Glad to see that the poor quality of Chinese castings is catching the attention of transit agencies as well. Bombardier got caught and hopefully they will reevaluate going all the way to China to save a buck. Local hardware big box sells only sells cheap Chinese cast valves and 50% are flawed.
Have any of you experienced poor quality Chinese products? We are trying to find new radios for the narrowband requirements, but most of them survive a couple of weeks in railroad service and then go back to the shop.
Without trying to sound like I'm carrying the water for the Chinese, this gets back to "you get what you pay for." I've seen some excellent Chinese products, some junk, and priced accordingly, Quality is quality and trash is trash, no matter where it comes from.
The real problem is that China can produce even "sort of quality" items so cheaply they have put our manufacturers out of business. Now China has no competition in many areas and can lower their quality even further. It is nice when you have no environmental laws, no worker safety laws and can enslave your employees for endless hours of work.
Unfortunately our railroads have contributed to this flood of Cheap Chinese Crap by moving it so efficiently to market. I don't blame them but we are digging our own graves (with Chinese shovels, no doubt).
petitnj The real problem is that China can produce even "sort of quality" items so cheaply they have put our manufacturers out of business. Now China has no competition in many areas and can lower their quality even further. It is nice when you have no environmental laws, no worker safety laws and can enslave your employees for endless hours of work. Unfortunately our railroads have contributed to this flood of Cheap Chinese Crap by moving it so efficiently to market. I don't blame them but we are digging our own graves (with Chinese shovels, no doubt).
Oh, no argument with you there, especially no environmental laws, no OSHA, no "alphabet soup" of government regs and burocracies to deal with, et al. The Chinese government makes it a lot easier to do business there than our own does here. Too many commentators on the national level have talked about this for me to go into here. I don't know what's to be done about it without opening up a real hornet's nest.
Just wait. The Chinese will not always go along with their Communist masters. In fewer years than you think, they will demand more effective pollution controls, much better wages, etc. China watchers in the know are already seeing signs that the Party is being seriously questioned and challenged in many ways unforeseen just a short time ago.
As to the government in China making it easier to do business there than ours does here...be careful what you (seemingly) wish for. Personally, I prefer our system, warts, blemishes and all. The same laissez-faire and caveat emptor ethics when it comes to food products for human and pet consumption has produced results somewhat less than wonderful for many.
Does my reply lack anything to do with trains or railroading? Well, I'd be a bit nervous riding the rails there for the same reasons.
Oh, I'm in no way advocating a return to "laissez-faire" or "caveat emptor", nor a return to the "Robber Baron" days of the 1890's. The problem with us here in this country is we never seem to be able to find a "balance", it's always one extreme or the other. And certainly, the Chinese worker is going to get tired of working for peanuts sooner or later, it's happened everywhere else, it'll happen there too, and more power to them!
And that's all the politics I'm going to talk. I hate politics. I pay attention to what's going on because it's my duty as a citizen to do so, not because I really enjoy it.
No we do not need EPA to prevent someone from dumping 50 100,000 gal into a major source of drinking water. (A few years back this happened in China. Result a city of 1,000,000 people had to do without tap water for 4 - 5 days.
No we do not need Federal Food Inspectors watching food plants. To make sure that a supplier does not substitute an indigestible substance into milk.
Lets see a court system independent of politics. So the the local commisar can collect all kinds of bribes and then threaten to throw people in jail if they do not pay up. Or pay a bribe to get a rival thrown in jail.
Checks and balances to prevent the abuse of power.
Ok it is easier to do business in the PRC?
Rdgs IGN
While government agencies tend to evolve into bureaucratic nightmares, none of them just sprang up. Every one was originally formed to deal with a real problem.
None of them should be eliminated, but they all need to be streamlined and audited from time to time, including the EPA, DOT, FRA and Amtrak.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Vet While government agencies tend to evolve into bureaucratic nightmares, none of them just sprang up. Every one was originally formed to deal with a real problem. None of them should be eliminated, but they all need to be streamlined and audited from time to time, including the EPA, DOT, FRA and Amtrak.
One of my pet peaves is the lack of respect for the the people our government recruits and hires to do the everyday nuts and bolts of things. And then policital types blame "nameless bureaucrats" in DC, (Name a state capitol), City Hall(name a city, town, county seat). Etc.
What people forget is we have a government of the people by the people and for the people. And if you don';t like something you can speak your mind on a subject.
When it comes to the Peoples Republic of China(PRC) , you protest against the government at very considerable risk.
When our government gets out of hand with ignoring problems people get voted out of office.
Thx IGN
I was just speaking MY mind. I was not criticizing anything that had already been posted.
I have been hearing many people lately complaining loudly about the overpaid lazy government employees and calling for the elimination of government jobs, the elimination of the benefits that government workers earn, etc. What really needs to be eliminated is about 75% of the paperwork. That is what is bogging down the system.
CATS, our transit agency, is building a 10 mile extension to the light rail Blue Line. To date, since 2008, they have spent 44 million dollars shuffling government mandated papers and have not yet moved the first shovel of dirt or purchased any property.
petitnj Glad to see that the poor quality of Chinese castings is catching the attention of transit agencies as well. Bombardier got caught and hopefully they will reevaluate going all the way to China to save a buck. Local hardware big box sells only sells cheap Chinese cast valves and 50% are flawed. Have any of you experienced poor quality Chinese products? We are trying to find new radios for the narrowband requirements, but most of them survive a couple of weeks in railroad service and then go back to the shop.
My guess is that China is a lot like Japan in the late 1970s. There was Sony, et. al., who made top notch stuff, but then there was still the dregs - old factories that turned out junk. China makes all those Apple goodies, that seem to be very high quality, but there's got to be tons of Mao era stuff still churning out garbage.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
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