[ocfnash]

I don't know; no doubt we could debate the point at length.

Nevertheless I stand by my original remark. IMHO the conflation of "Chinese" with "cheap crap" is:

  * Not relevant

  * Debatable / Subjective 

  * Divisive

and thus distracts attention from the actual point being made.

[kstenerud]

Meh.

China today makes the lion's share of cheap crap. Before that it was Korea. Before that it was Japan. Next will probably be Bangladesh. Just follow where garment manufacturers go and you'll see the pattern.

They key to selling more cheap crap in this day and age is to game the ratings systems as inexpensively as possible, thus the Amazon one-fake-5-star-review problem.

[stordoff]

FWIW, in this specific case, part of the problem can be that items are shipped from China (so longer lead times etc.).