Amount of Recalls

Inogenius

This year has almost been embarrassing for the corporate world. From lead painted toys, ecoli infected pizza's, broccoli and lettuce. Now these stupid little aquadot things have poisonous glue that if swallowed can put people into a comatose state. Is it time we boycott China? The lack of accountability there is pathetic. Perhaps with every company rushing to become profitable again they've stretched themselves so thin that there's no longer any quality control measures? I don't know the cause, but it's rather worrying.

Inogenius

Oh look, another recall!

Zar

I think there should be forced expensive quality testing for consumer goods made in foreign countries. If they can pay dirt wages due to less regulations there should be intensive quality testing.

And I say the testign should be so expensive that it simply makes more sense to manufacture things for North America in North America.

Jackie Pies on Jackie Pies:
"Did I ever mention that I'm not really made of pie? Nor have I ever baked myself into a pie."

Necro

I kind of find it funny that most people who come into the store I work in (a toy store) always complain about prices, yet they are the same people who will yell at us for selling 99% shit from China. They say they want cheap prices, yet when it comes to down to dangerous toys they can't believe how any store could carry them. They dont realize that toys would be so much more expensive if made in America. At the same rate they could be monitored better, and we could make sure there's no lead paint etc.

People want shit both ways. Cheap prices, and safe product. It just can't work that way.

Zar

If they brought all those jobs back to North America I think people could afford their toys to be a couple more bucks.
But I get what you are saying, most people don't get how shit works and seem to complain to simply hear their own voice.

Jackie Pies on Jackie Pies:
"Did I ever mention that I'm not really made of pie? Nor have I ever baked myself into a pie."

Necro

Well they are the same people who go to Walmart to get shit for next to nothing. They don't realize how Walmart gets shit so cheap.

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

I like American made products.

If only more products were made in America....

Inogenius

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...11070357&imw=Y

77%! This could be potentially devastating to foreign countries. While other countries certainly purchase toys and what not, money from the American is extremely important. I mean, if things continue like this, I think you could certainly expect a full boycott that would likely be very successful.

Of course, as I say this, Wal mart reports that its same store sales are up slightly from last year. So ummmmm........ yeah

Dr. Giganto

If more products were made in America, not only would our products be more expensive, we would have less of those products.

Certain countries are better at making certain products. They can make it cheaper.

Now, think about it like this:

When we import goods, what do we pay with? Money.

And where does that money come from? Our jobs.

And what do we do at those jobs? We make products that WE are better at making.

We provide certain products and servicesto the world, and in return, we get products and services from other countries. and when it's all said and done, everybody is better off, because we get more total production and lower prices.

There's a concept in economics called "comparative advantage". It refers to a country's ability to make things cheaper and more efficiently than another country.

The basic way it's demonstrated is like this... Assume there are two countries, and each country only makes two products: Oranges and Automobiles.

The countries have a limited amount of labor and other resources, so they can only make a certain amount of each product.

If country A decides it only wants to produce oranges, it can make 10,000 oranges a year. If it decides it wants to make cars, it can make 10 cars a year. So, for every car country A produces, it has to give up production of 1,000 oranges. If it makes one car, it can only make 9,000 oranges. If it makes 2 cars, it can only make 8,000 oranges, etc.

Country B can make 5,000 oranges a year, or it can make 20 cars a year. So, for every car that it produces, it sacrifices 250 oranges. If it makes one car, it can only make 4,750 oranges, if it makes two cars, it can only produce 4,500 oranges, etc.

So, in country A, it is cheaper to make oranges than in country B. And in country B, it is cheaper to make cars than in country A.

Now, let's say country A produces 5,000 oranges and five cars, and country B produces 10 cars and 2,500 oranges. Now, they can make a trade. Country A can send 1,000 oranges to country B and get 3 cars in return.

Now, country A has 4,000 oranges and 8 cars. But if they produce everything themselves, they can only have 2,000 oranges if they want to have 8 cars. They have 2,000 more oranges now. Or, if they wanted to produce 4,000 oranges, they could only have six cars. By trading, they have gained 2 cars.

Now, look at it from country B's point of view. They now have 3,500 oranges and 7 cars. If there is no trade and they want to produce 7 cars, they can only produce 3,250 oranges. So, they've gained 250 oranges. And, if they wanted to produce 3,500 oranges, they would only be able to make 6 cars. So, they gained one additional car than they otherwise would have had.

So, both countries are better off, because they can consume more goods than they would be able to if they produced everything themselves.

That's why out toys are made in China...China has a "comparative advantage" in toys. We have comparative advantages in certain goods as well, but it's more service related stuff. We get toys from China, and in return they get medicine, banking services, and other American goods. And, because we get our toys from China, we get to consume more toys without having to give up production of other products and services where we have the advantage.

The whole "Buy American! Dont send our jobs overseas!" rhetoric is misguided, xenophobic nonsense. On the whole, we are better off importing certain goods than if we did produced everything ourselves. And, even though free trade eliminates certain jobs, it creates others, and the net effect is an increase in jobs.

So, now that I got that out of the way, I still think it should be necessary to ensure a certain level of quality in the products we import. But, to make "quality control" so expensive that it prices out foreign producers would actually be damaging to the economy.

Blitzkrieg

Tom's explanation comes straight from my Macro text lol.. just kidding, good show dude