New Book: Poorly Made In China
Want to know how that lead got into your kid's toys? Why brand-name goods come in containers that fall apart. Or how radioactive cookery ended up on store shelves? A new book out by Paul Midler, Poorly Made In China, promises the inside scoop on why products made in China are as shoddy (and often as dangerous) as seemingly possible.
As a former consultant to American importers, Midler has worked on the frontlines of Chinese manufacturing. The National Review describes one of the strategies he covers in the book:
From the point of view of a Chinese manufacturer, the world is divided into "first" and "second" markets. In the first market - North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and some lesser outposts of legal order - new product designs originate, and the designs are protected by patent, trademark, and copyright laws.
Chinese manufacturers want business relationships with customers in these places — so much so that they'll even sometimes sell to them below cost. But then they'll turn around and
...sell knock-offs of their designs to Latin America and the Middle East, where intellectual-property protection is not so valued. This arbitrage game explains the curious fact that Chinese-made products are often more expensive in the developing world than in the U.S.A. That's where the profits are made.
Chinese Junk: The problems underlying China's pathologies [National Review]
Poorly Made in China by Paul Midler [Barnes & Noble]
Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine .
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Comments:
@Gramin: There is no benefit to me putting Chinese made cutlery in my mouth. I'll pay more for american made, thanks.
@Gramin:
Wow. Our "wage laws" also provide for protection from workplace injury, overtime, environmental protections, and other workers rights. It is CHINA that has the problem, not the United States. We should put up trade barriers w/China until they bring human rights and labor/environmental protections into the 21st century.
Now... we'll never do that because they own all of our debt and would just call us on it if we ever got serious.
Also- I think most people would be happy to pay higher prices for SAFE toys, and higher prices if they knew that by doing so jobs were protected in the U.S. Note-- we're talking MARGINALLY higher prices.
I really want to read this book but at the same time I don't want my mind reeling as i read about all the products I've used in my life that were made there..
"oh shit i used that.."
"oh man i put that in my mouth"
I really doubt the average American is going to insist that their local stores remove the shoddy product from China in favor of the higher priced stuff made domestically.
You get what you pay for.
@Gramin: True. However, the availability of cheap, low quality products feeds our instant gratification consumerist culture and actually hurts us economically in the long run. I don't blame them, but it's a natural result. We'd rather buy a crappy particle board bookshelf three times over, rather than buying a quality product once just because we want to buy it now, or we're "bored" with what we have and we've been told we must always have the newest thing. We've become so accustomed to getting something dirt cheap, we don't see real value anymore.
I'm so glad that there's finally a book to make this even more public. My whole family's been in the furniture industry for over a hundred years (what used to be Broyhill now owned by Furniture Brands Int.). I've heard and seen first hand how shitty the furniture's become because of China's refusal to comply with what the industry standards ask for.
Or, how about we buy less good but of higher (and, maybe American) quality. Easy example- for 10 dollars, you can either get a 6 pack of local microbrews or a 30 pack of Natty Light. See, even your health wins with this one.
I love how American consumers demand the absolute lowest possible prices for items, but then bitch when these cheaply-made products fall apart or are found to be below standards.
As others have pointed out, you get what you pay for.
@JGKojak:
I believe in our wage laws. However, they contribute to higher costs for American made products. Want to know why Toyota makes a better car than GM? It's because they user better quality products in their cars because their employees don't belong to a union.
And we're not talking marginally higher. We're talking drastically higher. The minimum wage in the US is $6.55/hour. The highest minimum wage in China is $106/month. Assuming a 40 hour work week, the US employee more than doubles the Chinese monthly minimum wage... in just a week! In other words, the US employee makes 8 times the wages of the Chinese employee.
But let's not forget... that's the lowest US minimum wage with the highest Chinese minimum wage. In practice, US factory workers make more than minimum wage. We would see a substantial increase in the cost of goods.
Where will this book be printed? Because I don't want to find out it's full of lead and I've been licking my fingers to turn the pages...
I'm personally happy about the tradeoff. It's amazing how much cheaper some products have gotten thanks to the manufacturing boom in china.
Consumer advocacy has really crossed into bizarro land when the companies responsible for "Silent Spring" and "Unsafe at any Speed" are held up against foreign companies as paragons because we've crossed the nationalism/sanity line.
@ARP:
I mostly agree, but don't see how it hurts us. This is the 21st century, not the 1920s. We live in a global economy. Our economy relies on China just as much as their economy relies on the US. China has 1.3 billion consumers. It is the last frontier. We live in a country where McDonalds and Wal-Mart dot the landscape and are near the point of saturation. US companies have reached nearly every possible US consumer. For these companies to continue to grow, they must seek out consumers around the world... and China is the best option. Increasing our presence in China will mean an increase in jobs, both domestic and foreign.
@JGKojak: Those wage/overtime/rights laws come at a price and it is more than marginal. I used to work for a small design services firm. We had very limited production capability, so we contracted out most manufacturing work. We would get multiple quotes, domestic and from China. The price difference was on average ten times cheaper coming from China. In cases where out customer wanted the item produced in the USA, we would still source the custom tooling from China again at the same cost difference. I don't recall any quality problems, the biggest issue was the delay in getting things through customs.
Sorry to disagree, but your proposed trade barriers won't be opposed by China. Opposition would ultimately come from consumers accustomed to paying such low prices.
@Gramin: Yes. The fact that we are a civilized society when it comes to worker protections--we don't want to work people's fingers to the bone; we value time off and a living wage and health care; we don't view humans as an expendable resource--means that we are willing to exploit the people of other countries just to save a few cents.
@Skeetz: If only there was still some American-made cutlery still around. I think Oneida was the last one, and they shuttered their US plants a few years ago. It doesn't matter how much you're willing to pay.
Show me where I can buy the American made high quality good and I'll buy them. Good example - hardware. Recently I went to buy brackets for my stair railing. All made overseas. All cheap casts with instant-stripping screws. I would GLADLY pay $5 more a piece for an American version that had real steel screws and solid metal. For all the eco-rambling out there no one seems concerned about the giant flood of shoddy Chinese crud going into landfills because it is made to last for 6 weeks. Take a look at refrigerator lifetimes now - my old one was made in 1978 and ran for 30 years. I'll be lucky if I get 10 out of the new one.
@JGKojak:
You already have the capacity to enact trade barriers: Stop buying Chinese stuff. If you and enough like minded people stop buying their stuff then they will be forced to change their ways. If there are not enough of you to affect their bottom line, then you are a small minority not worth catering to.
And by the looks of it the safe/ethical camp is either mighty lonely or hypocritical.
I for one welcome our new Chinese overlords, and I can't wait for their next delicious lead based product to show up in my local Walmart.
@Gramin:
I'm not sure you can make the argument that benefit is derived from buying goods on the cheap, given that they often that then fail in short order. Cheap = junk regardless of where something is manufactured. It is not dissimilar to cheap food - eat junk fast food off the 99 cent menu - become obese and develop cardiovascular disease. Purchase things manufactured in China because they are cheap, get items that fail to perform, wear out quickly, and potentially contain toxic chemicals or substances. Not that buying USA made goods is the alternative - it is nearly impossible to even find a US made product to buy in many instances.
I recently went to replace my (failed) Chinese manufactured toaster oven with one built in the USA. There isn't one. None. The closest thing is an Italian built 1/4 size countertop convection oven, which is significantly more massive than the largest toaster oven and about 2.5 times the price of the best quality China made oven. However, the 1/4 size ovens are used in heavy use commercial settings and will last a typical homeowner nearly forever - whereas the typical toaster oven is tired if not done in a few years. I bought the 1/4 oven - my wife loves it.
Finally, it is disengenuous to claim that few if any products manufactured in china have toxicity issues. The public only hears about a small percentage of items that pose a risk. I have comissioned independent testing of suspect items (infant/toddler items) that are Chinese made, as well as many other household items both made in China and not - and found significant lead levels, for example, in plastic items, things that do not appear painted, flatware, baby teether clips(!), cutlery from a major high end retailer, etc. It is endemic and epidemic, it seems.
@katras22: If it is an American company using China as a manufacturing source, it is up to that American company to specify how it is to be made. If it does not meet requirements, it should be rejected. Many of the problems that have made headlines sound to me to be as much a fault with inspection efforts as fraud on the part of Chinese firms. And I am not referring to US government inspectors, but the company that is ultimately responsible for putting the product on the shelf.
@Gramin: So once we saturate the market in China, then what? At what point do these companies stop expanding?
How can you be sure that increasing our presence in China will increase jobs there and here? For example, let's say that 85% of the goods being sold in Walmart are made in China (I really have no idea, but just picking a number). The Walmarts built in China may continue to buy the remaining 15% of goods from America. Or they may not.
They could just as easily make it so all of the goods are made in China, which would probably be cheaper, since there would be no import/export fees. How is this going to increase jobs in America? Will these expanding companies be forced to follow similar wage laws and similar worker safety laws as in the US?
I am not trying to be rude or close-minded, I just think we need to remember that companies are after money, and going global sometimes allows them to take advantage of foreign peoples, whose governments do not always have the same definitions of human rights as we do.
@Unsolicited Advice: In fairness to American companies, Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, and Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed was published in 1965. Just maybe, things have improved in the last 47 and 44 years. I don't think the companies are being held up as paragons of virtue, but the US does have better regulatory laws than China does, and buying an American made product that keeps an American employed is not a bad thing. Now buying a poorly made or unsafe American made product just because it is American made is just dumb.
@ARP: And we're accustomed to getting shoddy merchandise. Coffee makers will run for a year to eighteen months before they burn out. Same for microwaves.
Go to Wal-Mart or Target for a clock radio. They have a wide variety, ranging from as little as $6 to as much as $69. All the same general quality, and all made in China. Which one do you pick? Might as well get the $6 one. You'll be back next year for another one either way. They're disposable, after all, so why pay more than you have to?
This reminds me of the famous quote.
A questioner asked him what went through his mind while he was crouched in the rocket nose-cone, awaiting blastoff. He wryly replied " I was thinking that the rocket had twenty thousand components, and each was made by the lowest bidder". Glenn survived to become a US senator, as well as an inspiration to elderly Americans when he ventured into space again, at age 77.
It's not the price that matters, it's standards and QA on the product that matters. American companies have to treat good manufactured in foreign countries as a "black box" and need stringent Q/C to make sure they are getting what they expect. Sure it's more expensive to have robust QA and contracts that enforce those standards, but anything else is just playing Russian roulette with your customers.
The only difference at GM from 1965 to today is bankruptcy. There is no "quality argument" for American products. The advent of outsourcing and globalism simply create goods that consumers can afford given that average American living standards have steadily fallen since the 70's.
This affects Americans in other ways. How many of us have lost our jobs or businesses because of these cheap Chinese imports?
As a consumer I want to pay the lowest price, but as a worker I don't want to lose my job because of the Chinese underselling American products. They have lower costs for materials, labor, and they don't even have to worry about pollution controls, liability insurance, etc.
It's a double-edged sword and we Americans have not helped ourselves, we've only helped the Chinese.
@HurtsSoGood: It is virtually impossible to stop buying Chinese stuff. Virtually everything from our furniture to appliances to the very clothes on our back is not manufactured domestically these days.
There ARE domestic alternatives but to seek them out would be very costly and time consuming.
How much is Wal-Mart to blame for this? I seem to recall they were one of the first retailers to import from China and eventually other companies, realizing that they needed to compete with Wally World, started importing too. Can anyone verify?
So you're claiming that the US is engaged in a massive conspiracy to hide the dangerous health effects caused by Chinese manufactured products? If something poses a health risk to the American public, the government takes corrective action to remove the product from shelves. However, the government is not responsible for policing the quality of goods. Furthermore, I point back to my statement about Toyota versus GM. Toyota makes a superior vehicle because they can purchase higher quality materials due to the lack of a union and higher employee wages. The same goes for Honda. In the 2009 JD Power quality study, Toyota captured 10 segment awards, more than any other vehicle manufacturer.
But back to the health issue. To date, we have imported about $90MM worth of goods from China. Canada comes in at a distant second, with $70MM worth of goods imported. If so many products are unsafe, as you have claimed, why do we continue to import from China?
America is no longer a manufacturing country. The largest portion of our GDP comes from the services industry, i.e. retail stores. It's a transition that we have to make. It's another reason we should invest in infrastructure and green energy. Our natural resources will run out at some point and the biggest opportunity for jobs exists in that industry. Not only are there great opportunities for job creation, but also a great opportunity to better our planet.
@Gramin: Actually, US vehicles are on par with Toyota nowadays... it wasn't union pay, it was more design mismanagement and poor leadership that led to the decline in quality...
@dragonfire81: They were actually the company that FORCED other companies to lower their prices to the point where companies were those companies had no other choice.
I just can't believe how myopic some peoples views are... not everyone can be a professional... We are essentially selling out our middle class, and doing so in short order. Don't forget... it's the middle-class that built this country...
And that "World Economy" crap... Please... I guess that's why we have such a trade deficit with China. They aren't open to US products... not there are many to be open to... So what exactly is it that their getting from us?
@Gramin: You are kidding right? Underfunding of the regulatory body that checks products is the "conspiracy." It was underfunded for the people at the top so they can continue to make their money.
By the way.... I don't see you pointing out the excessive compensation of Executives as a reason for higher product prices... Leadership starts at the top...
The middle class workers in factories built this country. But those jobs are gone. It's not pleasant but it's a fact and people need to adjust. We're not suggesting that everyone get a J.D., M.D. or Ph.D., however, some type of advanced training is needed. Our country is way behind in education and that needs to be addressed soon or we risk ever-lasting side effects. Americans have become greedy and selfish and believe jobs should be handed to us. That's just not how it works anymore. Uncle Joe can't get you a job in a factory these days because the factory closed its doors two decades ago. And if you don't want to be working at McDonald's for $6.55/hour, then I suggest taking advanced training or enrolling in college. America remains the land of opportunity but you have to want it.
@Gramin: It's not a conspiracy. It's just that, to date, we as a nation still believe that the massive money savings that come from importing from China outweigh such drawbacks as health problems, shoddy construction, lead, losing American jobs and encouraging a society that treats workers like crap.
The quality of products has gone down significantly over the years. Where it was manufactured is fast becoming a mute point. There is a "comfort level" of pricing where no matter what you buy, it will be low quality build. The higher price of items is related to the name of the brand, not the longevity of the product. You have to pay a premium to get to the next tier of quality, which in many cases is substantially higher. Hence the elitist nature of "high-end" goods.
Let me guess, they won't be selling this at Walmart. (Assuming they actually sell books at Walmart, which doesn't seem likely.)
@Gramin: America is the world's largest manufacturer. The US just mainly manufactures capital intensive products (drugs, medical equipment, farming equipment, military equipment, airplanes, and autos I guess). All the labor intensive work is going to China because labor costs are lower compared to the US.
The US could do all its own manufacturing. But that wouldn't be efficient. It's like having a gourmet chef who can cook meals and bus tables better than anyone. But it makes more sense to just have the bus boy clean the tables and the chef make the food.
I left out the overpaid executives but they definitely contribute to increased costs.
The bottom line in this debate is that Americans are unwilling to pay higher prices for US goods when they can purchase a foreign made good for a fraction of the price. The quality debate will go on forever but we'll never stop importing Chinese-made products.
@Gramin: Don't blame unions for all the problems. It's much more complicated than that: crappy designs, sourcing of low cost/low quality components, etc. Also, I thought that everyone was going nuts because union employees made more than non-union (by around $4/hr). I could just as easily blame executive pay.
China buys very little from us and they have no plans on buying more. They don't have to. They own a huge amount of our foreign debt and so they can ignore our demands to buy more of our stuff.
Unfortunately, we in so deep with Chinese products that its difficult to buy from other countries, even if we wanted to.
@redskull: I agree. However, those of us who do want to buy quality products are sometimes stuck. We can't pay more for higher quality even if we want to. Try to buy a small appliance that isn't crap.
@Unsolicited Advice: I'm driving a Chevy Cobalt this week because my wife's car needed body work (hit an all-American deer). It sucks. It beyond sucks. She's driving my car because I think another deer might annihilate this awkward, uncomfortable piece of crap.
Though there have been some recent problems with Chinese manufactured products, the vast majority contain no health risks. And while someone will inevitably argue that products made in the USA are of greater quality (and I would probably agree), I doubt most Americans are willing to pay the higher price for those products. Our wage laws and unions contribute to the higher cost for American goods. Due to the lack of such regulation in China, goods are cheap and we reap the benefits.