Even Wood Shims!?

[dpb]

Charlie Self wrote: ...

And the trucking companies benefit the manufacturer and retailer and the retailer benefits the consumer/end user. All is a whole.

[EXT]

This is the same problem that England faced in the late 50s and early 60s. Manufacturing was collapsing and moving to North America. One example was their auto industry. They had several auto manufacturers, Rolls Royce, Land Rover, British Ford, British GM, and Standard Auto who made several brands, along with the specialty auto companies. Now they are virtually all gone, closed or sold to someone else. Times were rough in the 70s and 80s, now they are starting to pick up again now that the economy has adapted. Whether the US market can adapt is yet to be seen.

[I M Curious]

(bumper sticker) Save The Whales. Collect The Entire Set ---- Posted via Pronews.com - Premium Corporate Usenet News Provider ----

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[Lobby Dosser]

Dog and cat food here. Plus tooth paste and drug base in Panama. It's not just us they're getting even with. :o)

[Lobby Dosser]

Yeah, I should have qualified that. Their CEOs also buy private jets.

[Douglas Johnson]

Indeed they do. But unless there are a hell of a lot of CEO's, somebody else is buying all those cars and condos. Even the four-buck-a-day factory worker is living better than their wildest dreams.

Twenty years ago, essentially everyone in the country was a slave. They lived where they told, did the work they were told, and were paid essentially nothing.

China's government has some world class problems (broken banking system, totally inadequate infrastructure, pollution, among others), but the people are hugely better off than they were.

-- Doug

-- Doug

[Swingman]

"Douglas Johnson" wrote

Let's hope they are farsighted enough to give credit where credit is ultimately due ... to the capitalistic societies of the West.

But probably not ... to the ultimate detriment of both.

[Douglas Johnson]

When the Brits returned Hong Kong to China in the 90's, China swore they were not going change it, that they wanted a capitalist example. My thought was "Yeah, right.". But they didn't change it. Capitalism spread across the border into Guangdong province and up the coast from there.

The young folks (teens and 20's) in China love American pop culture -- fast food, Hollywood, TV, and music. Actually, it is kind of embarrassing. I think America exports some of the worst of our culture.

The ultimate luxury car is a Buick. Forget that German or Japanese iron.

English is a required subject in the schools. It is hard to walk down the street without a kid running up to say "Hello" or "What time is it?" just to try out their English.

How much mileage this will get us in the long term is another question.

-- Doug

[Han]

Douglas Johnson wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Better, more readable manuals!!

[Mark & Juanita]

Certainly worked very well with the Former Soviet Union (emphasis on former). The infiltration of western culture (some of it more appropriately hypothetical "culture") helped further the fall of the totalitarian state. At their heart, almost all people have the need for freedom; governments like the Soviet State and the Chinese Communists can only hold the lid on so long before things blow up. China, like the Soviet Union before it, is now experimenting with "controlled capitalism" and "limited freedom" in an attempt to maintain strong central control by the ruling class. I'm sure their ruling class is trying to apply "lesssons learned" from watching the fall of the FSU, thinking that by applying a little more force here or there they can maintain the high degree of control they now enjoy. A little freedom is like being a little pregnant and no freedom, such as they had before while seeing what others have is not cannot be maintained indefinitely. North Korea is a prime example of the latter case; they are either going to kill all of their people or are going to have to undergo a revolution.

[Swingman]

"Han" Douglas Johnson wrote i

LOL. It could be worse ... and was. How soon we forget the early Japanese efforts in teaching us how to assemble their products! :)

[Lew Hodgett]

SFWIW, I used to tell the people who wrote the tech manuals to take the stuff home and ask their spouse to read it.

If they didn't understand it, it was back to the rewrite desk time.

Lew

[Edwin Pawlowski]

English is taught in schools in many countries. I've even heard people in Quebec speak it :)

I'm waiting for the day the Chinese government refuses to sell to Wal Mart and then takes over our economy.

[I M Curious]

Meanwhile, back in the USA, we have people who think capitalism is dead or dying, and trying to push us into a socialist state. Go figure. ---- Posted via Pronews.com - Premium Corporate Usenet News Provider ----

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[Lobby Dosser]

"First you must have peace of mind."

[Douglas Johnson]

I have, too. But not until I told them I was from the states. They forgive the poor, ignorant Yanks for being mono-lingual. -- Doug

[Edwin Pawlowski]

The US schools do a poor job on language. You may get a year of Spanish or French but it is a far cry from every day conversational use when all is done. My own language skills are lacking, but I do learn at least a few words of a country that I'm visiting, but hear a lot of English spoken, especially in tourist areas.

We get a lot of truck drivers from Quebec. Most speak little or no English or just refuse to. OTOH, I've never had a problem when visiting there.

[Robert Allison]

Having been raised in Brownsville, TX, I am quite used to people speaking more than one language. I took 3 years of spanish in high school which basically gave me the basic structure of the language but I could not converse unless someone wanted to know where the library was.

After going to work, I learned in a hurry. I and one other guy were the only people on the jobsite where english was their first language. Immersion is the way to go.

I still find it strange that people only speak one language. I am not absolutely fluent, but I can carry on a lengthy conversation.

[NuWave Dave]

Donde queda la biblioteca ? I even remember the book.

- Dave in Houston

[jo4hn]

I went out of my way to learn how to say "I have a blue pencil" in several languages. I am now working on "a polyglot is a multi-sided glot". Tough. mahalo, jo4hn