I went shopping today with a friend at IKEA and as I was picking up stuff and looking at labels I couldn't help but notice that they have stuff in that store that is MADE IN CHINA! Wow, I guess I'm that naive. I figured since the store was a Swedish one, it wouldn't have so many China imports, if any.
Why oh why can't I get away from China made stuff! I hate that I have little choice in the matter. Practically everything over here is imported from China. I thought I would be safe in an IKEA you know? I figured it would be blissful shopping there and I'd have no worries about Chinese imported products. China doesn't care about their own people much less ours, so I really do try to make an effort to boycott when I can.
If I'm gonna buy imported stuff I'll take French, Swedish, or German made products over China imports any day. Of course I would much prefer USA made products when it comes to certain items, but more and more these days they are hard to come by.
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5 comments:
Yep getting harder and harder to compete with slave labour. I think China is a much greater threat to stability than Iran or Iraq. They have huge investments in American companies so maybe even when you are buying American it might be made in American but with the profits going to china?
Well, there's more to it than the exploitative labor costs. China has actively been mainpulating the value of their currency in such a way that exported Chinese goods are valued at maybe half of their value on the international market. The price paid for this is that it is that it is extremely expensive to import into China, so the Chinese people do not get to recieve the benefits of imported goods from outside. This is why China has been so obsessed with it's food self-sufficiency as of late.
But there's a reason why you're seeing all of these Chinese goods and not equivalent amounts of Indian or Indonesian goods.
What we need is reasonable trade policies again. From the founding of this country, most of our income was based on tariffs against foreign goods. With a tariff, you can change the price of goods to reflect the true national cost of using cheap labor.
Now we have policies that are to some extent the opposite of what they used to be; our tax structure actually REWARDS corporations for moving business overseas, above and beyond the benefit they already get from working in a company without labor laws.
Changing individual shopping habits may be worthwhile, but it's not clear to me that it will make a significant difference, since the manufacturing process is not very transparent. For the most part, consumers will pick the cheapest products available to them. Changes in policy would be the way to influence shopping habits on a larger scale.
You got something against Italian imports? ;)
Heh Azzura ,no actually I really like products imported from Italy AND France too. The quality seems so much more superior. German and Swedish products appeal to me as a consumer as well. Superior quality.
But the good 'ol USA has good quality as well...depending on what you buy.
Now maybe I'm talking out of my ass here, but that is the way I see it. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.
China imports seem like such a bad thing to me, and it's upsetting that so many people have to buy the china imports because it's all they can afford, not to mention they are everywhere and hard to get away from.
I have the same negative feelings about Wal-Mart. Cheapo stuff(mostly from China) that doesn't last worth a damn, which is all Wal-Mart is about. Not to mention they destroy all the ma and pa business that every community should support.
*sigh* I guess there is no need for me to get on my soap box and tout a why Wal-Mart is evil spiel. I have intelligent readers here...you guys know.
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