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The whole galvanization issue goes to show just how inherently "cheap"/efficient/economic the whole car making industry is. Even a 20-cent nail used for outdoors would have "hot-dipped" zinc coating, whereas even the most upscale luxury car would only have "galvanization"/electric-plating . . . because electric-plating would involve a much thinner sacrificial zinc layer than the thick sacrificial zinc layer found on the 20-cent nail.
I never bought an 80's Honda Civic or any other Japanese or Korean car, nor did I ever buy any Chevy, Opal or VW. I have lived in the Northeast snow/salt belt since the beginning of my driving age, so I have always bought specific car modes that have been known for rust resistance, regardless country of origin. Late model LandCruiser and LX twins are supposed to be very good at rust-resistance, but they are a little over my budget.
"Uncontrolled growth" is about the only real growth there is. Controlled central planning tend not to produce any growth . . . kinda makes sense: by the time government bureaucrats have laid out the planned controls (with traps set to benefit themselves), someone else would have long front-run the development potential. "Don't dump industrial effluent in the river" sounds reasonable if one assumes lawmaking is done by God (or whatever other omniscient and omnipotent deity you subscribe to) who knows everything in advance and can in no way derive benefit from his/her/its own decisions. In the real world, "effluent" has to be defined by self-interested and near-sighted politicians, who used to support London industrial air output because the factories generated more tax revenue than the farmers whose crop suffered from the polluted air, and who nowadays want to tax CO2 despite its beneficial effect on all green plants because once again a tax on CO2 would generate additional tax revenue. Follow the money, as they say, and man-made laws are little more than legalized predation. Letting people sue for actual damages post-facto probably works out better than most anticipatory laws that forecloses possibilities pre-emptively.
Life is about taking risks. Driving at all is a huge risk. Even Toyota can have brake malfunctions and stop-button UI snaffus; even being married to a state police trooper can still run the risk of dying in a firy crash driven by the same said husband despite his supposed professional driving training; even laws demanding speed limit and observation of end of road signs could still not prevent the same trooper from driving way over speed limit, running through all the signs, and fling his family out of the end of the road. Man-made laws are not extensions of God's own arms, with his presumed infinite wisdom. On the other hand, a simple critical article from Consumer Report made Lexus fix GX stability control quicker than any laborious process that would proceed any NHSTA enforced recall.
As for why we have recently seen a spate of product problems from China, there can be three very logical reasons:
1. Most newly manufactured products are from there nowadays. It's hard to have problem products from any country if it's not making anything. Offloading product liability (and production liability) is actually one of the reasons behind outsourcing overseas, in the face of more and more stringent consumer safety and environmental laws. I'm not at all against litigation on behalf of consumers and neighbors damaged by manufacturers' oversight. That's why I often posit that Chinese are actually getting the short end of the stick for having those jobs polluting their own home villages, whereas we just get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
2. Many Chinese products are low-margin products, where cost-cutting is the norm. The dying capacitor problem was one of those, but the market place is rapidly finding solutions: now many new computer and electronic products are advertised as containing "solid capacitors." The lead paint problem actually wasn't due to cost-cutting as lead paint actually cost more money than lead-free paint; lead paint just looks shinier. It's like the old joke about idiots putting grease on the brake pads' working surface, or first-time car owners putting tire dressing on tires that ends up shortening tire plasticizer lives.
3. Some politically motivated scape-goating focusing on those relatively rare incidents (just like food safety scares in order to justify expanded food bureaucracy). IMHO, wishful thinking about getting those manufacturing jobs back if only China could disappear from earth is quite misguided. The recent tariff on automobile tires only led to more imports, from other countries. In other words, American consumers end up having to pay for higher prices for their tires without generating any American jobs; in fact, probably lost American jobs because the distribution margin is lower due to the tariff, hence the distribution businesses have to let go some workers.
posted by 76.118.39...
, Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:52:09
, Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:24:46
, Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:20:43
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