[TheForge] Re: TheForge Digest, Vol 13, Issue 58

[Thomas A. Troszak]

Steve,

Your response is very true, and well stated. I wrestle 12 hour /day 7 
days/week to put food on the table (and to have a table to put it on), 
and sometimes I just need to vent.

I spent a year working with a Chinese vendor of forgings, working up a 
proprietary forged component design that I was going to re-sell to my 
customer in UK. I spent about $10,000 (U.S.D.) purchasing the forgings. 
Unfortunately, after all that, for some reason my customer never 
ordered any of the finished forgings from me... so I got stuck with 
them.

I found out years later that that Chinese vendor was simultaneously 
making a duplicate order of my forgings (from my drawings) and selling 
them directly to my intended customer, and for LESS than they charged 
me.

That sort of business ethic x 300 million new workers... ouch.

Bastards.

Tom Troszak


On Feb 22, 2005, at 12:08 PM, theforge-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:

> From: Steve Carter <blackwatchforge at yahoo.com>
>
> Sounds to me like China is beating the US at its own
> game.  You can't hardly fault them for that.  It's not
> like the rest of the world hasn't experienced us in
> much the same way.  Regardless of what you think about
> their government and concerns for human rights they
> deserve a little more respect.  They are just trying
> to compete in this global market like everyone else.
> It just so happens that they have a huge advantage in
> numbers so of course the momentum is swinging their
> way.
>
> Blacksmiths are a unique, creative breed.  Each one of
> us has to deal with the challenge of how we will
> continue to make a decent living in this trade.
> Rather than blaming someone else for our woes we need
> to rise to the challenge to create and some time
> reinvent our own future in the face of inevitable
> change. It may not be easy, but we can and must do it.
>  If nothing else, at least it keeps things
> interesting.
>
> Steve