[elefanten]

We’re decades into the pattern. I continue to be stunned that anyone is surprised by Chinese product anymore.

Here’s a rule that will not serve you poorly for the indeterminate future: avoid it all costs whenever and wherever you can. It’s never steered me wrong, the discounts were never worth it.

[wenc]

> We’re decades into the pattern. I continue to be stunned that anyone is surprised by Chinese product anymore.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it is "narrative based" thinking. This type of thinking typically associates a country's manufacturing with low quality products based on news and stories, but not a truth-seeking mental model.

In my opinion, a better mental model is this: Chinese manufacturing is a system. It a capitalistic system that can manufacture at any level of quality and price point. It is also libertarian in that there are fewer rules/regulations.

Quality is often proportional to price point, and many of the products on Chinese e-commerce sites are manufacture-on-demand (often low lead times) at very low price points. What kind of quality can you expect for $3-$4?

On the other hand, if you are willing to pay for high-end manufacturing that is highly compliant with standards, you will get the level of quality you expect. Apple seems to have no problem with the quality of Chinese manufacturing.

The system will produce what people are willing to pay for.

[Jimmc414]

It’s not just Chinese products. In the US we’ve got the agency tasked with protecting consumers so thoroughly captured that they are forging test results to protect the companies polluting our environment.[0] This is a much deeper and more systemic problem.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/28/...

[pennybanks]

ok but this isnt phthalates related like whats in the article. but if your talking about just in general then i would say america is pretty strict at inspections in many fields especially compared to china. would say standards are just different