China produces faulty goods. ( Archived) (57)

No.. I asked him... on behalf of the ladies if you read the thread. But he got scared and ran off after admitting he was a rent boy. LOL

Me too, I was raised mostly by the war generation. And yes, it's nothing new to hit intensifying global competition, the first world war lead to a lot of outsourcing which created the global overproduction that ultimately caused The Great Depression.

The difference now, I feel, is the sheer extent to which they can outcompete us. The sheer gulf between their capacity to produce and our capacity to produce. We're in a position today of The Great Depression times 5. The reason we don't feel it is partly because of technology making things more efficient, but mostly because the complexity and scale of the markets has allowed people to offset the consequences of their actions for decades into the future(debt) allowing a perverse generation to live from a free lunch.

Not only do the young of the today face the battle against the elderley - the struggle to shove baby boomers and their attitudes fanatically and ruthlessly into the grave. But also we're being asked to be more productive and creative than perhaps any western generation that came before.

Not quite. British industry was (and there are parallels elsewhere) stuck up its own whatsit - with poor management and dire labour relations.

Triumph motorbikes, for example introduced a pinstripe to the saddle one year - the Japanese introduced electric starts, overhead cams, disk brakes etc. Britain lacked innovation and QC. Yes we invented a whole lot of things, but didn't actually see fit to put them in/on products.

Meanwhile British Leyland was disjointed and competing with itself and producing too many models in too many variants in 'badge engineering' and when it produced something good - it was usually engineers working in their own time that did it and under-funded and under-developed.

Japan took quality from the (mainly) US gurus and turned it into a method of production and culture. Japan invested in its industry - high capital to labour ratios: we didn't. Thatcher drove the nail home into the coffin by deciding The City was more important than industry.

Absolutely. Relative to the west, Britain has done badly in terms of being materially resourceful. But the West, relative to the rest, have also done this.

It is a case of which ship is sinking the fastest. However, if anyone can sustain a fraudulent money economy then it is the British. I expect that even after all of the west becomes more productive there will still be a strong financial sector in Britain. This will result from our culture, heritage and international prestige that we have with the other races allowing us to continue as a hub of global trade. The British have near the same kudos of Americans except the world doesn't hate us in the same way it hates them.