Rethinking "Made in China"

[Swingman]

Yep, with 20 million produced the increased opportunity for "practice" would be logical, eh?

Apparently over your head also ...

[Swingman]

Agreed on all counts ... but what superior "price point" engineering! :)

There was something intrinsically "elegant" about the engineering on the original Porsche designed VW ... akin to a three line algorithm taking the place of a thousand lines of code, if you know what I mean.

[notbob]

I can't say the same thing about the bug and Opel, but I know my Rabbit had the greatest seats in the history of automobiles. I used to work, on my feet, for 10-12 hrs on the production floor and at the end of the day when I came out to my old Rab, I'd jes sit there in it and luxuriate for a couple mins in its perfect spinal alignment. It was like a personal chiropractor. I once considered doing my house in Rabbit front seats... dinette set, circular lounge, etc. LOL

nb

[notbob]

....as is the overwhelming contradictory feedback in this thread to your premise that vee-dubs are reliable.

I'll concede that VW has a lot of great things going for it. I'd even consider buying one, again. I'd like to try the later model turbo diesels if diesel fuel in the US would stabalize. But, your zealotry for all things Euro is just plain wrong and does not reflect my real world experiences with all brands, worldwide. VW is no more reliable than MANY other brands I've owned and, in fact, doesn't even rate in the top five.

You can resort to name calling or you can discuss in a rational discourse. The former is grounds for dismissal

nb

[Swingman]

"....as opposed to baseless dogma spewed by narrow minded twits who refuse to see beyond personal prejudices."

And example of "rational discourse" by you, eh?

[notbob]

A perfectly example of you inability to mount a viable argument.

Please.... continue to make a fool of yourself.

nb

[Swingman]

Yeah right ... you're way too easy, dude. It's been fun, but I'm going to make some sawdust now that it's warmed up a bit.

Enjoy continuing to talk into that mirror ...

[Jules]

Yes, that's how ours is... water heater, clothes dryer and baseboard heat all load-controlled on off-peak. The 30yr old fridge is probably responsible for a good proportion of our monthly "non off-peak" bill (along with the TV and the electric stove).

Our water heater's got one of those stickers on it which claims it's quite high in terms of efficiency - but it's also quite old (albeit descaled earlier this year) so newer ones probably do better. I thought about insulating it more, but the outside surface gets barely warm anyway - plus like with the fridge anything it loses as heat is doing useful work for more than half the year. Maybe there is a case for putting it on a timer just during the summer months; we usually end up using all the hot in an evening, and there's probably no point having it maintaining water heat all night long...

cheers

Jules

[Nonny]

A person I know very well and whose comments I value, is a materials buyer for one of the largest, global, manufacturing companies in the world. He deals with many vendors in many nations to get the materials to build large computer-type devices sold globally. He deals with Pacific Rim vendors and manufacturers daily, including mainland China.

He explained his belief of why dealing with the Pacific Rim/Chinese vendors is so different than dealing with European vendors. In summary, it's the Judeo/Christian teachings vs. the Buddhist/Confucian/Hindu etc. teachings about lying. He told me that we're all taught that we should always tell the truth and trade honestly, where the Chinese-type vendors don't believe it's bad to lie or cheat on a transaction. To them, the shame (loss of face) comes from getting caught- not if they get away with it.

His personal technique is to order from a vendor and stage serious inspections both at the production site and upon receipt of the items. If there is even the slightest discrepancy, he has his people throw a fit. The product is returned, screaming phone calls are made, threats to never deal with them again are made, upstream and downstream vendors are notified and even government officials are brought into the fray. The goal is to send the message to the manufacturer or vendor that cheating will be caught and the maximum amount of embarrassment (loss of face) will be extracted. Once the fray has died down, the new vendor will usually supply what is negotiated and ordered for a while. Then, the cycle starts all over again.

BTW, the Japanese have a similar technique that seldom fails. For instance, let's use lumber as an example. When a US/Canadian vendor decides to sell hardwood in Japan, the buyer will ask the vendor for a graded sample of the materials. It's not at all uncommon in our own culture to select samples that showcase our product in its best light. This doesn't work with the Japanese, however. When the shipment reaches Japan, the hardwood is judged against the sample, the matching or better material is kept and anything substandard is returned. There is no compromise for a bell-shaped grading curve: it's the sample-or-better side of the curve, only. Many a new vendor has learned a hard lesson about that little cultural difference.

The last example is about a US built product that is sold by one company in the US and another in Japan. Both come off the same assembly line, but with different tags on them: USA or Japan names. The item shipped to Japan is literally invaded by inspectors for the buyer, and even things like fingerprints on the inside of the cabinet rate down marks. . . enough of which and the product is returned. There are different standards, beyond performance, that affect Japanese-bound items.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 12/17/2009 6:42 AM J. Clarke spake thus:

Also a railroading term.

[Leon]

It may differ with location but for the most part the teachers you are describing are what we had 20 years ago, but not in Houston today. Today they are asking "how to do" from the kids. I know it is not their fault, the teachers, for the most part the good ones are long since gone. And they are gone because they no longer want to be baby sitters instead of maintaining discipline and actually teaching. Teaching should also be considered a part of how a child is taught to act and to respect others. That does not happen any more. While I agree the restrictions/cigarettes was the root of the problem. That problem has decayed enough that we now can only get baby sitters/the cancer, to hold positions for any length of time. Any decent new teacher typically becomes a bad one or leaves the system. The problem is through out the whole education system now.

The HS my son went to was an exception to the norm, that school had "good" teachers and there was not a discipline problem. That public HS was by invitation only. The only requirement to be invited to attend that school was that you needed to have a "Satisfactory" average, for conduct, that's it. If a student became a discipline problem they were warned once and the second time transferred to one of the other HS's in the district.

When my son began at that HS the school had grades 9-12. In all four grade levels there were only 650 students. I would estimate that in the other 3 HS's that there were in excess of 10K and that is a very conservative estimate. Out of all of those students approximately 150 were invited each year to attend Kerr HS.

Kerr HS taught the kids how to prepare for college every day. There was no week off to study for the TAAS test, which is a Texas thing to judge how the students are coming along for their grade level. His middle school took a week every year to review for that test. IIRC the year my son graduated 95% of the students had been accepted to a college. IIRC 87% of those students had been awarded scholarships of $15K or more.

I'm certain that the education that my son received at Kerr HS played a very major roll in him transitioning so smoothly into college. I recall the

10th graders mentoring the incoming 9th graders and most of them were high achievers. Life transitioning into Kerr HS was a bigger challenge for my son than going from that HS into college. I am also certain that Kerr HS played a major part in my son getting into the Honors College his first year at the university and graduating with a 4 year average GPA of 3.87.

[Leon]

Sounds exactly like the typical "former" employee with an ax to grind would say.

I'd say get rid of public education and all the bureaucracy that come with it. Privatize it.

[Leon]

Also a Dope term.....

[Swingman]

"Summa Cum Laude" at that! Right?

Don't forget to add "parenting" into the equation.

Like Doug Miller's young Eagle Scout, few young folks achieve what both your boys have achieved without the parents being a BIG part of the success story.

[Leon]

Not yet! Before deregulation in TX I participated in a pilot program with our only source for electricity. In 1995 they installed the fancy programmable/hooked up to a modem central air thermostat. They also installed a switch on the WH that was controlled by the central air thermostat. During the Summer months I paid as little as 2.4 cents at night, 3.4 cents in the late mornings, 12 cents in the afternoon and 6.5 cents early evening. Summer weekends an all Winter long never over 6.5 cents. The thermostac would control "what worked when" and inside temperatures according to pricing tiers during the day and to what I decided should be done at those points. Daily the thermostat would read the digital electric meter and "phone home" the information concerning my usage. At any time I could see how many KWh I had used for the day, week, and month. I cold also see what the electricity had cost me for those time periods and a projected estimated bill for the month. I LOVED IT!

I have not seen any thing like it since. However over the next 10 years the Utility company is going to replace all the electric meters with digital ones, like I had 15 years ago. Perhaps then I can get back on a plan.

I basically had the same set up except I told the WH to come on at 8:pm and run for 3 hours and again at 5:00 am and run for 1 hour. That worked out fine also.

[Leon]

Well you have to also consider and I have had to factor this in before. If the unit is old you must admit it may be on borrowed time, may be not. But if you wait till it fails the food is going to be a costly factor added to the cost of replacement if you don't catch the problem quickly enough. You really never consider that angle till it happens.

[clare]

"fork tailed lawyer killer" is another one.

[Leon]

Yeah but Bryan was not around to help me spell it. My computer surely would have turned it into Lookey Chop Suey.

I guess, it seemed prett easy to me.

Absolutely.

[clare]

The best available freezers 30 years ago were within percentages of the efficiency of the run-of-the-mill freezer available toda, and the difference from the poorest to the best today is something like 7%. Thirty years ago, foam insulation was already becoming standard on the premium units. The vast majority of today's PREMIUM units will be in the scrapyard in

20 years or less. Many don't last more than 10 years. The cheap stuff is even worse. They may still cool, but the shelves are falling out and the doorseals are leaking, and they piddle on the floor like a 6 week old puppy.

[Leon]

Crap Lew, I am bored so I am going to come back with an answer that you are going to "owe me one" for. I'll be prepairing to duck.

Why would I need an electric hot water heater? ;~)

Thank you George Carlin.