Say Anything Blog

This is another “truism” that’s perpetuated by protectionists: The idea that stuff not made in America is crap.  Thus, free trade is a bad thing and we should all mimic Pat Buchanan’s model of economic isolationism.

Unfortunately for this particular load of tripe, market forces never lie.  If foreign-made products were as bad as some claim they wouldn’t sell.  Simple as that.

There are always an array of products on the market, from low-end to high-end, and people typically choose the product that best fulfills their expectations on performance and price.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Wow!  The free enterprise system reduces crime!  Whoda thunk it?

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

Read again, Rob--I’m not saying that imported goods are junk at all.  I’m saying that burglars are learning that a high portion of what they can steal can’t be resold, because people know that it’s not safe anymore to buy used goods.  They can count on them breaking.

See the difference? 

I’ll agree that the market seems to be moving a lot of product at the low end of the price scale--it’s peoples’ right to choose this, of course.  It’s my right, though, to point out that this probably isn’t the most cost-effective choice to be made.

Or at least for now it’s my privilege on your humble site!

Ok, I see what you were getting at, but I still think you’re wrong.

I don’t think price has been a driving factor on this issue so much as just plain old technological advancement has been.  Look at the things this ex-burglar is talking about.  They’re most consumer electronics.

And what do we know about consumer electronics?  Some of them are bested by the “latest and greatest” before you even get them home from the store.

So they’ve become disposable.  In order to keep up, people need better computers and such.  Thus, older computers and that don’t really hold a lot of re-sale value.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod

Rob, while advances in technology play a part, I would dare suggest that someone might enjoy a 2001 ipod if they didn’t have an annual failure rate of 13.7% or so, or a screen that scratched when you looked at it.

See what I mean?  Look up some old National Geographics to see how people used to talk about product longevity--"you’ll hand it to your grandchildren” and so on.  Something’s changed.

Economic freedom hasn’t changed.  We get to spend our money the way we want.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

Robert, more people might be hanging on to their 2001 iPods...if those iPods hadn’t been surpassed by the features offered with new iPods.

Things like video, mobile web browsing, etc.  I’d suggest that most people upgrade not because of product failure but because of a desire for new features.

And yes, things have changed.  The question is whether or not it’s a bad thing.  Personally, I don’t think it is such a bad thing.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

When you’re talking electronics, time equals progress; new LCD TVs are a lot better(and cheaper to operate) than either older plasmas or CRT TVs.  Newer DVD players are better than ones even a year old, and the second generation iPhone should blow Blackberrys out of the water.  Our system not only produces lots of goods, but better ones all the time, except where there are restrictive regulations and heavy taxation; then progress is stifled.  I also think it’s foolish to judge how people spend their money.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

Well, first of all, the very existence of marketing is to tell people, implicitly, that they are being foolish in how they spend their money--so if you want to implicate someone for being wrong in doing so, you would need to implicate virtually everyone who enters the market to buy or sell.

I can’t go there.

Personally, I think there are some big losses.  Those wonderful LCD & plasma TVs?  Well, I watched 20 year old idiot boxen as a kid, and I just replaced a 15 month old computer monitor last month.  I’m frankly not terribly impressed by the need to add everything but the kitchen sink to my Ipod--just to do the same next year.

Some things these days are a lot better--it was a rare car in the 1970s that made it to 200,000 miles, for example.  Now it’s common.

That said, the 1970s car that made it to 200k miles would generally have its original radio.  No more, and that’s a shame.