Classe move to China

I have no idea where my IMac was made.......
Magfan

Magfan,

More than likely in China or some other country Foxconn has factories.

Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts.

It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an "inhumane and militant" management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconn's management were not available for comment.

In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple's rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week.

The technology company's own guidelines are already in breach of China's widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers.

Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-labour.html
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Perhaps Classe should build the same amp in Canada and China and sell them at $5,000 and $3,000 respectively and see what people end up buying - I suspect money talks.
01-03-12: Pubul57

LOL, you cannot be that naive. Why would any person in business drop their price $2000 on what is supposedly a $5000 amp. The only reason for lowering the the price of the amp would be to compete with your competition and maybe get a bigger piece of the market pie. The rest of the savings would go in the wallet.....

Its kind of sad to be of an age where I've personally witnessed the decline and now, downward spiral, of our economy.

Globalization Equalization......

Does not bode well for the middle class and their standard of living....

Its a failure of will on the part of the electorate to fully participate (by simply paying attention and voting) and the rise of sociopaths in positions of power in industry with the means to buy off politicians.
01-04-12: Nonoise

Just part of the dumbing down of America....

If I were the Chinese communist government I would be using some of those US consumer dollars, through surrogates, to buy up all the good rich tillable US farm ground I could get my hands on.
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It's a global economy now and will become more so as time goes on. Its the natural progression of things. Other than complain, not much choice but to get used to it and adapt. Change is hard.
01-04-12: Mapman

Sad but true.... Europe is already in a recession and how deep it will be is any one's guess.

And because of the great Global Economy the USA will fall back into a recession. Deeper than the one we supposedly are climbing out of? Who knows for sure.....

One thing for sure a world wide depression will speed up Globalization Equalization. Instead of a slow sustained pain, the pain will be quicker..... Maybe only a decade or so.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Germany?
Lot of talk here about Germany and the standard of living of her people.

Germany has strong labor unions.

How can that be? How do they compete in this global economy?

From what I have read the German's have a VAT tax on imported goods that enter the country from the likes of the US and China.
Import Tariffs? Ya, sounds like they got them too....
>http://export.gov/germany/MarketResearchonGermany/CountryCommercialGuide/TradeRegulationsandStandards/index.asp

-04-12: Rok2id
"How can that be? How do they compete in this global economy?"

They are GERMANS first last and always. They work together. And work and workers are respected in Germany. That's how.

A little protectionism doesn't hurt......

Drop the VAT tax and Tariffs and see how long it takes for their great life to start to crumble.
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Kijanki,

Japan was good at taking some one else's idea and improving on it.

Even Japan's time has passed. She has been in stagflation for at least the last 20 years.

Part of her problem is greed of her multinational corporations.

Where does Sony make it products?
Matsushita/Panasonic?
Marantz/Denon?
Pioneer?
Toshiba?

How about Honda small engines?

They moved production out of country to where the labor costs are cheaper. China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia .....
Sound familiar?
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When WE are hungry again we will be OK.

But will the sheeple have the stomach to revolt against the multinational corporations that own our government?

Or just keep complaining.....

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Fiddler,

Nice try, LOL.....
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Who benefits from the decline of the American middle class?
01-05-12: Pubul57

In the end Nobody does....

In the short term the middle class wealth will continue to be transferred to the wealthy. But in the end even they will lose.

Why did Henry Ford implement the assembly line and pay his workers, what was considered for its time, a high wage?

Henry Ford

>>>>>>>>>>>

Globalization Equalization will kill the middle class in this country.

In 2001 I remember watching an economic advisor of GW Bush on Lou Dobbs.

The subject Globalization.... The Bush advisor went on and on how great Globalization was going to be for world economies. How much cheaper products would be here in the US.

Dobbs asked the guy about the jobs that would be lost due to US companies moving their manufacturing to countries with a cheap labor force, like China, and India. The guy said yes there would be some pain. Workers would lose their jobs and would need to be retrained for new jobs.

The advisor spoke of Globalization Equalization...
As the standard of living increased in poor countries, like China and India, those workers would have more money in their pockets to buy goods and services. And that in turn would help American Exports.....

Dobbs asked the guy about the standard of living of American workers during this equalization process. He admitted it would decline somewhat.

When asked how long he thought this equalization process would take he responded, About 25 years.....
>>>>>>>>>>

So look on the bright side we are damn near half way there.
Want to speed up the process? Buy a Classe amp Made in China....

New Agon format...

For these old eyes the white background will quickly lead to eye fatigue for me. I preferred the old background behind the lettering. Like we now...., hopefully still will..., have with the Agon audio forum.

Looks like we will lose the general list showing all new thread postings..... Or at least I have not found it.