i think that there is certainly a lot of misconceptions about china and the conditions people face. its ture that factory workers are made to work long punishing hours for little money but this is not the life that the majority of people face. 99%of the people i know get paid new years vacations and are well looked after and they are not considered to be at the higher end of society. people retire early as mentioned and even plenty of the 'poor people' have relatively relxed lives. its really not as bad as you are made to believe.

funny how a talk about bike lights can stray into global politics.:)

Since everything is made in China, the issue is moot.

Well, the lights are nice enough that the 2 I bought off ebay for my kids got stolen off their bikes at the school bike rack the last couple of days (daughter's got taken with its bracket on Friday, my son's got taken yesterday, just the light, they left the bracket).

The 2 came with taillights ($8.50 per pair, shipped), and I tried using one of the tail lights on a bike I had w/ no lights, and it just fell apart unprovoked.

I use NiteRider lights and I'm happy to read that they're made in the U.S.A. . . . didn't know that. I have been very happy with their quality and impressed by their customer service the one time I needed it (problems with a switch on a BlowTorch).

I use the Minewt for commuting (but not on its brightest setting which is too bright for on-coming cars, pedestrians, etc.) and it's provided excellent service for almost 2 years now.

Also (global economy wise), not sure if this applies to mainland China, but in Taiwan many of the actual workers (i.e. not management) are from other asian countries because Taiwanese citizens will no longer work for the extremely low wages.

Rick / OCRR

not the case in china, not yet anyway.