okay, some more apologies about my post... the humor about the stout is actually pretty witty, now that i get it...
i really shouldn't be reacting to posts anymore after only 2 hrs of a nite's sleep and a pissy econ lecture...
mercid, u make an interesting point about the suv craze, but i still don't think that that is the primary factor in why asian auto-manufacturers have been outperforming american ones in the family car market. firstly, we cannot lump chinese and japanese automakers into the same category: the development of these two industries have been entirely separate. with respect to japanese auto industries, well, all i have to say is that german car makers are also in the family car market, yet japanese car makers were able to compete directly with them all over the world. it's a question of cause and effect: did the american car makers turn to chugging out suvs and thus fall behind, or did the japanese force the americans out of that market?
altho i'm actually not too sure on this myself, i have a hard time believing that the 3 big american auto companies would simply "ignore" the enormous segment of the international auto market that is family cars simply because suv's were becoming trendy in the domestic market... but that's just a thought.
with respect to china, however, i think i can speak with some more confidence. recent developments in the chinese auto-industry are exactly that: recent. they did not start 10-15 years ago, the time period in which u said the suv craze began; they had their deepest roots in the mid-90's, and developed from then on at exponential rates. to be sure, most of this development is a result of foreign investment, in physical capital and in technology, and so one mite argue that they aren't
really chinese products. however, the end products are still "made in china", and as such count towards the chinese gdp, which is what i'm out to defend: the quality of chinese-made products. the car example is just the first example that popped into my head before rushing off to class... i will move on to electronics eventually...
the name of the game of everything in this world is economics (that's why i like the stuff [tho i dun like this prof... grr....]), and as such, the name of the game is also "cheap". the manufacturer that gets away with the best bang for the buck is the one that usually wins (sans companies like bose
). i dunno... i dun really get ur point here... u seem to be agreeing with me, that the electronics, tho they have cheap plastic interfaces, are superior for the price range, but u state ur agreement in a defensive tone. anyway, tho
my own tone was puerile, i was just trying to get ppl who mite have doubts about chinese/taiwanese-made products to have confidence in them.
on electronics: there's a reason why taiwan was a semi-conductor powerhouse in the past 2 decades, and to say that it's because we make things cheaper is gross oversimplification. for starters, there are many hi-end (expensive) name brands from taiwan well respected in their industries, from the famous ones in consumer grade electronics (asustek: motherboards, video cards, etc.) to industrial grade electronics (tsmc: semiconductors; unicap electronics industrial: pcb) to more obscure ones in niche markets (advantech: blade servers). some people will argue that they do well because traditional asian education, tho suppressive of creativity, tends to produce meticulous engineers. i won't venture to say that i know all the reasons why asustek and tsmc do well, but in the niche markets i dare say they do well because giant international companies like intel and ibm operate on business models that cannot tolerate the enormous risks involved in manufacturing, marketing, and distributing disruptive technological products like in the case of blade servers earlier this year. as an enormous source in the 80's and 90's for oem, taiwan, tho historically unable to generate creative solutions, is exceptionally adept at taking foreign technologies and ideas, working out the kinks, and translating the ideas from paper to physical product. much the same thing has happened in china in the past decade, although we have yet to see if their ability to generate creative solutions will blossom once things really start to rock out there.
hmm... i'm not sure if our arguments are in opposition with each other... i think we mite be arguing the same thing, just from different perspectives. however, having met several americans who think that taiwanese come from thailand
and that "made in taiwan" is synonomous to cheap and easily breakable
, i still think that my post is somewhat valuable...
ps, sorry bout hijacking the thread... *sheepish*...
