Thanks for posting SYO, I really appreciate your point of view. The closest I've come to dealing with Chinese manufacturers was in Malaysia rather than China, and I dealt with big name manufacturers in any case, so your experience is much more relevant. (I have been to China, but as a tourist)
I could have explained myself better there I feel. What I meant by "worker safety" was that the factory complied with local health and safety laws. I felt it a safe assumption that if you are operating illegally there is no reason to adhere to relevant standards. This applies to environmental impact as well as worker health and safety. As you say though, I might be overstating the impact of this on cost though as I am unfamiliar with what it costs to be compliant with applicable laws in China.Originally Posted by syo
Call it a theoretical objection
I am completely aware of the wages/cost of living equation though thanks to my passion for world domination...oops I mean world travel
Agreed 100% However my point was more along the lines of illegal=no regulation=exploitation. As I said just before though, a theoretical objection.
One thing not mentioned though is the grass roots impact. From what I've seen (on TV) it's not at all uncommon for a pirate factory (or a legit factory that manufactures fakes in parallel) to start up in a remote area and employ most of the people from the area. If you know that smashing a fakes factory will put an entire community out of work and decrease their standard of living, it's a lot harder to grab the moral high ground I try to take. It's sad that as a result of the worlds rabid desire for branded objects that entire communities could be building their economic structure around companies/factories that could be torn down. Just another way of looking at it.
I'd go so far as to say "They started it" actually. I have no love for that game at all.
Nothing but good news there. I probably watch too many documentaries to keep perspective sometimes
Agreed re:vanity, kinda disagree re:wasting money.
Taking the worst offenders, the fashion/garment industry, I know that paying retail for branded clothing Vs paying for fakes will see the customer with the fake get substantially better value for money. No argument there, but my point all along has been that a fake product is likely to represent less value for money than an equivalent off brand product.
For example, when I was in Cambodia a while ago I picked up a couple of fake branded t-shirts to wear as mine were getting filthy. I'd have thought it hard to mess up making a t-shirt, but they were very ill fitting and made of some kind of fabric that looked like cotton, but did not breathe at all. (later I'd see this same kind of thing in Thailand, Vietnam, China etc). After tossing those T's I bought a couple of plain T's from a "local" store for the same price. 100% cotton, well made, and I still wear a couple of them 4 years later.
The fakes were made using absolute bottom of the barrel t-shirt stock and relied on people factoring the brand name into the value equation. To get back to guitars and the topic, I'd suggest the same is true of these fake guitars.
See what I'm getting at?
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