Titanium bottle cages

A little video. I own three frames made out of this factory.


I can't criticise and fault the finished product. I can't criticise and fault the people working there. If I could, I would even like to financially support them and hope for improvements and investment in their tooling, working conditions etc. etc.

But I won't be. Knowing full well that money is flowing out of many small, medium and large sized companies on two levels. A centrally middle-managed organised corrupt level of kick-backs for party members, and then a more official fiscal tax to contribute to what is turned from a defensive military build up to an offensive prepared threatening one. Just how it got there with such internal propaganda when frankly no other nation(s) would ever entertain the serious thought of invading China in the first place for own gains is pure fantasy. It's gone from seeking foreign investments to help domestic advancements to centrally abusing the principal of trade makes peace. Some of their longterm investments on the other hand in foreign countries is positively frightening.

Transparency was mentioned earlier 👍 You can add Covid to the list of not being entirely forthcoming and welcoming to outside scrutiny.

I can't see their products actually being that attractive from a financial point of view in the future (for us in Europe), and I'm pretty sure by now any company thinking of off-shoring R&D and manufacturing there is thinking twice over.
 
It's just industry, everybody wins somewhere along the line. There is a market for it or they wouldn't make them. Knickers need untwisting, it's just a bottle cage. The world is not ending if purchased.
 
wynne said:
If you buy from China you're effectively buying a war bond for the CCP.

Products made in china cannot by dint of their origin be either ethical or sustainable due to the social, economic and environmental (non) policies of the CCP. Positive certification or accreditation of products manufactured in China does not negate this. To believe these labels is, at best, naive and, likely, cynical. You don't even have to think very hard about this. It does not require much research. Even the most cursory search of "china human rights" will yield sufficiently chilling results to stop your purchase in its tracks - if you allowed it to. Yet people choose to fool themselves.

In an era in which no inspection agency can establish meaningful transparency in China such certifications can only really be regarded as a cover for widespread abuse of human rights and abysmal environmental practices. The CCP is not interested in accountability or honesty. They have created terror in their country and a "truth" that most of its population is too afraid to challenge. It is interested in anti-competitive economic domination to fund an anti-democratic military industrial complex.

When i challenge people about purchasing chinese products i regularly get these responses:

It's not possible to buy things made anywhere else

My answer: it is, just try, even a little bit

You're being a snob, just because you can afford more expensive things

My answer: i'm not. I likely make fewer purchases than most people, many second hand and almost all as a result of checking carefully the country of origin. Obviously country of origin is only a guide, but you're starting from a much stronger ethical/humanitarian/environmental/social etc etc point by taking this stance than bovinely handing your cash to a hostile authoritarian regime (which is exactly what you're doing with China).

You're being a racist.

My answer: i'm not. I use money and my purchasing decisions to support basic human rights. I am not anti-chinese, but i am anti-authoritarian. I believe it is our responsibility to stand for people who have no voice.


It's time to stop being such willing suckers and take responsibility for the impact of your purchases.

I don't like popcorn neither.
Click to expand...
I literally provided links to massive increase in welfare, healthcare, life expectancy and education with further tabs showing decrease in negative metrics. Not only this the wealth inequality has been a constant that means increase in gdp is being shared (rising tide). The CCP has environmental policies but I presume you’re ignoring them to suit your narrative. What we do is export our manufacturing and therefore pollution metrics. You have tried to make a compelling retort but fail to provide anything other than the same rubbish that’s been fed to you since infancy.
 
You’ve acknowledged how we’ve exported our manufacturing and resultant pollution. Don’t you have a problem with that - don’t you think we should do better?
The concept of ‘ethical consumerism’ here isn’t just about financing states or organisations deemed unethical, it’s also about replacing the immense consumption of disposable shite with far less, more conscientiously produced, higher quality products. I’m amazed that you’re not even on board with that??
 
I do believe that China has improved in many ways, and they've been funding some good initiatives to increase the quality of life and to reduce emissions, to the point where I believe they've spent more than any other country. Not to mention that we of course created the mess that we are in, our quality of life has relied on exploitation of cheap labour and just outsourcing the exploitation doesn't remove our accountability. Regardless of all that, even if production is to be moved to other low cost manufacturing countries, many of the same concerns will manifest. Money from the industries going into the pockets of governments and their officials with zero intent of that money ever benefiting the impoverished, but rather it'll go to funding military or profitial initiatives for the haves, with nothing going to the have nots. This is true of low cost manufacturing countries outside Asia as well, such as in Latin America.

That said I don't cheer for the human rights infringements in China and certainly don't cheer the CCP. I put them in the same category as the other major governments.
 
ferrus said:
You’ve acknowledged how we’ve exported our manufacturing and resultant pollution. Don’t you have a problem with that - don’t you think we should do better?
The concept of ‘ethical consumerism’ here isn’t just about financing states or organisations deemed unethical, it’s also about replacing the immense consumption of disposable shite with far less, more conscientiously produced, higher quality products. I’m amazed that you’re not even on board with that??
Click to expand...
I didn’t saw I wasn’t. You singled out China and I was curious why. It’s not like if I buy from hope (just got some tech 4 x2 on the way) anyone would expect me to make any comment about the bloodshed the U.K. has spread over centuries. It would actually make me look a little unhinged.
 
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