Originally Posted by Funkychicken
so it's made in china/taiwan. big, fat, hairy deal. They make crap stuff in western countries too, it's called "comparative advantage" - where some countries make certain things better (read: either better quality or cheaper with negligible difference in quality) than other countries. Just so happens labour cost is cheaper in developing countries making it cheaper to make bicycle frames in china of the same quality. incidentally, most of the insides of your computer are made in taiwan.
In the end, quality control is under the scrutiny of the manufacturing company and doesn't depend on the country of origin.
BULL FEATHERS!!!
Comparitive advantage only applies to natural resources. There is nothing inherent about US labor vs Chinese labor that makes either better at feeding materials into machines and packaging the parts that come out of them.
China is an attractive labor base because the people are effectively disposable.
One might as well make an argument that we should return to slavery because that will keep the cost of cotton down.