Looking over the table of “Where my Stuff Comes” I noticed that China is a very popular and common place in which the things I own come from. Especially in the personal belonging section. Every item in this category of the chart came from China.I chose things completely different from each other to purposely avoid a familiar trend but to my surprise that did not work. China seems to make an array of different things for cheap and then send their products to the United States where the prices increase tremendously. It is easy to understand as to why these things come from China. A lot of our personal belongings are things that we need and/or want and are in high demand. Therefore, China is the manufacturer to these items as they are the cheapest …show more content…
Those things include my laptop, playstation, and cell phone which have the price range between $200-$1,000. The United States have things exported from China for several reasons. However, the most significant reasons are because it saves the U.S. money because labor costs are cheaper in China. The United States also makes extremely high profits due to the price increase the products sale for. If the United States manufactured the products Americans tend to want/need then they would lose money because of the labor and material costs are rather high compared to China. Some clothing that I own such as exercise shorts which were made in Cambodia were pretty cheap. This can be for a number of reasons but the most obvious one is the material used to produce the shorts as well as the quality of them. The material used is not extremely terrible but it is definitely not the best. The shorts were worn a few times before the seams began to come apart. The elastic bands in the waist have lost elasticity after being worn just a few times as well. As it can be seen the more expensive things come from certain countries and the cheaper ones come from a different set of …show more content…
The cheap shorts which were made in Cambodia are sold at Wal-Mart for only $10 as an off brand. The shoes known as Jack Rogers which were made in China would never be seen sold in a place like Wal-Mart but instead a higher end clothing store like Nordstrom. Places that do not sell higher end things like the Jack Rogers, but will have their own cheaper version. The only exception to this would be when it relates to my iphone. Wal-Mart does sell this phone but it is usually sold on a contract through Verizon or other cellular companies. However, a phone such as the iphone or other popular expensive phone would not be seen in a store like Dollar
The transition in the message of the film occurs during the scene where Zhang’s daughter Qin and her friends are shopping in a mall. Upon seeing a pair of jeans, Qin and her friends become mesmerized by the idea that this pair of jeans might have been made in their factory. However, upon closer inspection, they realize the jeans are manufactured by another company. This scene is paramount, because it reveals how Qin is being exploited, not even having the ability to buy the jeans which she toiled to produce. Instead, she is committed to slave like labor, to ultimately provide for the common American. The film exposes the flaws of American businesses in unison with the Chinese government. The root of the problem lies in the way American companies decide to produce their goods cheaply. While the average American might become aroused by the idea of saving money on a pair of jeans, they do not realize the “hidden larger cost.” The rest of the problem lies in the apathy that the Chinese government has for the mistreatment of these workers. The communist government does not allow for regulation in these factories, and they disregard anything that will prevent these factories from producing the maximum goods
When America's cotton is sent to China, it is made into T-shirts in the sweatshops of China by laborers working 12-hour days and being paid subsistence wages. When the finished T-shirts re-enter the U.S., they are protected by the government through subsidies, tariffs, taxes, and protectionist policies that ensure that these foreign products will not provide too much competition to American-made shirts. Government regulations control how many T-shirt can be imported from various countrie...
Corporations in the United States have proved time and time again that they are all about profit and not about what is good for America. One example of this is the fact that many corporations have factories in other countries, or buy from other corporations that do. Nike (an athletic shoe and clothing company) produces most of their shoes and apparel in factories in other countries, including Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Malaysia. According to Nike’s factory disclosure list released May 2011, only 49 of it’s over 700 factories are located in the U.S. (Nike, Inc.) This means that thousands of jobs that could be filled by needy Americans are instead being filled by workers in other countries. This reason that Nike and other corporations outsource is very simple, it is very cheap to do so. In an excerpt from Jeffrey St. Clair's book “Born Under a Bad Sky” the author describes the vast differences between Nike’s production costs and retail prices. “In Vietnam, it costs Nike only $1.50 to manufactu...
Have you ever thought about those little words in fine print that tell you where a product was made? How about the last time you put tires on your car? Before you made a decision on the purchase did you stop and ask where the tires are made? Probably not! You heard the only words you wanted to hear....good and cheap! When did we stop caring about where a product is made or did we ever? Why would this matter anyway and what importance is of it? Some may argue that free trade and imports give us purchasing power. They believe cheaper goods results in more money in our pocket to buy other goods. That theory is a farce with little to no data to support it. Buying American made supports job growth, the environment and human rights. The impact on us, our children and the future of America is greatly impacted on our purchasing decisions.
In china, for example, Wal-Mart’s importing operations have significantly affected the manufacturing sector in a manner that gradually unemployment has been stimulated (Holmes 1). The trade deficit between Wal-Mart and China have led to a loss of almost one hundred and thirty- three employment opportunities, especially with Wal-Mart importations. Despite China’s efforts of trying to purchase United States’ treasury bills along with federal securities in an effort to reduce the exportation costs to America, Wal-Mart’s entry into the Chinese market has propelled china’s labor abuse along with internal violations of recognized trade norms (Fishman 1). This is caused by the retail’s growing and vast conduit that allows the distribution of subsidized and cheap Chinese exports to the doorsteps of United States’ market (Neumark, Junfu, and Stephen
In China, Kelsey Timmerman spent time with a couple who worked at the Teva factory, traveled to the countryside to meet the couple’s son, insert name, who hasn’t seen his parents in three years due to his parents working long hours and it being expensive to take a train ride. In the US, the author visited one of a few clothing factories in the US to talk to the workers about his shorts, and the decrease of American garment factories. Timmerman wants the consumer to be more engaged and more thoughtful when mindlessly buying clothes. By researching how well the brands you want to buy from monitor their factories and what their code of ethics details, you can make a sound decision on if this is where you would want to buy your clothes. The author writes about brands that improve employers lives like SoleRebels, a shoe company who employs workers and gives them health insurance, school funds for their children, and six months of maternity leave. Brands like soleRebels that give workers benefits most factory workers have never even heard of help improve the lives of garment workers and future generations. From reading this book, Timmerman wants us to be more educated about the lives of garment workers, bridge the gap between consumers and manufacturers, and be a more engaged and mindful consumer when purchasing our
In "A dollar a Day:Made In China" we meet Wayne Petersen and Li Jieli. Wayne Patterson was an ex- miner who lives in minnesota. In the beggining of the film we see Wayne in Target looking through the different merchandise they are selling and see that most of the products are made in China; Wayne does not want to buy the products because all of the manufacturing jobs are going to China were workers over in China are looking at more job oppourtunites while Wayne and people in his community are loosing thier jobs. Li-Jieli is a young women from China who is forced to work in a factory that makes parts for electronics. Li Jieli had to leave home at 17 years old to improve her and her families living conditions. Li had to give up her edu...
...oes not dominate the entire market. The Chinese market is so large that even an e-commerce giant like Alibaba is unable to capture the entire market. Here are some other players who are in the market as well:
The sheer number of offshore apparel production factories makes regulation of labor practices difficult, and the fact that the factories may be in different countries compounds the labor regulation problem even further. Simply put, it is often difficult to determine where a garment is actually made”(Cheek & Moore). The workers in these factories are often paid less than minimum wage and work in unsafe environments. One article spoke about a factory saying “the workers assembling iPads and other Apple devices in a factory owned by Foxconn Technology Group 2 in Chengdu, China were not only paid less than the statutory minimum wage but they regularly worked 12 hours a day, six days a week while being exposed to toxic chemicals and other potentially deadly safety hazards as well. 3 Disregard for workers’ health at the factory was sufficiently widespread that some employees were required to remain on their feet for so long at their workstations that their legs swelled until they could hardly walk: “‘It’s hard to stand all day,’ said Zhao Sheng, a plant worker’””(Kates). Another ethical issue that is very common in sweatshops is child labor. The International Labor Organization has estimated that “250
Most Apple products are far too expensive for China. For example, a MacBook that is available at the Apple store can cost about the same as the average city-based Chinese worker earns in a year and that adds up to about $2,000. It is more than just price and Apple succeeds because customers love the products and the brand. Apple initially demanded a big two-digit percentage of carriers' wireless revenue as a condition for granting its coveted exclusivity deal; acc...
...goods. According to the World Trade Organization International Trade Statistics 2013, between 2005 and 2012 Asia’s worldwide exports manufactures increased from 31.7 % to 38.5% while North America’s decreased from 15.1% to 13.8% (WTO 80). Granted this is manufactured products as a whole rather than by commodity but it represents a trend regarding manufactured goods where Asia’s exports are increasing while North America’s exports are decreasing. This indicates that that manufacturing is continues to move from North America to Asia.
Recent studies have shown that the Chinese consumers care more about what brand the product is, than almost anyone else in the world. A Harris Interactive Survey of young Chinese and American adults in year 2011 found that 72% of Chinese respondents considered “brand name” to be an important factor when purchasing clothes (Siegel, 2013). This reflects the conspicuous consumption condition in China that Chinese buy luxury products basically in order to highlight social status and their wealth.
Our secondary research identified several key themes, all of which support the hypothesis that a product’s country-of-origin plays a significant role in the purchase decision process. These findings are summarized below:
China has also expanded their trading industries with countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, ASEAN, India, Russia and Hong Kong. This has not satisfied the Chinese greed for income as they also export and import goods to American countries, name...
The Chinese economic empire is one of the largest trading partners of the United States. China is progressing steadily from a period of stagnation with an average growth rate of 10% per year. They create the bulk of the products what is usual for people today, such as iPhones, iPads, and other technology for inexpensive products that seems tenuous. Many o...