despite the environments they have been placed in). My BL4's sit on my desk infront of me now...in red. My UK home also has a Gold BS1 and and old mint condition BC9500.
So I have the toys, and my garage is similarly equipped with equivalent automobiles. The price of all this is being moderately well educated but with a niche job that would not ordinarily pay well but when integrated with remote hardship, means I have means but often not the ability to spend and enjoy the fruits. As such, I tend to go for quality products where possible designed and made in England where traditional skills are the fore and because rather nationalistically, I would like to see my Country do better than everyone elses Country. Tribal - you bet! I tend not to like the UK HIFi cottage industry though. Too much snake-oil and advertising banff dispite the build quality.
So on to China. Well I'm afraid we are all to blame for this. Like we are in many respects to blame for say the quality of our food (It often gets me when I'm travelling how much the food tastes better in uncontrolled free-market conditions where Tesco, Lidl, Asda, Carrefour and the EU has not placed its mitts on the specifications). The same can be said for consumer electronics. We want it cheap and plenty of. We are nutured into wanting something new and fresh and clean. Likewise, we have been sheepled into moving to China. The cheap has translated into new innovatative ways of making device to play music....but rarely better than the old days when technology strived for perfection but could not always deliver suitable media. CD somewhat addressed that but was then severely compromised by poor recordings designed for the internet.
As a quick divert, speaking of the internet, I look at this forum in amazement as people talk of the merits of Apple TV, streaming, downloads etc..etc... Well to put it frankly, the other 80% of the worlds population who dont live in the US, Europe, Australia or some of the better parts of SE Asia cant get this service. "Technology" is being "invented" and deployed faster than the support infrastructure can be installed.
Back to China. Over the past 10 year - perhaps slightly longer, we have demanded cheaper and cheaper products. Investors have seen a gap and moved manufacturing there. Once a bit shaky and ragged, the Chinese, through our own devices have built up a solid manufacturing base which can build to any quality. WE are to blame for this. 40 years ago, China could not build tractors. Our own greed not to support our own industries has blessed China. This is in my view reversable - just like the quality of food we eat in the EU. We just stop buying as a high-demand consumer and save for something else. Or just save! China will contract down.
The dimension issue is social-political-economical one. We demand cheaper products yet we cry when we see that factory workers in so-called third world countries are getting slave wages. My experience throughout the world is that there are some very poor people and countries indeed. When left in an non-industrialised condition, my collection/model is they seem to be better, happier and more self-sufficient. As we industrialise that population invariably the "organised crime" element of it (unscrupulous local "entrepenuers" who come in to take advantage of the influx of wage money brought-in by well-meaning "Western investment" companies come in with their pimps, drugs, loans and alcohol). In the mining industry, I know for a fact that all the local employee's I have been in contact with have on the whole been very well looked after. The key is to keep them away from the unscrupulous who would take their money from them.
I should also add, that China has been very good to me as my carreer has been based on efficiently making hundreds of thousands of tonnes of raw metals - most of which have probalbly gone to China. Copper, gold, Tungsten, tantalum, cobalt, nickel, Flurspar for Aluminium and so on. So am I a hypocrite as well supporting China?
Well the nub of the matter to me is that the Western World wants a capitalist system that is socialistically fair. That is not a compatable combination and you have to decide what you want in life. I did.
10
