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I think about this a lot because I try to never buy anything Chinese or low quality unless I have to. Unfortunately, from my experience artisans aren't willing
by altern8 17d ago
I think about this a lot because I try to never buy anything Chinese or low quality unless I have to.
Unfortunately, from my experience artisans aren't willing to do the work anymore, even if you pay them premium. For instance, a carpenter here in Poland that decided to be a carpenter would rather cut up pre-made cabinets to your specs than make them from scratch using wood, even if I pay them 10x.
Then, people aren't willing to pay premium for stuff. For some reason, they would rather buy 20 products that last year than 1 product that can last 20 or more.
It's a problem for me because I value quality and would be willing to pay premium, but I just can't ever find anything.
- chpatrick 17d agoSpoiler alert, almost everything is made in China, including the premium stuff.
- altern8 17d agoI definitely have to do a lot of work every time I need something, but I can often find products that aren't made in China (normally Germany). If not, I usually just don't buy it new and just go to the thrift store. I can usually find what I need, made 30 years ago that will probably last me for the rest of my life.
- dakolli 17d agoThose things made 30 years are filled with carcinogens. the Chinese make great stuff, your opinion comes off like programmed xenophobia, lay off the twitter.
- altern8 17d agoThat's just my opinion, man. If you think that the Chinese make great stuff, buy it. I don't have a Twitter account.
- dakolli 17d agoMost of my "smart" devices are Chinese. Huawei creates superior products than most western/korean/japanese counterparts. I would prefer everything I own is Chinese, the quality is superb.
- altern8 17d agoAbsolutely! Enjoy. I don't buy anything that has "smart" features, either. For instance, appliances that come with an app I just immediately skip. That might be why I'm not seeing all this superb quality.
- eru 17d agoThere's lots of high quality Chinese stuff, too. Why do you say it as if quality and Chinese don't go together?
- altern8 17d agoWhen I go to any store, the Chinese version is ALWAYS lower quality. I've yet to see the opposite.
- eru 17d agoWhere are you going to shop? And how do you know something is the 'Chinese version'? It's not like for example Apple advertises where they assemble their products. For a concrete example, we get very good rice varieties specifically from certain parts of China. (But here in Singapore people also really care about rice. You generally can't buy good and fresh rice in the middle of the Polish countryside for example.) And, yes, for this product the 'Chinese' variety is superior to eg generic Thai rice. I put 'Chinese' in scare-quotes, because just like you don't just drink 'French wine' when you know what you are doing, you don't just eat 'Chinese' rice. For a lot of tea drinking paraphernalia, the most top of the line items also come from China. Even if you are into, say, Japanese tea.
- altern8 17d agoI either look at the label or do research beforehand. I buy from all kind of places. I wasn't thinking of agricultural products, but rather anything manufactured. As an example, appliances made in Germany will have a cord long enough that you can actually plug into the wall, while the one that's made in China will have a useless 10-centimeter cord that would force me to use an extension. Your mileage might vary, this is just my experience, but it's been pretty consistent for a few decades, with things going downhill in the past I'd say 5 years or so.
- eru 17d agoWe are happy with our Miele appliances (washing machine, dryer, dish washer.) But we also have plenty of Chinese stuff that works well. I've recently had kids, and I'm actually impressed at how much toys have improved in quality since I was a kid growing up in Germany. And, yes, most of these new toys come from China etc. By and large, they seem to be sturdier and last a lot longer, and are cheaper, too. I'm especially impressed by the light-up shoes we bought. I guess you can blame that on general improvements in LEDs and battery technology in that specific case, maybe. For what it's worth, I now live in Singapore, and we are very open on trade, so as a consumer you benefit from especially brutal competition.
- spwa4 17d ago> Unfortunately, from my experience artisans aren't willing to do the work anymore, even if you pay them premium. "premium" ? No they've had to lower their prices because otherwise you would never even look at them in the first place (or they don't get a livable amount of work, even if you personally do pay like you say). And the drop in prices has to come from somewhere. Quality is by far the easiest thing to skimp on.
- loloquwowndueo 17d agoCurious where your entirely 100% not-made-in-china computer and/or smartphone come from. Taiwan perhaps?
- altern8 17d agoNot sure, it's a Google Pixel. But a smartphone would probably fall into the "unless I have to" category. What's your point?
- loloquwowndueo 17d agoWow defensive much? I was just curious to see if you’d found a non-Chinese phone and/or computer anywhere. Chill out man.
- altern8 17d agoNo idea what you're talking about, I just replied to your message normally
- platevoltage 17d agoI don't think we read the same reply you did.
- platevoltage 17d agoIts not the 90s anymore. China can make stuff, and they make most of your stuff.