ACTION

Today marked an epiphany in my life. An event occurred which set me off on a quest. Like Don Quixote, I am probably tilting at windmills, but I must pursue the seemingly impossible dream nonetheless.

I was out in the front yard washing out the endless supply of dirty litter pans when much to my surprise, the Chinese made hose connector blew off the end of my Chinese made hose, thereby drenching me and my Chinese made clothes. I paid good, hard-earned money for all of the above, so I naturally found myself in a somewhat inhospitable state of mind. After graphically discussing the ancestry of the evil people who made these despicable items of torture, I went in and changed into dry clothes and convinced myself that now was the time to publically address this deplorable situation.

For years now, I, like all other Americans, have watched the value of my money dwindle. Each time I go into a store, my money seems to purchase less for the same expenditure. And, like most people, it has come to my attention that darn near everything I purchase is made in China, or Taiwan, or Korea, etc.  Some of the products are OK, others are so-so. Those from mainland China are almost without exception --- JUNK!  And as indicated, I am not discussing their charming little sail boats. I am talking about the boatload after seemingly endless boatload of consumer products that are poorly made, broken in the original container, broken shortly after being put into service, and in some cases, downright hazardous to your health and well-being. It would seem that quality control is a phrase that does not translate into either of the common Chinese dialects (Mandarin or Cantonese for those who are interested).

I can’t count the number of times I have purchased a product only to discover I could just as easily have flushed the money paid down my Chinese made toilet and saved a lot of time and travel. (assuming of course that the toilet still works). I have decided that there are two distinct issues here that need to be addressed. I shall deal with them in turn.

I, like many working Americans, shop at what are referred to as the “Big Box” stores; most notably, Wal-Mart. Usually, if the item is bad out of the box or reasonably new (30 days or less) and you can still locate the sales ticket, Wal-Mart will grudgingly replace the item. After 30 days you are instructed to get in touch with the manufacturer. Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am NOT going to spend hours on the phone, in the middle of the night,  with a functionally illiterate customer service representative in China. The only way to prevent this problem is if you agree to pay Wal-Mart for an “Extended Service Policy”. OK, most items carry about a year of manufacturer’s warranty. At one time, a store that sold products from a manufacturer was considered an agent in fact of the manufacturer. They were required to honor the original warranty. For instance, if I buy a car, any dealership in the country is required to honor the manufacturer’s warranty. There was a time when a store, Sears for instance, would replace or repair a misbehaving item of merchandise with no hassle. Wal-Mart? Forget it. Unless you pay them first, they don’t honor any warranty … period. You buy it, it’s yours, and the manufacturer. This needs to be stopped. If a store sells a product, they should be made to honor the full term of the manufacturer’s warranty without a payoff. When they sell a product they should be forced to stand behind it. If the product line has a history of shoddy workmanship and constant failures, then it behooves the store to find another source of products that they can reasonably expect to last through the warranty period. They should take the same gamble that a car dealer has to take. This must be made enforceable under state or federal law (preferably state law). There should be no ambiguity; if a store sells a product, they are on the hook for the warranty if it fails or breaks under normal usage. Period.

OK. That problem is relatively easy to solve. The other problem is going to be a powder keg. China has most favored nation status with the US of A. They are considered a major “trading” partner. This does not mean what you think it does. Normally, a trading partner is one who sells their products in our markets and allows our manufacturers to sell their products in the foreign market. Not so with China. We owe China an incredible amount of money. Money borrowed in boatloads by our screwed up federal government. No names or finger pointing here as all administrations have spent more than they had on hand. Both parties are to blame. We spend like there is no tomorrow. Since we can’t repay our debt to China in the foreseeable future, we give them most favored status. They send us tons and tons of what amounts to crap and we get to sell … zip … in their markets, unless you count MacDonald’s burgers as a trade item. They have us over a trade barrel and they know it. They can send whatever they want, no matter how crummy, and we are more or less forced to take it. Our federal government has failed us miserably in this area. All of our homegrown manufacturing has left for China and other labor friendly countries. They can let quality go to pot and still make a killing selling it to us. China taxes the manufacturers and charges an export duty to ship our own stuff back to us. We on the other hand make every effort to keep import duties low so as to not tick the Chinese off. The consumer pays for all this good old boy backroom dealing. The manufacturers get their products to market here for little or no real investment in labor. They let quality slip because who is going to call them in the middle of the night? The politicians let the junk into our markets, driving local production out of business. The stores sell the cheap junk below what a mom and pop store can manage which drives out the competition, small though it is. The big box boys buy the junk for next to nothing and sell it to the unsuspecting public with no assurance that it will work or keep working past next Tuesday. Everybody benefits except the American consumers. I propose a slight change in the status quo.

Let’s create an agency (yes another one) to inspect at random as many products as possible at the port of entry. Any products found lacking in safety or quality are denied entry. The manufacturer is put on notice that they will not be allowed to ship goods into the USA for a period of six months. After six months, their products will again be tested and if found to be unable to meet the requirements, they are banned for a period of one to five years. Those who do manage to pass the second test will be hit with a 25% import duty for a period of five years after they are granted access to our markets. These “fees” will help defray the cost of staffing the agency and testing labs. These conditions are to be foisted on American companies doing business abroad as well as foreign companies. Any company who has three or more violations in a ten year period will be permanently banned from US markets. Severe? Yup. I don’t see any alternative. If we don’t put a stop to this travesty, it will only get worse … much worse.

Hmmmm ...  just an afterthought.  I just bought a package of “Texas Gulf Coast Shrimp” at Kroger. When I got it home, sure enough, at the bottom of the package was the statement “Farm raised in Thailand”. Sighhhh. What’s next?