"The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you." --- Deuteronomy 28:43-45
I confess -- I am not adjusting easily to the massive change whereby the nation in which I hold my citizenship has been inundated with foreign made products of all varieties. The bulk of this stuff comes from China.
I was born and raised with an ethic that basically said, "If you are doing a job, you give it your best -- you do it right or don't do it at all. If you are making something, you produce the highest quality possible in that object so that the person buying it will have gotten a high value for the money paid."
I was recently reminded again as to how times have so drastically changed when making a purchase.
I saw advertised in the catalog of a company, which handles a wide range of products, what was identified as an "all terrain tricycle." It has large pneumatic tires and the description indicated that children could ride it in areas where traditional tricycles with small hard rubber tires could not go.
So my wife and I decided to get one for the youngest of our grandchildren who now range in age from 1 year all the way up to 27 1/2 years.
UPS delivered the tricycle in a carton that had originally started out in China and by time of arrival at our place it was pretty well beat up! Due to coming partially open a carriage bolt for the rear axle area of the tricycle had been lost. Since no packing material was used, the parts were wrapped a bit with plastic sheeting. This permitted them to bounce against each other in transit and caused chipping of the paint in a number of places. The paint job left a lot to be desired since no primer had been used and due to inferior steel a thing called rust was beginning to appear on some surface areas.
I started the assembly process of this thing which looked like it had been the victim of some body's yard sale for 5 years running.
Hang on now -- the good part is about to happen. The pedals had to be attached to the pedal assembly on each side of the front wheel. I found the one with the "L" which indicated it was left-hand threaded and to be installed on the left side of the wheel.
What's this? The pedal wouldn't screw into the assembly as one would expect. So I got a thought -- maybe the left side assembly was actually put on the right side of the wheel at the factory. So I gave it a try -- and guess what? The pedal screwed right into the assembly without any resistance!
So I then installed the right-hand threaded pedal on the right hand pedal assembly which was on the left side of the front wheel of an all terrain tricycle! Are you confused yet?
But that wasn't the end of it. I detailed all this stuff and fired it off to the company in an email with a couple of attached photos to establish my "case!" I also suggested that they contact the Chinese manufacturer and explain the difference between left hand and right hand.
Finally I mentioned that I was going to repaint the tricycle but the color scheme would be different. I'm going to do it in a John Deere green and yellow -- frame will be green and wheels yellow. I've already located a place where I can get the paint at a very reasonable price. It certainly will be a great improvement over how the Chinese did it!
To the company's credit, it responded with options on my part as to how this might be made right. I accepted one of the offered options.
The larger picture, however, is a frightening one. China doesn't really have to do anything against us militarily to bring us down -- all it has to do is shut off the flow of consumer goods and demand payment on that big chunk of U. S. debt which it now owns!
How well have you been doing at learning the Chinese language these days?
"You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries. Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult."
--- Ezekiel 22:4, 5
3 comments:
How true, sad but true, especially with the recent recall of toys. when my children were small, we purchased mostly toys that were made in Europe and made to higher standards, which meant my childrens toys wer mosre expensive and they had less and they weren't the latest trend. But, we didn't have to worry about small parts choking them and lead paint either.
Look at the Playmobile company for toys for your grandkids, pricey, buthigh quality, check out Discovery Toys. Not sure where the toys are manufactured, but they are deicated to quality and educational value.
I've gotten into the habit of looking at labels now when I buy in order to see where the item was made. Once in a while I can still find a USA made item and prefer that to a comparable foreign made item, even when it means paying a higher price.
Maybe I'll post a picture of my repainted all terrain tricycle in its John Deere green and yellow color scheme! As indicated in the post, it will be of much higher quality than what the Chinese did -- no brag, just FACT!
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