the china syndrome part 19

[rick]

so as a man who has never bought an umbrella and always gets pissed of when he has to walk in the rain !

who even at my age on occasions when he is out fishing has not learnt that pissing in the wind isnt clever

I have put off doing a bunch of computer stuff for a couple of weeks because downstairs in my place where my computers and stuff are doesnt share the houses central heating
.. well i get a bit of it but its F@#$ing cold down there .. its the same problem every year

so i was sitting around an hour a go freezing rugged up in a beanie
"..f@#$ it i am going to go and buy a heater..."

i mean who buys a heater? they just appear.. like iec power leads and coffee mugs !

5 mins later i am in retrovision , i find a little oil heater that i figure wont take up too much space and i can virtually sit on top of it so it wont need to use too much juice

i didnt even look at the price - took it to the counter and the guy says $ 19.99
i said ok so $200 he says no mate just $20 bucks !

as i am typing this i am sitting over the first heater i have ever bought in my life
i never seem to learn anything fast !

i can not help but wonder where the china syndrone will take the world ..

but jeez i feel nice so today i dont care
its like i am 6 years old again leaning on the warmth of magical school oil heaters !

there are $20 buck oil heaters out there and I freeze my balls off year in year out !

photo.JPG

live and learn

[tunetown]

I just bought a replacement battery for my Digital SLR camera from China. The same battery here is about $50. I got it for $5 off Ebay. Dont know how long it will last but at a tenth of the price I'm willing to take the chance.

[stosostu]

The replacement battery for my mobile phone was prioced a $69.99 at the Telstra shop, but I got one for $4.95 from China via eBay. It has been working faultlessly for over 6 months, and if anything it holds a charge longer.

[rick]

you know i kinda get a $5 battery direct from ebay

but my new little warm friend had to be made- filled with oil packaged sent out to a shipping dock somwhere on the chinese coast
travel across the sea safely get unloaded in sydney or may be somewhere else
put on a truck to the retrovision warehouse then off to eastwood shop
stacked in a pile on the floor in a shop that has obvious overheads and then at the counter the price is only 20 bucks !
wtf did retrovision pay for it.... $1 !


i just cannot do the maths
but it sure is the solution i needed... but was just too dumb to think of it for years

hmm toasty warm

[jkhuri44]

the china syndrome is kinda like the studio syndrome:

100,000+ dollar desk
50 billion dollar convertors
$3000 preamps, eqs, comps, reverbs

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>stingy clients.


how the heck do u studio guys make coin

[rick]

dunno i cannot do the studio maths either
but we save money by only buying $20 oil heaters every 25 years or so !

[rick]

great thing about my heater besides it actually works is it comes with cute little alien symbols on it !

i think this means - no lobsters allowed past this point

photo.JPG

[Simon B]

we will see how much you like it when the power bill comes in.

Jokes aside, the stuff coming out of china is getting better and better...... and cheaper and cheaper..... and cant be faulted.... and people seem to be cashing ing on it

I have seen some guitars cost less then $500 coming out of china,change pickups and tuners and pots and it is a great instrument that I just cant fault, especially in comparison to what the quality a cheap guitar was 10 years ago.


I just dont know where its going to go from here.....

[DwaneHollands]

yeah, have you played one of those $200 squire stratocasters lately? They aint bad!

I mean, when I started 20 years ago, the strat I had squeeled like a little pig when you put any kinda gain on it, was hard to play (not setup - ok that's not a quality issue I suppose) and sounded bad.

I went into a store about a year ago and played one of those squire strats for kicks and it was very nice. Honestly sounded great (not vintage, but man you'd use it if you had nothing else on hand)

[Lee]

Rick you will probably see next winter why it cost $20. I purchased a $40 dollar heater last winter and when I pulled it out this winter to fire it up it went "poof" and "apparently" stopped working so enjoy it while it lasts.

[jkhuri44]

great thing about my heater besides it actually works is it comes with cute little alien symbols on it !

i think this means - no lobsters allowed past this point

photo.JPG

looks more like "no industrial drills"

[obutcher]

This reminds me of an article I read in February about fans!

http://www.smh.com.au/business/absurdly ... 1aide.html

I've always wondered how much a $20 oil heater would cost to run...... probably not much but I've always wondered.

[Hookemeister]

Yeah Rick I was thinking the same thing when I bought a $10 rice cooker from Aldi a couple of years ago.

I thought there must be something wrong with it at that price... well I guess I've used it 2-3 times a week and it's still going strong 2 years on.

How do they do it? The cheapest postage from here to China is around $9. If I was to buy an unterminated 3 pin power cord, even wholesale it would cost around $3. A teflon coated aluminium bowl, that's got to be worth a few dollars.Then there's a power switch, a couple led's, an element, thermostat, casing, glass lid and of course let's not forget Aldi's markup. I'd really like to know what the labour component of that $10 is.

I've got one of those $20 heaters... works great.

The first oil heater I bought was when my son started to crawl, some 23 years ago. Thought it would be the safest form of heating. That Dimplex oil heater cost me just under $200 in 1988.

Then again the first hard drive I bought was a huge 40meg drive... cost me $400. Just bought a 4gig usb stick the other day for $5.

So... where's it all going to end?

[rick]

the sad thing is i would pay $20 just to have not been cold this morning !

so i am $20 ahead even if it blows up tommorrow

with the amount of electrical things in my life this little friend of mine is the last thing i would ever
worry about adding to the bill
i have at least two tonne of 3 phase machinery more actually
.. and the fork lift and the .. and the..


it was also the lowest watt heater they had !- i doubt it would heat a big room but it makes no fan noise isnt going to start a fire if a bit of paper falls on it and it cost $20
did i say it cost just $20 ...?
makes no sense to me

the china syndrome #19

[rob]

yeah, I'm with you on this Rick, i don't understand the maths behind all this either.
I've just completed another batch of our "made in an Australian shed" Passive Link re-ampers and it costs me $10 just to post each one out to a buyer in Australia. And your oil heater price to send one overseas. Hell, they only weigh 500 grams!

There is a part of me that gets excited when i see prices on things that were once serious financial decisions and are now just pocket money. There is another part of me that aches with the sense that somewhere there must be a great injustice being done.

[AnthonyMF]

This post really makes me wonder about the $150 Axis 70's I picked up. Great little ribbon mics, I've got a session coming up where I'll be using them along side the Royers mic they rip off, and the Peluso copies of the same mic as well. It'll be interesting!

I first got onto these mics when a lecturer at TAFE said with a cheeky grin, "Mate, they're about $70 and they sound great on toms" and he was bloody well right!

I hadn't really thought how anything could possibly be worth so little, I'm ashamed to say.

[Chris H]

This post really makes me wonder about the $150 Axis 70's I picked up. Great little ribbon mics, I've got a session coming up where I'll be using them along side the Royers mic they rip off, and the Peluso copies of the same mic as well. It'll be interesting!

I first got onto these mics when a lecturer at TAFE said with a cheeky grin, "Mate, they're about $70 and they sound great on toms" and he was bloody well right!

I hadn't really thought how anything could possibly be worth so little, I'm ashamed to say.

It's even more of a question when that exact same mic can be purchased for $30 each, what i payed for mine from a group buy organized OS

[The Tasmanian]

Rick - dont forget that the metal on the heater was dug up in WA, transported to the ship with AU labour and employment/superanuation/local tax costs, then it was shipped to China.
$20 retail is insanity.
It is sad Rob that the Chinese government owned postal system makes it really unfair for you to compete.
Some online business' are now choosing to make a loss on the postage so they can compete with China.

But we have been here before - on a smaller scale with Japan in the 70's.
Japan rose up and pumped out the majority of electronics/cars/musical instruments/power tools/white goods -
Aussie/EU/US company's had to compete or die - a lot could not swim - only the smart companies survived - usually by working with Japan.
The first lot of stuff to come out of Japan was rubbish, they learned by mistakes, listened to their clients, then started making high quality goods.
Local car makers were furious - musical Instrument makers were in a rage - electronics that were made here by AWA could not compete,
We made great guitar amps like Goldentones and Moody's and many others - these company's did not survive.
Guitar makers like Maton here had to rework how they built things to compete, and Japan whopped their ass - bigtime.
Here we are again - its the smart business people that work with China - as opposed to compete with them have at least a chance of survival in the online global market.
Cycles..............

FFW>
In 10 years time it could be US stuff that is so cheap - the staggering debt there: $50,000.00 for every man woman and child in America :
- Its like a bad reality TV show watching their dollar turn to shit in front of our eyes while they spend billions on wars, spend no money on health, let the rich pay very little tax, and racking up the creditcard that is basically the Chinese Government Bank.
It is very very sad to watch this unfold.
Then there is Greece..Portugal........Spain..........Ireland etc etc .

If the heater is $20 now - maybe it will be $1.99 retail in 5 years time?
Comes from Russia or Afganistan? - Cycles.....

Very interesting times ahead!
I'm not anti Japan or China - or any future nation that undercuts them using our iron ore/aluminium/resources.
Our problem is successive weak governments selling our land and resources.

[The Tasmanian]

Its also interesting to note that a lot of companies are now pulling out of manufacture in China because its to "expensive" they are currently building factories in India.

I'm gonna hold out on buying my heater - the $20 one you got you paid too much for - you've been had!

[The Tasmanian]

And the guys who bought the ribbons in the group buy for $30?
99% of the product came out of the ground in Australia.
Maybe they cost $1 for the Chinese to make - and you paid $29 in various bribes for corrupt officials ?

[Ben M]

I reckon we could get that $20 down to close to nothing if we let the chinese/india build heater factories in W.A.




..add devilish smiley face...

[tunetown]

I found this little video interesting and might help explain a few things.

http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproj ... GorqroigqM

Cheers

[Text_Edifice]

Nice find

[Chris H]

I reckon we could get that $20 down to close to nothing if we let the chinese/india build heater factories in W.A.




..add devilish smiley face...

then we would have to accept Chinese and Indian workers in those factories to keep the cost down.....
and that's a big can of worms!

[Ben M]

I reckon we could get that $20 down to close to nothing if we let the chinese/india build heater factories in W.A.


..add devilish smiley face...

then we would have to accept Chinese and Indian workers in those factories to keep the cost down.....
and that's a big can of worms!

Twas not being serious.... I don't want to open that can.

[Chris H]

I found this little video interesting and might help explain a few things.

http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproj ... GorqroigqM

Cheers

This stuff is all very interesting but i also find it very frustrating. I will sound like an old wacko probably, but back in the 70's this dynamic we are in now seemed inevitable unless major change was implemented. I chose a lifestyle so as to the best of my ability i would live as part of the solution not part of the problem. In many ways it looks as though i was a bloody fool and a total idiot for doing so because where the f@#$ has it really made a difference in the grand scheme of things? However despite scoring very low on many of the "well being indicators" in contemporary Australian culture I choose to be a happy man. My Joy does not come from my successful participation in the economy, although like us all we have to participate.
Now back to the impending and unavoidable changes that reality will impose on the world as we know it;
.......Take for instance this simple and logical fact. The health of any and all economic systems of the current model is totally reliant on economic growth.
Fact A: There is a limit to economic growth. ( finite resources etc )
Fact B: There comes a time ( social / political dynamic ) when economic growth is counter productive to quality of life.
........so here I am looking back over 30 years of the obvious, with many, perhaps the majority of people fully aware of this reality, and the dynamic has got way worse, corporations way more controlling of the democratic process. Short term gain, this financial year's dividends, this CEO's salary package all add up to...... We are destined for major social upheaval in the short / medium / long term.....but for now i choose to be a happy man.

[rick]

I found this little video interesting and might help explain a few things.

http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproj ... GorqroigqM

Cheers

nice link peter
i hate looking at that dumbed down for the non thinker type stuff

i also hate finding out i am the dumb non thinker !

still i did start the post stating i have never bought an umbrella or a heater before !
in my whole life !

i HATE designed obsolence as a concept and its quite obvious to anybody that knows me i spend my days
reusing other peoples old stuff at every oppurtunity

i also have WAY too much stuff
but taking things to the tip or letting things go to the tip just upsets me
i have never really wondered why its just "wrong" to me
and new stuff that breaks before its time shits me

i watched that video and i can now see reasons why it should
i am not sure thats what i thought .. or if its correct
but i will think about it a bit more from now on !

what has happened to my forum
save the ill members.. save the trees .....save the world .?

not very rock n roll is it !

[Ben M]

Fact A: There is a limit to economic growth. ( finite resources etc )
Fact B: There comes a time ( social / political dynamic ) when economic growth is counter productive to quality of life.

I agree... we need to find balance (which is the key to most things in life).
We've locked ourselves into this vicious circle with the economy and it's growth with the implosions getting closer and closer together. Something's gotta give. We need to wake up to the fact that we are limited to how long we can continue this charade.

I just picked some broccoli from my garden for dinner tonight.
I'd be happy to go back to bartering.

I'll trade some broccoli for ................an sm57.

Add very big cheeky smiley face.

[Chris H]

............I like broccoli.

[Adam Dempsey]

How's the fumes from that portable oil heater, Rick? Any fumes?
Fumes (which may not be immediately apparent) have been my sole experience with those things, so the irony was the need to use it only in a ventilated/drafty room. Moved on.
I've just spent half a day sealing up gaps at home with weather strips & getting skilled at Space Invaders (Selley's version).