China's Counterfeit Behavior Is Actually A Copy... Of 19th Century America
from the imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery dept
China's capitalistic missteps are ablaze in the headlines lately. Tales such as those about poisonous toothpaste and counterfeit Harry Potter books strike fear into our hearts that our most favored nation may be going too far when embracing the very capitalist ideals that we have been trying to instill in them since the cold war. China has been painted as a nation of unscrupulous money grabbers, eager to make a quick buck without concern for any consequences. However, let's not be too quick to judge, lest we forget our own past. China's brash brand of capitalism is merely a normal step along the way of a developing capitalist economy -- a step that the US also went through in the 19th century. It wasn't long ago that American businesses ran amuck without regulation. Candy was found to contain arsenic, custard laced with lead, and as made famous by Upton Sinclair, lard contained traces of the occasional human. Back then, counterfeiters were notorious, giving rise to the term "snake-oil salesmen." There is a silver lining to this story, of course. Just as the US was able to grow out of this adolescent stage of capitalism, so will China, but, kids will be kids, and they need to get a few bumps and bruises along the way before they learn their lesson and change.
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Filed Under: china, counterfeits
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People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Or could it be that the countless hundreds of people slaughtered in their own countries these past 15 years by Israeli, British, American and other western countries' tanks aren't as significant as the people killed by China's tanks?
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copyright
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Thank you for seeing it this way...
... and We, being Americans, can probably see a business opportunity in passing on that knowledge...
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Its easy to say don't mess with the environment. Its hard to actually pay for it.
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or...
It could be that the very machinery of capitalism, of the so-called "free market", will invariably create the bits of people in lard and lead in custard. When you have a system that is built entirely around the notion of short term profit, it is inevitable that corners will be cut, and the first cut are at the softest point: human beings.
The reason the USA was so rich and powerful in the second half of the 20th century might be the very opposite of the characteristics of the 19th century. Anti-trust laws knocked the unchecked greed of corporations back a few steps, labor unions created a large and healthy middle class, the New Deal and civil rights brought a security and energy that pushed us out of the pure dog-eat-dog hunger of the Industrial Revolution into... something better, more human.
The real story may not be how China is emulating the US to their benefit, but rather how the US emulated socialism to our benefit.
We'll just have to wait and see if the Bush Administration has put the last nail into the coffin of the new social contract that made America great in the post-WWII period. And we better hope that China doesn't forget all of the lessons of the social and economic thought of Marx. Or the rest of us are going to be in deep shit.
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China
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It's the 21st Century folks...
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Re: It's the 21st Century folks...
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How dare you!
How dare you say that!
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Yes, of course. The USA being absolutely perfect in every single way is totally above any sort of criticism!
If you can't look at yourself critically you're never going to learn and better yourself. If you ignore your own issues while criticising others for the same things, that's called hypocrisy.
Every country on the planet has a few skeletons, exposing them eventually leads to reforms. Anyone who thinks they should never be criticised, (constructively of course), has their head up their arse.
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Everyone makes mistakes...
Btw Max, Americans STILL have Bigotry, is that okay by you? Those KKK issues tiny insulated incidents or what? How about the fact that the Anti-Trust laws HAVE to be in place for corporate American to play fair? Its not the people who have to catch up, its the government regulations and penalties for such behaviour. I seem to recall some recent Dog fighting as well. All Govenment regulations, otherwise, you would have more and more people trying to make a profit doing it if it wasn't illegal. Give them time and just avoid that Made in China label for now.
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1) Chinese leaders know about US and European laws, and why they came about - just as we know about theirs. They are not stupid nor are they backward.
If they wanted to avoid these issues,they could have - from day one.
2) The US and European companies who outsourced these goods had a responsibility to specify exactly how they should be made, and what practices and materials were forbidden. This responsibilty is there wherever the goods are made - even right here in the US.
The fact is, the blame goes to our importers, the Chinese companies and both governments. They all decided to take the risk of being detected.
Everyone thought they could get away with it. Now it's finger pointing time.
Screw them all.
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Yes, of course. The USA being absolutely perfect in every single way is totally above any sort of criticism!
Lighten up. I do believe that line is from Animal House.
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Dennis, you owe the victims of the poisoned toothpaste, and everyone else who is damaged by these products a most sincere apology.
You have written these victims off as being no more important than a minor cost of the Chinese learning process.
You have also insulted the Chinese people, characterizing them as inexperienced children.
Or did you mean that the "kids" who need to "learn our lessons" are the people who buy from China?
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- but good things don't have to come that way. Want to get better? better learn from other's mistakes. If China cannot learn other's expensive mistakes, they may eventually be damed in a worse way. So that's your intension?
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"I agree Mr. Schmidt, but there are some dangers that we all face by developing nations. China is becoming (if it is not already) an environmental nightmare. Both India and China are projected to pass the US in carbon emmissions soon. These things effect everyone. We can't just say "China" has to clean up its act, because if we shut them down, the plants are not coming back to the US, they will just go to another country. How we go about changing other countries process will be a great challenge."
Apply the same logic, England and US also devastated the environment while they were developing. Remember the famous white moth that evolved into gray moths?
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Ummm...
China has been painted as a nation of unscrupulous money grabbers, eager to make a quick buck without concern for any consequences.
Corporate America has been painted as a bunch of unscrupulous money grabbers, eager to make a quick buck without concern for any consequences.
Yeah that is just weird...
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