Chinese Bikes? Inexpensive Thrill or Cheap Junk?

[Vic]

Sawblade said: "regardless of where it is manufactured"

Right there is the problem, as I see it. We have no nationalist conscience, just a slavish devotion to price no matter what the repercussions to our own economy or workforce. When the first gas crisis hit, people bought Jap cars with little thought to how it would affect the American car manufacturers. While the competition helped to eventually increase the quality and lower the price of American cars, it made a negative impact on the American auto worker. Tariffs and quotas helped save the industry and force the Japs to invest in our country, but the American auto industry was diminished and has never really recovered. Ask any long-time GM employee who may never see their pension money how their life has been affected by the American consumer's lack of foresight and nationalism. We are being turned into a country of servants rather than industrialists simply because we prefer to pay a lower price than support our own. When all of our middle-class is gone and the only ones left are the rich that can afford college and better jobs, and the poor who can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart and recite, "Would you like fries with that?" a hundred times a day in their job, maybe we'll wake up and see that we should have been a little more cautious about allowing whole domestic industries to die in favor of cheap imported goods. :yell:

It's called, "The Free Market". Money will go where it's treated best. As wages and benefits rise in China and elsewhere, so will prices. That will bring competition from other countries, including the USA. The USA has been priced out of many markets due to ridiculous union pay structures and over-regulation, among other things. I don't know if you've noticed, but the US economy is thriving. Some people over here must understand how to take advantage of the cheap labor over there.

Your ranting sounds communistic.

 

[endofsilence808]

china bikes are funny. if you dont like you kids buy them one. they will prob break them in half and never ride again. nice welds on them also, if you like crap buy them. have fun getting parts. or so i hear. those things are a disgrace to motocross and dirt riders all over.

 

[RADRick]

It's called, "The Free Market". Money will go where it's treated best. As wages and benefits rise in China and elsewhere, so will prices. That will bring competition from other countries, including the USA. The USA has been priced out of many markets due to ridiculous union pay structures and over-regulation, among other things. I don't know if you've noticed, but the US economy is thriving. Some people over here must understand how to take advantage of the cheap labor over there.

Your ranting sounds communistic.

Wow, where I come from calling a person a Communist is a major insult. You should look up the meaning of Communist before you tag someone with that label. Being a Nationalist is far different from being a Communist.

I know what free enterprise is and how it works. What I take issue with is the fact that we have a monumental trade imbalance with China. They let us buy many of their goods, but they don't let us sell them many of ours. They can produce goods cheaper because they have little to no controls on labor or environmental concerns. We do not play on a level playing field.

As for the current state of our economy, you should really take another look. The housing market has been driving it for several years now and it appears we are on the cusp of that bubble bursting. Several counties in CA are seeing double- and triple-digit increases in foreclosures (Look at Placer County, for one). In Florida, the housing market is slowing down considerably as has new housing construction. A year ago it would take 1-2 weeks to sell a property, now it takes 6 months or more. The opportunists that pushed prices up by "flipping" houses for a quick profit have all but disappeared leaving the no-money-down buyers in a negative equity hole that many will just walk away from. The auto industry is on the verge of serious collapse with GM about ready to enter bankruptcy. Is that your idea of thriving? The tech sector has been in the doldrums for several years and is hoping a new Windows version will pull it out. If Microsoft doesn't address some of the real problems facing Windows' users with their new Vista version, things won't get much better for the computer industry anytime soon. The price of oil is affecting every strata of business and consumer spending, which are both on the decline. Meanwhile, we continue to enrich a country (China) that refuses to allow us the same inroads into their economy, refuses to make any meaningful protections of copyright and intellectual property rights that would spur more equal trade, and continues to provide aid to our enemies.

So go ahead, buy that Chinese-made POS. I'm sure your conscience will be clear. :fft:

 

[Ride or Die]

Sheesh i didn't mean to start a riot or get everyone mad.

 

[Vic]

Wow, where I come from calling a person a Communist is a major insult. You should look up the meaning of Communist before you tag someone with that label.

Re-read my post. I didn't call you anything.


I will admit that the economy shows some signs of slowing, but I really don't think you can blame it on China. I don't think China is reponsible for GM's problems, either.

I have no intention of buying a POS- Chinese or otherwise.

 

[Vic]

Sheesh i didn't mean to start a riot or get everyone mad.

I aint mad. :)

 

[Ride or Die]

Lol

 

[Patman]

"Wal-Mart is responsible for approximately 10 percent of the United States' trade deficit with China." :think:

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/27829

I recall seeing this documentary, it was rather interesting.

 

[RADRick]

Re-read my post. I didn't call you anything.

You said: "Your ranting sounds communistic."
You called my words Communistic, which, by extension, was about the same thing as calling me a Communist. As an anti-Castro Cuban-American, I take offense to that.

I will admit that the economy shows some signs of slowing, but I really don't think you can blame it on China. I don't think China is reponsible for GM's problems, either.

I never said China was solely responsible for anything. In fact, I was pretty clear that alot of the problem is directly attributable to the American consumer who spends their money with little or no concern on how it affects our economy and our country. In any case, it took a number of years for the Japanese auto and motorcycle industry to decimate our own. Things like that happen over time, not overnight. By the time we realize what's happening by buying all these cheap Chinese goods, it will be too late. We are so intoxicated with lower prices and willing to accept lower quality that when we finally wake up to what's happening there will be no domestic choices available to pick from. Just like Japan supplanted our electronics industry, China will do the same with many others. The difference, as I said previously, is that China does not share Japan's philosophy about doing business with America.

I have no intention of buying a POS- Chinese or otherwise.

Glad to hear that. :cool:

 

[RADRick]

"Wal-Mart is responsible for approximately 10 percent of the United States' trade deficit with China." :think:

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/27829

I recall seeing this documentary, it was rather interesting.

Very interesting.
One quote: "Our trade deficit with China has ballooned since its entry into the WTO in 2001, contrary to the promises made by politicos of both parties at the time.

The imbalance -- in combination with soaring fiscal deficits, a low savings rate and high energy costs -- has become a real threat to America's middle class."

Sounds alot like what I've been saying. Globalization is the tool that wealthy industrialists and bankers will use to control worldwide markets. Look into the histories of the Masons, the Bilderbergers or other such secret societies and you'll get shivers. Globalization allows these powers to manipulate countries into wars and then profit by dealing with both sides. That's just one example.

 

[Vic]

You said: "Your ranting sounds communistic."
You called my words Communistic, which, by extension, was about the same thing as calling me a Communist.

If you say so. :whoa:


How would you solve this "problem" of people buying what they want at prices they want to pay?


This is bad? :ohmy:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/stats.html

 

[RADRick]

If you say so. :whoa:


How would you solve this "problem" of people buying what they want at prices they want to pay?

Education. Most people are ignorant of the trade deficit between the US and China. Perhaps if they were made aware of how much that deficit costs us as consumers in other areas, they might be more responsive. Also, while their will always be a demand for western goods in emerging countries, many like Japan have a nationalist attitude towards protecting their own industries. They buy many goods made in their countries if for no other reason than to show their pride. We used to do that, but now we are obsessed with price to the point that we'll even buy goods from a Communist country or one with a dictator so despotic that he murders his own people. We have no collective conscience any more about what we buy, where it comes from or how it was produced. That's despicable.

This is bad? :ohmy:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/stats.html

Uhm, yes. When those numbers come on the backs of exploited workers, especially children, or at the expense of the environment. Here's one example: several years ago a major motorcycle manufacturer moved much of its chrome plating to an offshore country. They did this because environmental restrictions in the US had made the process so costly that it was easier to outsource it to a 3rd world country that has little regard for the environment or labor laws. The country in question was so hungry for new revenue that it gladly accepted the business despite the fact that the improper disposal of waste byproducts from the chroming process led to the poisining of thousands of its people. Our greed for lower prices is not only shortchanging the American worker, but leading to what will surely be environmental disasters of the future. Union Carbide found this out the hard way when its plant in Bhopal self-destructed back in the '80s. An unseen result of over-zealous environmentalism is that we are now foisting our problems on an unsuspecting and needy 3rd world all in the name of profit.