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I wish by law Amazon (and other stores) were forced to show country of origin of the products. Last week I needed to buy a new kettle and this was a nightmare t

I wish by law Amazon (and other stores) were forced to show country of origin of the products. Last week I needed to buy a new kettle and this was a nightmare to find a product that is not made in China (for ethical reasons). It should be as easy as selecting a country you want a product from - instead you have to go through each individual listing, look through photos or answers. Sometimes it is easy to find where product is made by just looking at description (e.g. broken English), but some sellers go out of their way to mask where things are made. As a consumer I should be able to filter products I don't want more easily. Then when you order a product you get these cards that say if you leave a positive review, you'll get a discount or free product. If you leave a negative review, you can brace yourself for being bombarded by Chinese companies threatening you in various ways to delete the review. Amazon needs to sort this out and if they cannot do it, regulator should step in. edit: here we go again, something negative about China and commment is being downvoted. Can Hacker News do something about Chinese bots?

simion314 6y ago
You could have been downvoted by "true americans" that hate any kind of regulation and think that free market solves anything. IMO regulation for more transparency should be no issue with the anti-regulation fans except if they would be affected by transparency.
- ticviking 6y ago
  Transparency is a kind of regulation though. One that I think we sorely need. Along side anti-basic anti-trust and some small protective tariffs for countries that don't have good labor standards. Much of the cost of stuff made in the first world is the cost of having a first world regulatory framework and workplace protections.
  - simion314 6y ago
    >Transparency is a kind of regulation though. Sure, and the anti-regulation or anti-tax guys still demand that police protect their money and goods - so I can't understand when the anti-regulation fanatic is saying that free market will eventually solve this , transparency is too much of a burden or danger.
Y_Y 6y ago
So you won't boil water in a Chinese kettle, yet you happily collect tons of downvotes from best-in-class Chinese votebots? Pick a lane!
barbazoo 6y ago
There seem to be laws around having to put the "made in ..." on the product itself, it shouldn't be hard to put that on the online product description as well. I'd be for that. It's not an anti-[any country] thing, I'd just prefer things that are made close to where I am.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  Made in x is a fundamentally misleading metric with anything of complex supply chains and international trades. Thanks to old pissing matches there is tarrif induced inefficient stupidity of "almost finished goods" which are shipped and then "manufactured" by doing token last steps domestically just for tarrif avoidance.
dang 6y ago
You broke the site guidelines badly with that bit at the end. Please review them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Note the one asking you not to go on about downvotes, and the other (much more important) one asking you not to make up stories about astroturfing, brigading, etc. There's zero evidence that you were downvoted by "bots", and that sort of fantasy swipe is off topic here for very good reason.

simion314 6y ago

You could have been downvoted by "true americans" that hate any kind of regulation and think that free market solves anything. IMO regulation for more transparency should be no issue with the anti-regulation fans except if they would be affected by transparency.

ticviking 6y ago
Transparency is a kind of regulation though. One that I think we sorely need. Along side anti-basic anti-trust and some small protective tariffs for countries that don't have good labor standards. Much of the cost of stuff made in the first world is the cost of having a first world regulatory framework and workplace protections.
- simion314 6y ago
  >Transparency is a kind of regulation though. Sure, and the anti-regulation or anti-tax guys still demand that police protect their money and goods - so I can't understand when the anti-regulation fanatic is saying that free market will eventually solve this , transparency is too much of a burden or danger.

Y_Y 6y ago

So you won't boil water in a Chinese kettle, yet you happily collect tons of downvotes from best-in-class Chinese votebots? Pick a lane!

barbazoo 6y ago

There seem to be laws around having to put the "made in ..." on the product itself, it shouldn't be hard to put that on the online product description as well. I'd be for that. It's not an anti-[any country] thing, I'd just prefer things that are made close to where I am.

Nasrudith 6y ago
Made in x is a fundamentally misleading metric with anything of complex supply chains and international trades. Thanks to old pissing matches there is tarrif induced inefficient stupidity of "almost finished goods" which are shipped and then "manufactured" by doing token last steps domestically just for tarrif avoidance.

dang 6y ago

You broke the site guidelines badly with that bit at the end. Please review them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Note the one asking you not to go on about downvotes, and the other (much more important) one asking you not to make up stories about astroturfing, brigading, etc. There's zero evidence that you were downvoted by "bots", and that sort of fantasy swipe is off topic here for very good reason.