MarkB

Just about to comment on that fact. Surprised no one else noticed it!

manik

COTD right there.

NoPistons85

NatefromOgden

Chuckybas

Chuckybas

Chuckybas

oldskoolparts

Check out that frame. That doesn't look like it's going to fare well in a collision.

dolo54

MR42HH

Isetta

My high horse speaks only to Chinese manufactured goods. I read labels and spend extra to buy American. If I'm going to live here, I'm going to do something for my economy instead of theirs. That's all.

Elhigh

The best comment yet!!!!!

darex

That's be Chaneel, Luis Vittone, and Preda trims, silly!

darex

I think it's amazing that Jalops can discuss issues that generally have other people/blogs screaming IN CAPS and dishing abuse--and, being global, Jalop gets unique input. These are earnest arguments from experience and are very thought-provoking.

NovaloadMissesPolar

I've noticed the Mexicans around here generally do not have all their lug nuts on their wheels. I don't know if this is some form of cultural customization or if they send the spare ones home.

smokeydog001

Mike the Dog

skulldriveshaft

The value of a person's life that lives in the country is ~$200.

Reason for this, the person may be a undocumented citizen, remember the one child per family rule? That only works in cities where there is no need for manual labour. Farmers on the other hand require many children, because farm animals are non-existant in China. These children are the undocumented citizens, which makes their value lower than a pet dog which is usually $1,000+.

The closer you get to metropolitan areas, the higher the price of a life, but doesn't reach dog levels.

Most recently published studies point towards a complete lack of a conscience in the Chinese psyche.

There are too many people for the government to care for, so it is survival of the fittest.

Superbmtsub is correct in concept, but the word enslave would require an unwillingness, in reality there is no unwillingness.

The true term is exploit, the chinese seek to exploit, they are the epitome.

Don't bother trying to analyze anything coming out of china, their evolution is in completely uncharted, unimagined, and unexplored regions of humanity.

Everything else is a byproduct of the unseen forces in action.

skulldriveshaft

Galaxie500

bzr

Q: What do Chinese men do during an election?
A: They go and vote!

A Chinese guy turns to his wife and says, "I want a 69..."
The wife goes, "I'm not making beef and broccoli at this time of night!"

Hey, might as well, Chinaman bashing is fun. superbmtsub knows how this game works (+1 point for offensiveness, but -10 for lack of subtlety).

(P.S. my favorite: How do you know a Chinaman robbed your house? Your homework is done, your computer is upgraded, but two hours the guy's still trying to back out of your driveway!)

bzr

superbmtsub

That would solve both the issues with poisonous and unsafe crap being foisted on the unsuspecting American public (who should be protected by our Federal Government, but hell, welcome to Dick Cheney's America!), but also the whole Taiwan and Tibet squabbles, as the Chinese government would be in collapse from the mass deaths of the above noted senior Red Party officials.

Hey, I kid. I kid because I love. I think that melamine makes my toothpaste work better, and my breath melaminier.

graverobber- My Yugo Nova!

Triborough

b20a

Ratieya

[news.bbc.co.uk]

A Chinese-born engineer found guilty last year of conspiring to export sensitive US defence technology to China has been sentenced to 24.5 years.

From 11 Feb 2008: [news.bbc.co.uk]

"Certain foreign governments are committed to obtaining the American trade secrets that can advance the development of their military capabilities."
Kenneth Wainstein
Assistant Attorney General for National Security

Four people have been arrested in the United States for allegedly passing secret defence information to China.
A 72-year-old former Boeing engineer is accused of giving China details about the space shuttle and other aerospace programmes.

In a separate case, two men and a woman are accused of handing over US defence department documents about Taiwan.

----------

Ah yeah, I'm making this up - not. The ChiComs are pure as the driven snow, just good old-fashioned capitalists working for a living to spread world peace - not. (Please note my news source is BBC, not Fox News, etc....)

So, buy their junk and the cost to all of us is immeasurable. Plus, I simply cannot believe you people think those conditions are ok. If it was any place else, you'd be screaming bloody murder.

mosqueda

Hoser Dave

Well, except unlike the hypothetical future Chinese situation, the US is already ACTIVELY PURSUING a foreign policy based on brute force and naked overseas military aggression, arguably has done so for decades, and simply sneers at the rest of the world's protests. So you've got that going for you.

tentacles

camp6ell

The next Tiananmen Square, however, won't be with mass protests but will be with greenbacks. Like I said, it's Communism in name only, but citizens are more tuned to the world now than ever before. You can thank the economy and the Interweb for that.

bzr

@elhigh: That's quite the high horse you're riding on there. Good luck finding anything that's not made in China or Taiwan or any place east of Japan...incidentally, another country that was met with such backlash when they first stepped into the world manufacturing arena. And that's the thing - China is Communist in name only, as the middle class become wealthier precisely from Western investment into similar factories like this (that, granted, don't churn out hideous plasticky smart knock-offs). Foreign investment into China -> more factories and manufacturing capabilities -> eventually, better working conditions and wages for the lower classes.

What we're seeing now is the equivalent of an industrial nation's teething process, and it'll take years before they can gain any sort of respect. The corrupt-assed government is one of the only major things that still stand in the way, but the pressure's onto them - they recently executed a bureaucrat for corruption, and if your punishment is a hanging then that better straighten some bastards to shape up. Ken Lay got it off easy, that pussy.

@RoninianHoon: Ouch, my nationalistic pride.

bzr

The article I reference is from 1-24-08 ([www.newsmax.com]) so, this is pretty recent stuff.

And yes, I was a Cold Warrior. I also have a degree in Russian/East European Studies with an emphasis on International Security. I worked at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and have worked with the Chinese on attempts to get them to participate in nuclear reduction talks and "Confidence and Security Building Measures," which they reject. In fact, we watched the Chinese attempt to spy on us through their participation in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Chinese Communism is alive and well. Deng long ago dropped Mao's ideals, but they understand they can cherry pick parts of capitalism and still run a command economy (it's called Fascism). So, these workers live in squalor. The money does not go to corrupt politicians (they get executed - do some reading). It goes to the PLA who owns hundreds of companies (surreptitiously).

I'll tell you what, I'll play the part of Nathan Jessup, you be the whiny attorney: "we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Stopcrazypp? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. . . . And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because, deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline."

Get real and open your eyes. Everytime you buy cheap Chinese junk, you enslave the people and empower the PLA - you do it Stopcrazypp.

mosqueda

And as you might tell by my name, I'm quite sympathetic to conditions in China.

meng_mao

Only the government is still communist. The markets, people, and everything else is decidedly capitalistic. It's only a matter of time until something happens that causes the government to collapse, or is overthrown by corrupt big-wigs who made BILLIONS in their factories, and are tired of the government intrusion. (Read "having to pay bribes to get what I want").

FrankRizzo

I'm sorry. I truly am. Please don't hit me.

Vipper Of Vipp

No that's not true, every nickel you spend is most likely to go into the pockets of every corrupt government official and/or company/factory owner in China. For products made in China for companies in the US, most of the profits go to the companies in the US, only a fraction of the cost goes to China.

"According to Marxism-Leninism, China's world war will not be fought to enslave or exterminate enemies, but to liberate them (hence "the People's Liberation Army"), to make them part of a new world - a global Chinese paradise."

You apparently still live in the Cold War Era...that kind of ideal died long ago when China opened their markets for unbridled capitalism. Now the main goal is to keep the economy churning so those on the top can keep making more and more money on the backs of the laborers on the bottom. Communism has long died in China and I don't see much chance of a revival.

stopcrazypp

danio3834

stopcrazypp

Well, these workers are helping bring the Chinese goal of a global Chinese Paradise into reality.

Perhaps you should feel for these people and maybe even wake-up and understand China's intention: help you join their glorious Chinese paradise pictured above. Dress warmly.

mosqueda

Beppe

All countries have gone through this stage through their industrialization process. China will eventually get better working conditions too.

LionZoo

smokeydog001

Ω ß®ªғғ

Mysterious Utility Bento

Elhigh

This is the reason people die from bad or counterfit products...

econobiker

badco/LoJ

As for living in the factory, that's standard practice. Most people come from other far regions in China to work in factories and if they didn't provide the living quarters, the costs (both living and transportation to the factory) will be way too high for their meager wages to cover. This kind of system allows them to work and send money back home and maybe go back and visit for the holidays without worrying about making ends meet at the place they are currently working at. The pay is usually substantially better than working in their home region because they no longer have to worry about living costs while working, which is why there is still a large number of migrant chinese working at such factories.

stopcrazypp

P161911

FrankGrimes

FrankGrimes

+ Watch video

staircar

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing

FrankGrimes

Ben Wojdyla

And still the world turns.

Rust-MyEnemy is stll out there!

Ben Wojdyla

Yeah, their names are "Lunch" and "Dinner"...

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing

RoninianHoon

econobiker

Frankly though, this factory doesn't even look bad. Traveling through the most rural of regions with my father who teaches manufacturing engineering at WPI, I've seen far worse places to work at, including the one my uncle used to work for (before smashing his fingers in a freak accident and nearly losing them, but that's a different story). And while it's not a convincing argument to say, "oh this isn't bad because there are worse out there", it cracks me up equally for bleeding-heart Westerners to paint China as the backwards Red Menace ChiComs we've been led to believe. I'm surprised to see it here at Jalopnik.

bzr

P161911

squablow

mikedrawcar

CBR2200

Mysterious Utility Bento

I suppose those folks would otherwise be starving to death, but this doesn't seem to good on any level. I sure as shit hope the real Smart factory is more worker friendly, but of course I always picture it being run by Oompa-loompas.

graverobber- My Yugo Nova!

Tomsk the red-nosed reindeer

yellofury * * * * *

flightofthesuperbees

akirachan

Unevolved

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing

junkman

Mysterious Utility Bento

Pete Gaines