Another sad but amazing story between China and America business

[Enuff2Eat]

Hello, it's been awhile since i post anything. Here is a story that I found somewhat "shocking" how lazy we become as a nation.

Last week, the weather was so beautiful so we decided to take the kids to a pumkin farm. We took the hay ride to this huge pumkin land where you can see miles of beautiful orange color pumkin cover the entire field. After picking up a few and went back to the farm house to pay for it. I asked the cashier if they sell any pumkin seeds as snack. She brought a box of pumkin seed neatly packed with small packages and after a short conversation I found out that those seeds was ordered from China. Sad huh!! Even pumkin farmers buy pumkin seed from China to sell and snacks.

One more story, my wife know this lady who owns a flag retail business. This lady was bragging to us that she got big contract with a local university to make America flags for a big event coming up (somewhere in the oder of 20,000 flags) and of course, she is expecting the shipment from China soon. Sad huh!!??

Last story, Someone told me once "I support the Troops" bumper sticker is made in China.

I am going to tell my kids to take Chinese as a second language in school, just in case, we might be working for them in the future.

enuff

 

[Lisa99]

Unfortunately it's not lazy that is causing this it is profit margin.

The Chinese are paid so little that it's usually cheaper to make all of those products in China + pay for the shipping back here than it is for us to produce the same product here.

 

[ziggy29]

Hello, it's been awhile since i post anything. Here is a story that I found somewhat "shocking" how lazy we become as a nation.

I don't think "lazy" has anything to do with it. There are a lot of Americans who would take the jobs manufacturing this stuff if the jobs were here. The problem is that they'd have to be paid a LOT more here than in China, so businesses privatize the profits by using cheap Chinese labor as they socialize the "safety net" costs in unemployment and public assistance on to us. Nice, huh?

Same story with India relative to call centers and IT work.

 

[HFWR]

Race you to the bottom...

 

[brewer12345]

Did Glen Beck tell you these stories?

 

[73ss454]

I think it was on the Drudge report.

 

[walkinwood]

..but, what does it have to do with FIRE & Money?

 

[HFWR]

Did Glen Beck tell you these stories?

I think it was on the Drudge report.

Both would be in prison in China...

 

[misanman]

The chances are that almost any purchase will come from China. We went to Home Depot the other day to get some plywood sheets and the stuff we found was marked "made in China". But I'm more concerned about the fact that the US has lost the ability to produce the rare earth elements used in batteries and electric generating equipment. My understanding is that China has amassed a near monopoly position. A few years ago they bought out the last US producer and moved production back home.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Annin makes US flags (and all sorts of other flags) in the US. I buy from them. Nice, high quality flags, especially for using on boats.

 

[FUEGO]

These days, even "Made in America" stickers are made in China.

 

[Bestwifeever]

That sounds like the forwarded e-mails we all get.

 

[ziggy29]

..but, what does it have to do with FIRE & Money?

It's harder to FIRE if you don't have the Money coming in because your job was offshored to the lowest bidder?

 

[oneils]

That sounds like the forwarded e-mails we all get.

Forwarded emails....made in China? eh? eh? (now I need to find the groans emoticon).

 

[BigNick]

But I'm more concerned about the fact that the US has lost the ability to produce the rare earth elements used in batteries and electric generating equipment. My understanding is that China has amassed a near monopoly position. A few years ago they bought out the last US producer and moved production back home.

At one level, of course, the Chinese are not "producing" these elements; the production was done for us in an exploding star, 5 billion or more years ago, and a pretty healthy percentage of the rare earths ended up in the US, where there is no shortage (despite the name "rare").

What the Chinese have got, currently, is a near-monopoly on the extraction of rare earths from their ores. That's pretty much entirely due to economics: for the past 20 years the Chinese have been competing entirely on price, which when you're dealing with chemical elements is a pretty important factor, and hard to offset with build quality, warranty periods, or after-sales service.

The GAO claims in a report here that it could take up to 15 years to reestablish a US processing industry for rare earths. I suspect that's about 10 times exaggerated, if push actually came to shove. Things can get done PDQ when there's a real crisis on.

 

[Telly]

Race you to the bottom...

But we have a secret weapon! It's American movies and Big Macs! Give it time, give it time...

 

[audreyh1]

If China is exporting cheap pumkin seeds, I don't think you need to worry. Look for good ole pumpkin seeds made in the USA!

 

[tmm99]

Pretty soon, with lower USD, you could get "Made in USA" in many countries... I thought it was kind of funny when I thought of posting this, but maybe not. (I get paid in USD!) I've been told there are more US made items you could buy now at a reasonable price in Japan... I remember getting some souvenirs at Disneyland in Anaheim in the 80's and they were made in Japan... Those are the days...

We really need to get the value of the dollar UP!

How do you raise Chinese currency? Would it hurt US?

 

[NW-Bound]

I worry more about the higher-profit-margin items that are not even made here, such as electronics gadgets. If Americans cannot even make iSomethings here, forget about commodity stuff... Bleak, bleak, I tell you...

But we have a secret weapon! It's American movies and Big Macs! Give it time, give it time...

YES, there's our hope. Let's give them beer too! They need to be weaned of all that green and black tea stuff. And look, it's working.

Mao Zedong is doing this in his grave.

And, YES, punk rock music...

 

[easysurfer]

But, an irony I experienced was going to a Panda Express for some fast food Chinese food and none of the workers were Chinese. The workers there looked like they could have easily been flipping hamburgers at a hamburger joint.

But the food actually tasted "authentic" like what one would get at a Chinese take-out place. Go figure

 

[Enuff2Eat]

But, an irony I experienced was going to a Panda Express for some fast food Chinese food and none of the workers were Chinese. The workers there looked like they could have easily been flipping hamburgers at a hamburger joint.

But the food actually tasted "authentic" like what one would get at a Chinese take-out place. Go figure

Welcome to America!!

 

[Nords]

Hello, it's been awhile since i post anything. Here is a story that I found somewhat "shocking" how lazy we become as a nation.
Last story, Someone told me once "I support the Troops" bumper sticker is made in China.
I am going to tell my kids to take Chinese as a second language in school, just in case, we might be working for them in the future.

I think "lazy" would be not selling pumpkin seeds at all. Instead these people went out to find acceptable quality at the lowest price. Is it somehow more patriotic to pay 25% extra for real American pumpkin seeds? Do they taste better?

If we were outsourcing TOMAHAWK missile production to PRC then I'd be more concerned. But America has always lacked the natural resources to produce their "needed" products, and there's always been a trade solution.

I've never understood why a minority language, English, is expected to be spoken in so many countries. I would've picked Chinese* myself. I've read, though, that English is favored as an air-control language because flight crews can speak much more frankly without having to worry about respectful superior/subordinate forms of address and other time-sensitive obfuscations.

I think that American consumer products have already brought down the Soviets and the Japanese. It just takes a little more time to percolate through a country the size of the PRC... but percolate it will.

*Would that be Mandarin or Cantonese?

 

[stoutboy]

But, an irony I experienced was going to a Panda Express for some fast food Chinese food and none of the workers were Chinese. The workers there looked like they could have easily been flipping hamburgers at a hamburger joint.

But the food actually tasted "authentic" like what one would get at a Chinese take-out place. Go figure

Welcome to America!!

That food tasted "authentic" only because most Chinese food in the US is not authentic at all. (Thankfully, though, becoming more so). A lot of the chefs at Chinese restaurants nowadays are actually Hispanic. I've run across a few that spoke excellent Chinese considering they learned it entirely in the restaurants.

 

[BTravlin]

Call center jobs are starting to return to the U.S. as savings dwindled and customers complained about quality of service due to communication issues.

Outsourced Call Centers Return, To U.S. Homes : NPR

 

[stoutboy]

China doesn't have a call-center industry. That would be India and the Philippines.

Call center jobs are starting to return to the U.S. as savings dwindled and customers complained about quality of service due to communication issues.

Outsourced Call Centers Return, To U.S. Homes : NPR