Hexi
Well-Known Member
Way OT: Yeah exactly, my company does a ton of business in China as well, our biggest hurdles are the corruption and general business mindset.
Even with above board, highly regulated industries, the very first approach we felt in China was that of bribery and favor exchanging. Which is a major no-no here in the US, but considered normal in China. This was obviously very awkward from a business PoV, but because of our industry and our responsibilities, we kinda have to hard line on them. Instead of the normal "culture sharing" we would do with say the EU or Singapore etc..., with China we sort of had to start at a much higher level of educating them as to what restrictions and laws are non-negotiable for us.
Basically China is going through the hard goods MFG phase, a 'developing nation' but they are well into it, and doing so in 2014, where our MFG phrase was 20-80 years ago and has essentially ended for us. So there is this odd position where we as a nation have some of the best regulations and safety standards in the world, yet by the time we evolved them, we already shipped all MFG to 3rd world countries to cut costs...
And now China is finally being forced to abandon their suppressed currency model and are facing similar issues the US faced... mfg getting better tax breaks from other countries... so you see cases like FOXCONN where the pressure to compete, with lower prices is literally driving people to suicides.
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So back on topic, yeah it's harder to get valid, verified MFG info from China. The concepts of quality and safety are very different due to the timing of when each country was industrialized + history. China didn't have the book "The Jungle" to spur development of the FDA etc...
But there is nothing stopping businesses from controlling their own MFG partners and ensuring high standards of quality and safety. In 20 years "cheap chinese glass" may be over and it will be complaints of "cheap pakistani glass' instead...and then on to the next cheapest 3rd world developing nation willing to work harder, in worse conditions for lower pay and with lower safety regs etc...
Bottom line is an educated eye can look over a piece of glass and judge for themselves if it looks up to par. They can also get as much MFG info as they can to help understand the quality...
But we are not idiots. We know that a $30 piece of glass is not the highest end piece you can get. We don't need some blowhard from Colie Glass condescending to us about rip offs, or quality etc...
There is room for both high quality expensive glass, and 'budget' glass that may or may not be high quality... who knows? Depends on the piece actually.
Even with above board, highly regulated industries, the very first approach we felt in China was that of bribery and favor exchanging. Which is a major no-no here in the US, but considered normal in China. This was obviously very awkward from a business PoV, but because of our industry and our responsibilities, we kinda have to hard line on them. Instead of the normal "culture sharing" we would do with say the EU or Singapore etc..., with China we sort of had to start at a much higher level of educating them as to what restrictions and laws are non-negotiable for us.
Basically China is going through the hard goods MFG phase, a 'developing nation' but they are well into it, and doing so in 2014, where our MFG phrase was 20-80 years ago and has essentially ended for us. So there is this odd position where we as a nation have some of the best regulations and safety standards in the world, yet by the time we evolved them, we already shipped all MFG to 3rd world countries to cut costs...
And now China is finally being forced to abandon their suppressed currency model and are facing similar issues the US faced... mfg getting better tax breaks from other countries... so you see cases like FOXCONN where the pressure to compete, with lower prices is literally driving people to suicides.
------------------------------
So back on topic, yeah it's harder to get valid, verified MFG info from China. The concepts of quality and safety are very different due to the timing of when each country was industrialized + history. China didn't have the book "The Jungle" to spur development of the FDA etc...
But there is nothing stopping businesses from controlling their own MFG partners and ensuring high standards of quality and safety. In 20 years "cheap chinese glass" may be over and it will be complaints of "cheap pakistani glass' instead...and then on to the next cheapest 3rd world developing nation willing to work harder, in worse conditions for lower pay and with lower safety regs etc...
Bottom line is an educated eye can look over a piece of glass and judge for themselves if it looks up to par. They can also get as much MFG info as they can to help understand the quality...
But we are not idiots. We know that a $30 piece of glass is not the highest end piece you can get. We don't need some blowhard from Colie Glass condescending to us about rip offs, or quality etc...
There is room for both high quality expensive glass, and 'budget' glass that may or may not be high quality... who knows? Depends on the piece actually.
glad you got your glass, it doesn't look too bad considering. Personally I think the worse things about this glass that I've seen so far is the poor placement of the perc, and obvious sloppiness in alinement. But again what can you expect at such a price/shipped. I'm just happy people are getting them, and they are sending the right pieces. My $40 bub from pipesdaddy is really poorly made too, but it's been a real solid travel piece for me so far. I hope mine show up soon too. Managed to get out of having to go camp in the rain this weekend!! 