This Bud's for Belgium

[jeffg]

Within 20 years America's industrial base will be nothing but a fond memory.

A nation of 300,000,000 burger flippers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...07/13/AR2008071301769.html?hpid=moreheadlines

 

[j2400]

Oh, we'll get our industrial base back. After our economy collapses, and we become a third world nation, other countries will have us do their manufacturing since it'll be cheaper.

I can already imagine the Chinese man cursing about his new plastic gizmo: "Cheap piece of American crap! The quality was so much better when these were made here!"

 

[thomasortega]

John
We must consider, among those chinese crap there are many excellent products.

I work for a trade company in Paraguay and 90% of my duty consists about negotiating and buying products from China.
When i ask for a quotation, all manufacturers always give me 3 options for everything. Class C - Those creap crap that didn´t pass the quality control, Class B - They are good, but don´t last too much and Class A, The products are simply excellent and it´s quality sometimes is the same or better than products made in other countries. (most trade companies in the world don't buy them because they are more expensive)

So, the problem with "chinese crap" isn't the manufacturer, but the importer, which almost always try to save one or two dollars/piece and sacrifices the quality.

 

[thomasortega]

By the way, my company always buys the class A products... a little expensive, but the quality is fabulous.

 

[frigilux]

Oh, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff...

Don't be such a Gloomy Gus! After all, a lot of those 300,000,000 people will be fitness trainers, too, you know*LOL*!

 

[j2400]

My comment above was less about Chinese quality, and more about the direction our economy might be headed.

There are, indeed, some good products coming out of China. Apple has at least part of their computer line made there, and the fit and finish is quite good. I'm sure Apple is careful with quality control.

 

[classiccaprice]

I wonder what will happen to Bush Gardens amusement parks/plants. I live 40 minutes from the Williamsburg plant/park. It would be a big blow to the local economy, along with the national, if both closed... hmm...

 

[charbee]

Belgians make better beer, anyway!

Budweiser? Ugh...always dead last on my list as far as beer goes...now somebody pour me a Guinness, please!

 

[neptunebob]

I did read on an amusement park site the most likely, Universal might interested in the Busch garden parks, with possibly Disney wanting the Virginia park, but all speculation. It is likely that the parks will likely be up for sale.

 

[jeffg]

What are the chances we could reinvent ourselves, the same way Japan did a generation ago? Remember when "Made in Japan" was a sure sign of garbage? Now it's a mark of quality (well, at least relative to China and Taiwan).

It kills me watching America being sold down the river and converted into a third-world shithole, bit by bit.

 

[rp2813]

Jeff, what amazes me is that so many people have their heads way deep in the sand over this issue. It's service industry all the way as far as the economic future of this country is concerned, if this continues.

 

[MrX]

I doubt this will make the slightest bit of difference to Bud employees. If anything, it means that the Bud brand can be grown in areas where InBev has stronger presence than Bud ever had / could have.

 

[j2400]

What is bothersome about the "service industry society" mentality is that that has been the direction we've been headed in for a long time. I remember hearing back in the eighties talk about how we would "become a service based economy."

Problem is--few recognize that is a real problem. I remember reading an economics article in The Atlantic many years ago. It seems to me it profiled some economist and his radical ideas. Including the idea that we needed to be making things. As he said--there are limits to service. Once a grocery store is open 24/7, it can't expand its hours. And we won't start giving each other heart transplants, just to keep the economy moving.