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We've gone through the 'cheap Asian knockoff' cycles many times before. I can remember when it was Japanese stuff that was supposedly 'cheap and shoddy' but we
by simonblack 5y ago
We've gone through the 'cheap Asian knockoff' cycles many times before.
I can remember when it was Japanese stuff that was supposedly 'cheap and shoddy' but we all went out later and bought Mazda and Toyota cars and Canon cameras.
Then it was the Taiwanese stuff and today the whole world can't do without Taiwanese computer chips.
Then it was the Chinese stuff, and the same cycle. But the scene is changing. In the same way as I originally thought the Japanese stuff wasn't up to par and then bought a Mazda Rotary that I absolutely loved, I see that the Chinese Haval is not at all a bad SUV for the price.
These days it seems to be that it's Vietnam's turn to be going through the cycle. Starting off cheap, and then later moving up the value-added ladder.
History repeats. Products are made to a price. Just because we usually see the cheap Asian shit that our companies try to foist upon us doesn't mean those Asian countries can't produce high-quality stuff for themselves to use against us.
There was a cartoon from the 1940s that showed Bugs Bunny finger-flicking a Japanese battleship that then fell to pieces. That wasn't at all the actuality of what happened when the US Navy finally met the Japanese Navy in early 1942.
- _shadi 5y agoThe original cycle started with Germany: "Where does the rubbish in every country come from? Germany!" https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/brands-geographical-origin-and-the-global-economy/unfair-competition-and-the-british-merchandise-marks-act-1926/333CB418A4C904E11EF0B9058EC5CB97 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/brands-geographical...
- ffhhj 5y agoThat's really interesting. Germany > Japan > China all of them became tech powers. So the moral is copy, sell, develop, ..., profit!
- simonblack 5y agoBut then, if you go back far enough, it was United States > Germany > Japan > China The US got its own start by copying and ripping off British IP in the early 1800s. https://apnews.com/article/b40414d22f2248428ce11ff36b88dc53 https://apnews.com/article/b40414d22f2248428ce11ff36b88dc53