Classe move to China

Veterinary medicine is where the money is at. Fee for service (no BS with heath plan reimbursement contracting or CMS), predominantly self-pay customers, and an increasing population of childless pet owners that become quickly attached to and lavish huge amounts of affection on their pets.

On another note, the Cleveland Clinic and top health care institutions in this country have programs for foreign VIP patients that include accommodations for family members at in-house or affiliated hotels, as well as other valet and hospitality services. It's an increasingly lucrative business model for these health care institutions given these patients (self-pay) are wealthy enough to afford health care anywhere in the world, and they still prefer to come to the US for their treatment.

Sure the new health care facilities they are building in Singapore, Thailand, and other places across the world look beautiful. They are wired and supplied with all the latest and greatest equipment, not to mention they are charging dirt cheap rates for services (enticing some US corporations to provide incentives in benefit plans to encourage their employees to seek care outside the US). Really though, how qualified is the staff and how good is the care?

In other countries health care is viewed as a social service (although some countries also have a hybrid model that includes a privatized element). Not here though, and that is representative of how our country and economy has evolved. Health care is just another business model and health plans are not committed to the community at large, but rather on shareholder value.

Fiddler,

I, like you, have a decent health care package so no, I wouldn't go overseas or across the border to get treatment. But the 40 million + who have no insurance would, it they could.

And don't forget there are folk with duel citizenship who regularly go overseas to their home country for the same service they would get here at a fraction of the cost or for nothing at all. They don't have to mortgage their life savings, their home, their kids future for what would be considered a routine operation.They are lucky because they can "afford" something that should be next to free just by accident of birth.

That reminds me: I have grandparents from Ireland and England (even my dad was born in England) so duel citizenship is available to me (1/4 Irish, 1/4 English, 1/4 French and 1/4 Swedish) and I could have access to all that Europe has to offer. Something to consider if it gets really hairy around here.

Just got to this thread. I'm from Quebec. Saw similar ones on the same topic on Canuck Audio Mart's forum. The Classe move to China.

I find refreshing that a definite concern is rising about being aware of the future and its consequences on our daily lives. Whatever opinion we might have on the subject, a lot of people now know they will have to stand for something or adapt to the new reality. The Classe thing is kinda of a symbolic case for audiophiles up here. But there are a few new important cases that just came by up here in Canada in the recent days. For one, China has bought out and is full owner of an oil field in Alberta. The question is who are they going to hire to work in it and where is that oil going to be shipped. Maybe you guys down south should think about it because at this moment, every drop of oil coming from that field goes to you.So if you guys don't get as much from Alberta as you are used to, you will have to get it from somewhere else, isn't it ? At what cost ?

Another example is more locally based here in Quebec. China and India are massively investing into mining projects up north in new ventures in a variety of natural ressources. The workforce needed in order to realize such a task is counting into the tens of thousands. We don't have, not even close, the available workers to sustain such projects, especially as it is so far north. So again, who are they going to bring in to do the work ? Are those people going to buy locally ? Are they going to pay taxes here ?

Now where does China get the currency needed for such large acquisitions ? In my book, they get it from profits of product sales to us westerners. Period. While Wall Street pays its workers to profit on speculation and paper transactions, China sells us tangible goods. So, in the same time they take the money away from your pocket and your country, therefore depriving your own neighbours of needed financial ressources for schools and healthcare, they are slowly but surely flattening up your belly while holding your testicles a little tighter with the ownership of your nation's debt.

Classe is located a few miles from my home. I've owned some a few years back and as a usual audiophile, I always kept interested in their products for future potential purchases. Not anymore ! It's not logical, it's visceral. An alternative if I want to buy locally would be Simaudio which is close by too. The fact is Simaudio sells close to 70 % of its total output to South Korea. So basically, their sound signature is built for the Korean ear. At the price they are selling this stuff, I'd rather want it built for my ear. To no avail, I will still hold on to my Conrad Johnson and older Acoustat stuff.

I recently bought, as an experiment but long time investment if to my taste, a well known class D amp built in California. To find out while looking at its insides that a lot of parts were from China. Ooops...little visceral thing is happening to me !

"China sells us tangible goods"

Bingo.

And also importantly goods that more can afford. For better or for worse, however they do it.

Greed will catch up with China as it does to all eventually. Hopefully it will not have finished the US off beforehand already.

I'm not about to read this whole thing, but in skimming thru, Fiddler makes a fine point.
Why DIDN'T the alledged healthcare reform include competition across state lines?

Any Constitutional Scholars out there? Wanna talk about the Commerce Clause?