Made in China

[SaintB]

A two and a half million dollar luxury yacht that can't even float is just further solidifying China's reputation for shoddy craftsmanship which has existed ever since Genghis Khan rode around the Great Wall. This brought up what I thought could be an amusing topic; what items have you dealt with recently that were poorly constructed or just plain didn't work (they don't have to be from China). Myself I recently bought a package of BIC pens and when I clicked one the spring inside snapped....

[Alyakia]

yeah man the great wall of china is a great examples of shoddy architecture

there's a term for products that are built to fail but i can't remember it welp

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence oh there we go

just sayin

good post

[Mr Bananagrabber]

Cool. They should turn it into a land-boat.

Oh and... I guess I have no complaints about chinese craftsmanship. Anything that breaks is cheap enough to replace that I don't really care.

[SaintB]

yeah man the great wall of china is a great examples of shoddy architecture

there's a term for products that are built to fail but i can't remember it welp

It still stands but it failed to do the one thing it was supposed to, keep the Mongols out. It was shoddy because it wasn't enough wall for the job.

[Ovisterra]

Yeah, but about half the products you buy are made in China. They don't all suck. True, some Chinese items fail, but you obviously fail to understand the sheer quantity of things that are made in China. If you did, you'd realise that the badly made ones are a tiny proportion.

[Risottia]

Yeah, but about half the products you buy are made in China.

Luckily not.
I won't buy a Chinese-made fridge, or washing machine, or a car. Their quality controls are definitely substandard.

Anyway, I noticed the amount of shoddy products is increasing. I guess it's because the average consumer cares more for quantity than for quality.

[GreaterPacificNations]

Yeah, what with water clocks, hydraulics, dual-shot crossbows, magnetic compass, gunpowder, cannons, explosive cannonballs, landmines, hand grenades, water powered puppet theatres, paper, the printing press, and lets not forget the trust wheelbarrow.

I must admit water wheel powered puppet theatres never came to much use.

[SaintB]

Some people are missing the point: The title was tongue in cheek, the discussion is just about shoddy things in general, and I just wanted to post the video of a boat sinking on NSG so I cooked up an excuse.

[GreaterPacificNations]

Some people are missing the point: The title was tongue in cheek, the discussion is just about shoddy things in general, and I just wanted to post the video of a boat sinking on NSG so I cooked up an excuse.

I just wanted to joke about water powered puppet theatres. The boat was funny.

As for a shitty piece of technology I've had to deal with in recent times... I would have to say my Dell laptop. It leaks electricity onto my lap in help at the wrong angle and hurts like a motherfucker when it does.

[Serrland]

Well, I bought a new alarm clock last week - but the power cord keeps falling out. It's horribly annoying.

[SaintB]

Some people are missing the point: The title was tongue in cheek, the discussion is just about shoddy things in general, and I just wanted to post the video of a boat sinking on NSG so I cooked up an excuse.

I just wanted to joke about water powered puppet theatres. The boat was funny.

As for a shitty piece of technology I've had to deal with in recent times... I would have to say my Dell laptop. It leaks electricity onto my lap in help at the wrong angle and hurts like a motherfucker when it does.

I considered countering your argument with Kubla Khan's lost fleet but by and large I believe that the Chinese fully intended for all 1,000 of those ships to sink.

[Lackadaisical2]

Note to the Chinese: Make sure your boat floats before making a big ceremony!

Practice makes perfect.

[GreaterPacificNations]

I considered countering your argument with Kubla Khan's lost fleet but by and large I believe that the Chinese fully intended for all 1,000 of those ships to sink.

3500, I believe, is the revised number. To be fair- Kublai Khan basically said to the Chinese "build me 3500 ships, you have 1 year, starting yesterday". Had they had done it well, Japan would probably be part of China today.

[Saiwania]

Things being "Made in China" is no laughing matter. The more goods that are produced in China and sold, the more powerful their economy will become. The west is declining while China is doing all the right things.

[Vetalia]

Haha, that's great. Now that is a snafu...

[Lackadaisical2]

Things being "Made in China" is no laughing matter. The more goods that are produced in China, the more powerful their economy will become. The west is declining while China is doing all the right things.

I guess its time to round up Britain and the rest of the gang and get them all addicted to opium again.

[Vetalia]

Things being "Made in China" is no laughing matter. The more goods that are produced in China and sold, the more powerful their economy will become. The west is declining while China is doing all the right things.

Eh, the West is the ones buying their stuff so they're even more dependent on us than we are on them...

[Brutland and Norden]

Well here in my country when you say "Made in China" it connotes a cheaper, but substandard, version of the product. Go to an electronics or appliance store and salespeople will distinguish those that come from "Japan" and those from "China". And yes, Chinese-made lead-laden toys full of cadmium had hit our markets recently...

[Vetalia]

Yeah, what with water clocks, hydraulics, dual-shot crossbows, magnetic compass, gunpowder, cannons, explosive cannonballs, landmines, hand grenades, water powered puppet theatres, paper, the printing press, and lets not forget the trust wheelbarrow.

I don't know, that's not as impressive considering they didn't invent anything else in the past 1,000 years...kind of riding on past glory.

[Lackadaisical2]

Yeah, what with water clocks, hydraulics, dual-shot crossbows, magnetic compass, gunpowder, cannons, explosive cannonballs, landmines, hand grenades, water powered puppet theatres, paper, the printing press, and lets not forget the trust wheelbarrow.

I don't know, that's not as impressive considering they didn't invent anything else in the past 1,000 years...kind of riding on past glory.

Psh, who needs new inventions when we've got cannons and wheelbarrows?

Did I mention the puppets?

[Saiwania]

Eh, the West is the ones buying their stuff so they're even more dependent on us than we are on them...

Western nations simply cannot compete with China on labor costs or in number of workers. It is this mentality that they'll need us more, which will be our undoing. I believe that its very much the opposite. Once China becomes fully developed, it can simply out produce every other country on earth in terms of GDP.

[The Republic of Lanos]

Did it have lead paint?

[Arumdaum]

Cool. They should turn it into a land-boat.

Oh and... I guess I have no complaints about chinese craftsmanship. Anything that breaks is cheap enough to replace that I don't really care.

I agree with this.

[Mosasauria]

I don't know, that's not as impressive considering they didn't invent anything else in the past 1,000 years...kind of riding on past glory.

Psh, who needs new inventions when we've got cannons and wheelbarrows?

Did I mention the puppets?

The Chinese invented puppets?!
That's it. China is the best country that has ever existed. And it's existed much longer than most other countries.

[Vetalia]

Western nations simply cannot compete with China on labor costs or in number of workers. It is this mentality that they'll need us more, which will be our undoing. I believe that its very much the opposite. Once China becomes fully developed, it can simply out produce every other country on earth in terms of GDP.

Once China's developed, it won't have the advantage in its labor costs...there will be no incentive to offshore manufacturing there when you could do so far more cheaply in the United States or Europe. There are a lot of additional costs to operating in China that are absorbed by low labor costs, but as those costs keep rising the benefits will continue to evaporate; this is already happening to a limited degree, and China itself is dealing with the loss of low-end manufacturing jobs to less developed countries like Vietnam or India.

And of course, once India catches up with China the game will change entirely; they're already set to overtake them in population by 2025 and their demographics will be much healthier ensuring a strong economy going forward whereas China will have to deal with serious issues of demographic imbalance and aging. Most of the speculation about China's supremacy sounds exactly like the same stuff said about Japan in the 1980's...and we know how that turned out.