"Palm Bay ponders ban on goods made in China at meeting tonight
BY LINDA JUMP
PALM BAY - If it’s made in China, the mayor doesn’t want it.
And tonight, City Council members will consider on first reading an ordinance proposed by Mayor John Mazziotti that would prohibit the city’s purchase of any goods manufactured in China.
“We are losing jobs left and right to them,” Mazziotti said. He said recent concerns about the quality and safety of items prompted his request.
Last month, several Mattel toys were recalled after it was discovered that lead paint was used on toy cars and that action figures and some dolls contained small magnets that could be swallowed. Wal-Mart pulled Chinese-made binders and pet products from their shelves because of safety concerns.
The proposed ordinance reads that the city will take the action because Chinese products hurt the American economy, and because “there is a complete lack of environmental, health and safety standards in product manufacturing in China.”
The ordinance would prevent the city from buying any items costing more than $50 that are manufactured or assembled in China or that contain more than 50 percent components from China. Exceptions are for emergency purchases, if the item is not available otherwise or if the cost is more than 150 percent higher.
While the free market is always best, I know that the Chinese are VERY long-term thinkers. If they deliberately undercut American-made goods and simultaneously use lead paint on toys and sundry other items, what are the consequences of this 40 or 50 years down the road?
“While the free market is always best, I know that the Chinese are VERY long-term thinkers. If they deliberately undercut American-made goods and simultaneously use lead paint on toys and sundry other items, what are the consequences of this 40 or 50 years down the road?”
I’m pretty sure it’s the crappy quality that ALLOWS them to undercut us. Free market is best, just get people to stop buying Chinese goods. If you want to support American goods, buy American goods, don’t force that on us.
Or they could just place standards on the quality of goods crossing the border.
I’m surprised to see you heralding around anything but the pure free market, HH.
[quote]Beowolf wrote:
Or they could just place standards on the quality of goods crossing the border.
[/quote]
This is definitely the way to go. Another option is to force manufacturers to pay for proper disposal or recycling of the consumer goods they produce. On average, 20-25% of goods coming from China are defective (Aus figures, I assume it is the same in the US) and dumped before hitting the market and the taxpayer foots most of the disposal bill.
Further, as we all know, most goods are not designed to last or be repaired. So by forcing manufacturers to pay for disposal you might encourage production of higher quality goods, longer-lasting goods, less waste/defective goods and goods that can be repaired (re-birth of the repair shop?). Obviously China could bring their manufacturing practices up to standard but it would give the skilled local and specialised businesses some breathing room.
Utopia is at hand, gentlemen
Isn’t fascinating that China employs very low-wage workers to feed the rich capitalist consumers? Marx would have a lot of fun with this one — its like a 19th century factory on a global scale, with the Chinese workers as the proletariat and the US consumer as the bloated capitalist.
The Chinese and Saudis have us by the balls but we have them too; we can’t pay if we go down.
“Those incidents were apparently just dress rehearsals for bigger things to come. In late 2005, the Federal Reserve (or “Fed”) announced that beginning in March 2006, it would no longer be publishing figures for M3 (the largest measure of the money supply). M3 has been the main staple of money supply measurement and transparent disclosure for the last half-century, the figure on which the world has relied in determining the soundness of the dollar. But the curtain was now to drop. What was it that we weren’t supposed to know? March 2006 was also the month Iran announced it would begin selling oil in Euros. Some observers suspected that the Fed was gearing up to use newly-printed dollars to buy back a flood of U.S. securities dumped by foreign central banks.”
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
“Those incidents were apparently just dress rehearsals for bigger things to come. In late 2005, the Federal Reserve (or “Fed”) announced that beginning in March 2006, it would no longer be publishing figures for M3 (the largest measure of the money supply). M3 has been the main staple of money supply measurement and transparent disclosure for the last half-century, the figure on which the world has relied in determining the soundness of the dollar. But the curtain was now to drop. What was it that we weren’t supposed to know? March 2006 was also the month Iran announced it would begin selling oil in Euros. Some observers suspected that the Fed was gearing up to use newly-printed dollars to buy back a flood of U.S. securities dumped by foreign central banks.”
Now, why would they stop publishing M3?[/quote]
Why would they start lying about inflation and productzion rises?
Because US citizens would get that they are taxed in a roundabout way and people abroad would only buy T-bonds at adiscount.
In other words, the ship is going down and lying is cheaper than pumping water.
