There’s an almost interesting article in the Seattle-Times about the hidden costs of cheap DVD players. Its really nothing new, but the conclusion is pretty lousy.
“On an emotional and political level, I’m not sure where all this is headed or what consumers can do. You can’t vote with your dollars. All DVD players are now made in China, so there’s no “Made in the U.S.A.” option.
If we all stopped buying DVD players tomorrow, conditions in China would probably get worse rather than better.
Maybe, in the end, it’s enough to be aware of what’s happening behind the scenes as we enjoy this cornucopia of bargains.”
It is important to understand the background of the products you buy. I think the BSE “mad cow” thing over Christmas highlights that. Countries have stopped exporting our Beef over the issue, and we’ve made some changes in procedure. How many children need to be raped on the job before we stop importing something as unimportant as DVD players, or doggie treats, or cookie cutters? When does knowing that its happening make it O.K.?
I totally agree but I will have to say that not all DVD players are made in China, in reality they may be all assembled in China but many of the actual chips are made here in the US by companies like LSI Logic (for example). Unfortunelty a lot of these companies are either moving to Asia or are contracting out to foundries in Asia to save cost. Look at Intel, they are now building there first fab in China (though they don’t make DVD player chips). The reason a lot of these companies are moving: cause its cheaper, but at what cost?
Health and environmental regulations are looser over there, so for example companies can use a cheaper chemical that is band in the US because it is either to dangerous to work with or is environmentally unsafe.
It is definately a current trend that needs to be stopped.
Plus if there are no jobs, people won’t be able to buy things like DVD players regardless of cost.
Slashdot, eh? Yeah, I caught that article too.
I don’t see this as such a bad thing. A couple of months ago I was watching a Star Trek: Next Generation episode with Glin (he is into it and buys the seasons on DVD). No wait, it was the first Next Generations movie that was actually pretty badass. Pickard was saying something to a person from our time about how there is no money in the future and everybody just works because they want to or to be useful and improve the human race and blah blah. I think that some smart people in government are just trying to steer us in that direction. Think about it: We keep exporting jobs to China and stuff. People here are all jobless and have no money. Well this will suck for a little while, but not to fear: With the lack of sales from people having no jobs, companies will have to drop prices even lower to increase sales volumes. And it’s cool cause it’ll just mean that some Chinese 8-year-old will be getting one less bag of rice a week or whatever they’re paying them. Meanwhile, us over here are able to buy pretty much every cool thing we ever want with nothing! 99 cent DVD players, $9.99 supercomputers, $50 for the rich man who can afford a Porsche. We won’t NEED jobs to buy cool stuff. A welfare check alone will make us RICH!! Following soon on the heels of this, these same smart people up in government will finally reveal the genius of the plan when they inform the public that henceforth there will be no such thing as money so long as nobody plays the A-hole and goes and tells China. People who are really bored will take turns tending to farm fields or oil refineries or whatever which’ll generate just enough revenue that when divided between everyone in the country, everyone can have whatever they want. It’ll be Utopia at last! First thing I’ll do is buy a Ferrari Enzo (with $100 I have left over from my last paycheck before I’m laid off). Then a nuclear missile boat (might have to finance that at $5 a month for 36 months). It’ll be awesome. We’ll be exploring other galaxies and fighting aliens with physiologies remarkably similar to humans in no time.
It makes my ears hurt listening to people defend purchases that are damaging to the environment or exploitative to other countries with lines like, “We’re Americans, this is how we live.” The same people seem to think that America is the best country in the world without ever learning or caring about our interactions with other countries.