/Boat launch day thoughts

Boat launch day thoughts

Boat launch day thoughts

 

By Jim Poling Sr. 

 
Getting the boat ready for spring launch can be stressful. 
Will
the motor start quickly and run smoothly after its winter hibernation?
Did you remember to insert and secure the drain plug?  Are the trailer
lights shining and blinking, as they were when stored last fall?
Much to think about. Much to remember. No time for Made in China complications.
 
But there they are. The light switch I installed last summer falls apart when I give it a test flick. Made in China.
Neither trailer tail light burns brightly or blinks the way it is supposed to. Bulbs Made in China.
Boat
launch day reminds me that we are a society smothered in cheap Made in
China products. It is difficult to find much of anything – from toys to
medicines to consumer electrics and even nuts and bolts and screws –
that is not Made in China.
China
is Canada’s second largest trading partner now. Since 2011 Canada-China
bilateral total trade has grown by more than $50 billion and Canada’s
trade deficit with China has grown to billions of dollars. In other
words, we buy a lot more from China than we sell to it.
 
Much of what we buy from China is low cost, low quality junk not meant to last. Some of it is unhealthy and downright dangerous.
Some
readers might recall the Made in China toys that contained unsafe
levels of lead. Or the firecracker inspections that revealed that nearly
50 per cent of firecrackers sampled in 2017 didn’t pass product
inspection and testing. 
It
is not that the Chinese are incapable of producing quality goods. Their
factories turn out lower quality, inexpensive stuff for a reason: we
North American consumers encourage them to because we want goods at
lower prices.
When
we buy cheap Chinese goods we forget – or ignore – how we are hurting
ourselves. Much of what China is producing for our retail markets was
invented and originally produced in North American factories. We have
turned huge amounts of manufacturing over to China simply because they
will produce it more cheaply.
Meanwhile, more of our factories close and our people have fewer jobs.
 
Maybe
it is time to change our thinking. Begin thinking about paying more for
goods produced at home; goods that will help to create the jobs needed
to build and sustain strong communities, particularly in rural areas
like Haliburton County. 
Trade
with China, and other global economies, is important and necessary. But
there needs to be a balance, which in the case of China, certainly is
missing.
 
China
not only floods us with cheap products, it plays dirty and we respond
in typical Canadian Milquetoast style. We are holding Hauwei
Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in house arrest under a legal
agreement with the United States. We are following a rule of law,
something that China seldom does.
In
retaliation, China has imprisoned Canadians on trumped up charges, has
suspended or cut back imports of Canadian canola and pork and has issued
a travel advisory against Canada. It’s nasty and unlawful but that’s
the way China operates.
Canada
needs to get tough and fight back. And we don’t need to wait for our
government. Citizens can get tough through their buying power.
 
The
next time you purchase an item, determine if it is Made in China. If it
is, ask if there is an alternative manufactured elsewhere. If there is,
be willing to pay more for the alternative, especially if it is
produced here at home.
We
all like to pay less for the goods we buy but often we end up paying
more for cheaper goods that don’t stand up and need to be replaced.
Paying twice for a low quality item usually means paying more overall
than for one quality item.
Also,
there is growing comment that buying goods produced locally is better
for the environment than buying goods produced abroad. Certainly Chinese
manufacturing is no model of environmental awareness. China burns 47
per cent of the world’s coal to power its manufacturing plants.
 
Small
consumer boycotts might seem ridiculously ineffective against a
manufacturing giant. However, there are times in our lives when doing a
little is far better than sitting back and doing nothing.