As if poisoned pet food wasn't enough

The old adage 'you get what you pay for' may apply here. Hopefully the market forces will play a role in poor quality imported goods.

 

Seriously, what do you expect from a communist country?

In my family, we don't buy any stuff made in China if it is
(1) something we eat
(2) something affect the safety of our lives

Yes, we check the labels.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ceric @ Jun 26 2007, 12:39 PM) [snapback]468338[/snapback]</div>

I hate to sound racist, but I've made some similar decisions. I especially have questions over the organic vegetables that come from China. Who is checking and regulating this? How do we know it's organic? I've bought non-organic, US-grown foods over Chinese-grown organics.

 

Of course Firestone tires made right here in the good old USA did just about the same thing and caused at least 62 deaths... Must have been all those Chinese workers in the Firestone plants. :blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jun 26 2007, 07:45 PM) [snapback]468550[/snapback]</div>

I'm not saying I have great faith in some US corporations. But at least they are accountable to a certain process and certain amount of oversight.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jun 26 2007, 04:45 PM) [snapback]468550[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nytimez @ Jun 26 2007, 05:51 PM) [snapback]468571[/snapback]</div>

There's no excuse for selling unsafe products. But the Chinese have no monopoly on that. Firestone, as noted above, was no more "accountable" than this Chinese tire manufacturer. And the Ford Pinto should tell everyone that Ford is pure evil: all that matters is the almighty dollar, and if the product kills people, they don't give a damn, as long as the lawsuits cost less than the profit made on the product.

The Chinese company that made these tires deserves to be boycotted. So do Ford and Firestone.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 26 2007, 11:24 PM) [snapback]468643[/snapback]</div>

What?

There's something wrong with my Pinto?!?

...it doesn't have anything to do with that sloshing sound I hear coming from the fuel tank...does it...?
[laughing]

------

I'm getting the feeling that there's a small but growing groundswell of sentiment against Chinese-made products. They do seem to push the boundries of decent (and I use the term loosely to begin with) business practices. No hard facts to support this, just a suspicion...in response to what I've been reading and hearing over the last six months or so.

There was a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor about how if you're going to buy imported products, it's better to buy Taiwanese than Chinese.

This gave me pause.

Wasn't Taiwan responsible for the glut of cheap bicycle frames here in the US?; their heavy-metal polluted coastal waters are a testiment to their commercial success. Now, suddenly, their products are to be preferred by conscientious US consumers?

It's a bit confusing to me.

It's all making freeganism look better and better, even if it's only a response to the overwhelming amount of usable stuff we trash.

 

eehh. I don't fault Ford for that at all. I don't really fault the Chinese tire company either (yet). Sh*t happens. I too try to avoid all Chinese products when possibly, but it gets harder every day.

BTW, doesn't organic food from China totally defeat the purpose? You're buying slave wage food products that are shipped ALL the way accross the world so you can say "organic!" And, yes there is no way to regulate "organic" in a foreign communict country.

I WAS really pissed about the dog food. That was flat out deceit and poisening of pets to make a little more money. I had to switch dog foods when mine was recalled, and the new one caused diarea to the point that my poor dog "leaked" all over the living room carpet. I'm now on the second try of replacing the recalled food with fingers crossed (and shampooer still ready).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 26 2007, 11:24 PM) [snapback]468643[/snapback]</div>

There is a difference between shoddiness and deceit.

There is the careless cutting corners to save a buck.

And there is the intentional addition of a poisonous chemical to deceive the buyer into paying more for less. As in adding melamine to pet food to make it seem like it has more protein than it does and resulting in the death of the pet.

There are other instances of both deceit and shoddiness in Chinese goods. Even their own people die as a result. We just don't hear a lot about it.

Everyone (well, Republicans mostly) complain about government interference, regulations etc. but I'd rather have those than babies dieing because the formula they're drinking has no nutritional value. To me the pet food, toothpaste, baby formula etc is an example of STFO when you start complaining about U.S. regulations. If it weren't for all of those regulations and departments that oversee and enforce them, U.S. companies would operate just like China.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Jun 27 2007, 10:47 AM) [snapback]468906[/snapback]</div>

I work with a lot of Chinese manufacturers. We need to keep a VERY close eye on them. There's a mindset there that if the product looks ok then it must be ok. This tire thing seems like the same type of issue i.e. It looks fine therefore it is fine.

Also, in China it's pretty standard practice for businesses to lie about thier products. Anything to make a sale is considered fair game.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Jun 27 2007, 12:57 PM) [snapback]468910[/snapback]</div>

Do you use dry or canned?

If dry try Cannidae or Wellness. Both U.S. made with totally U.S. products. No corn. No wheat gluten. No beaks or feathers.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nytimez @ Jun 26 2007, 08:51 PM) [snapback]468571[/snapback]</div>

Sure, they are accountable to their stockholders and that is about it.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(San_Carlos_Jeff @ Jun 27 2007, 02:06 PM) [snapback]468918[/snapback]</div>

And how is that any different from what US companies do?

 

There stockholders are us. Mutual funds, 401Ks, IRAs. There's just so many of us, with our small retirements spread SOOO wide accross Wallstreet, and our individual voices are SOOO small, that we lose any kind of meaningful oversight over the companies we are vested in. It's the great flaw of publically traded companies. At least in privately owned business, the CEO/owners have to use foresight to ensure their survivablility. Publicly traded companies do not have any incentive to forego short term profit for long term survival (let alone social morality).

Yet nearly any good paying job essentially forces you to invest in the beast.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jun 27 2007, 02:24 PM) [snapback]468929[/snapback]</div>

And the last thing shareholders want is for the company they own a part of to go bust because of recalls or shoddy products.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Jun 27 2007, 02:27 PM) [snapback]468935[/snapback]</div>

Actually, there is a huge disincentive to long-term planning and they are called quarterly earnings. Having worked as a financial analyst for a couple of NYSE traded companies, I can tell you that they are the only thing that matters. In a US corporation, the future is the end of the current quarter. If you hit the numbers the Wall Street analysts have set for your company, your stock will rise. If you don't, your stock falls. And, if you can't make your numbers in the real world, your accounting staff will figure out someway to make them on paper. You don't need to look any further than Enron to see that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jun 27 2007, 11:24 AM) [snapback]468929[/snapback]</div>

I think the threat of legal action (lawsuits, jail, etc) keep it more under control in the US and most other westernized countries. As far as I can tell there aren't such reprecussions for Chinese companies and their owners. BTW, this isn't just a problem in China it's the way things are in most (if not all) rapidly developing manufacturing centers.

 

True. Fighting importers shoddy products or slave wage practices is a giant game of whack a mole.

US companies look to save a buck by outsourcing to country X. This works for a while until either the US public becomes aware of problems or worker abuse. US company then shops around and finds country Y to replace country X workers. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Jun 27 2007, 02:16 PM) [snapback]468973[/snapback]</div>

Bottom line: We Americans need cheap foreign-made crap to sustain our 'lifestyles' in the face of negative savings rates.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(San_Carlos_Jeff @ Jun 27 2007, 03:09 PM) [snapback]468969[/snapback]</div>

Is there a single company in recent history that has been sued out of existence by a product liability claim? I don't think so. Bean counters will tell you that the expense of litigation and settlements are just part of the cost of doing business. Firestone could have recalled their faulty tires much sooner, but the costs of a recall outweighed the payouts on the lawsuits.