Seriously folks, if the Chinese can do this and ..

[Neil McCauley]

...... and ship it and make a profit on a one-off like this, what are the implications for all Western industries let alone the piddling audiophile one?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8602786/New-San-Francisco-bridge-built-in-China-to-be-shipped-to-US.html

[Effem]

There have been far too many structures like buildings, bridges, roads, railways and other major construction FAILURES in China, so as the old saying goes "Buy cheap, buy twice" :doh:

Buy some tools that originate from China and they are rather prone to falling to bits the very first time you use them, so "cheap" doesn't necessarily mean "good" :steam:

Maybe during an earth tremor it would be rather unwise to be on that bridge in San Francisco which does have unexpected 'quakes now and then :eek:

[Reid Malenfant]

:lolsign: I remember seeing a picture recently of a whole articulated lorry (admittedly overloaded) that literally fell through the bottom of a bridge in China. It didn't take the whole bridge out, just the section it was on at the time :lol: There was still bridge to the left & right hand side & in the front & behind it. Looked bloody comical in all honesty :eyebrows:

[selfaddict]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI

Future looks bright for San Francisco. Should you really try to save on these items? Good luck anyhow.

[WOStantonCS100]

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid... :donk: and we wonder why we have collapsing economies and no jobs in our own countries. :steam: How can we really fault the government and business persons of China. People in our own countries are selling us out, lock, stock and barrel. It's treason plain and simple. Government officials and corporate heads alike are guilty of it. We have the materials. We have the know how. And, we have the manpower. The politics of greed are the only things standing between the reversal of the global economic downturn and recovery. Ditch the "Walmart" buy it cheap mentality. Ditch the I just wanna lazily enter keystrokes approach to making a living. Be willing to pay for the quality you want and we might actually get somewhere. I'm preaching to the choir; but, otherwise it is foolish to complain about everything in one's house having a "Made In China" tag on it. Makes your blood boil...

[Slippershod]

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid... :donk: and we wonder why we have collapsing economies and no jobs in our own countries. :steam: How can we really fault the government and business persons of China. People in our own countries are selling us out, lock, stock and barrel.

absolutement, and doing nothing more than following to their logical conclusions the zealous strictures and ideologies of maggie et al.

pass that copy of the telegraph, wont you, old chap ... ? ;)

[WAD62]

absolutement, and doing nothing more than following to their logical conclusions the zealous strictures and idealogies of maggie et al.

pass that copy of the telegraph, wont you, old chap ... ? ;)

+1

The logical conclusion of 'globalisation'...a very short sighted strategy

[Macca]

+1

The logical conclusion of 'globalisation'...a very short sighted strategy

There's a strategy now? That's gotta be a first in the history of our civilisation:lol:

[WAD62]

There's a strategy now? That's gotta be a first in the history of our civilisation:lol:

Civilisation!!? etc. etc. :lol:

[Slippershod]

The logical conclusion of 'globalisation'...a very short sighted strategy

or certain, unadulterated, flavours of Capitalism at least ... ?

good ol' human nature, eh ? :(

[TopBalcony]

Yes ! Let's revive protectionism ! It worked well in the 1930s (if you like World Wars, deflation and depressions):eek:

[WOStantonCS100]

Yes ! Let's revive protectionism ! It worked well in the 1930s (if you like World Wars, deflation and depressions):eek:

Who said anything about protectionism? :scratch: It's a nice polictical term, albeit usually thrown out there when someone's interests are at stake, and most often, wrongly applied, much like "free trade". I generally like to bag the talking points and get to what just makes sense (ie. making sure the citizens of one's own country can work for a living and feed themselves and not at the expense of any other country). This only becomes complicated when people/corporate heads/governments/whoever make it complicated. Oooops, I forgot to add IMHO :) ...and that I'm delusional. ;)

[TopBalcony]

(ie. making sure the citizens of one's own country can work for a living and feed themselves and not at the expense of any other country).

Crikey Biff, I'm really not political and not an economist but I don't think we could have got rich (you and I playing on computers) if other people weren't poor. As per Andrew Marr, we don't make things anymore... to make money we have to stay one step ahead by researching, inventing, marketing yada yada

[WOStantonCS100]

...to make money we have to stay one step ahead by researching, inventing, marketing yada yada

I'm all for that. I'm not anti-intellectual. But, at least in the US, the problem is consumerism. Everybody wants to be in a position to buy, buy, buy and make everybody else do the work. What's that song, "...nice work if you can get it...". The problem with that is now overtly manifest. Those who do the work, get paid. Well, in the case of China, those who make others work for next to nothing, get paid very well. In the US, those who research, invent and market are a very small minority. The majority are "workers" and if the workers don't have work they can't afford to buy the inventions. Cyclical. Catch 22. However, one looks at that. The only way to regain what's been lost is to actually put the workers back to work. If we don't (and I don't) want to put them back to work building bombs and endless stockpiles of weapons for unnecessary wars, than we have to bring back the jobs of building... bridges... household items... things that make an economy and a society go round. Right?

[TopBalcony]

Bombs, bridges...I think they are the same. They are all paid for by the State. If we want to stay rich in the West we have to sell more stuff than we buy. Currently we are enjoying a Halcyon period because we are buying from China but they are lending us back the money to spend again. This isn't sustainable.

The days when we all worked in the West weren't great. I'm from Lancashire and am from family that worked in the mills. Slavery may have been better and nobody would want to go back to those days. But its no good blaming governments etc... this is how the world is, and we have to up our game to stay competitive.

[WOStantonCS100]

...mmmmmm... obviously a hot button topic for me. I should bow out, maintenant. :)