[TheForge] Re: Fw: Can't compete w/ this

[Grant Marcoux]

You are both right, and so is the quote.  There is a shadow side to low
price leadership...a race to the bottom.  However, there are always folks
willing to pay top dollar for the finest, whether it is food, wine, art,
tools or weapons.  the question is whether ENOUGH of those folks will
remain, to keep us working.  Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Mike Spencer
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 9:45 AM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] Re: Fw: Can't compete w/ this



Andy wrote:

> Very few of the designers I have worked with cared enough to ignore
> the bottom line.  Fewer customers cared.  That is why all that
> horrid "metalwork" from MX sells like hot cakes.  You cannot sell
> finely crafted iron chairs @ $500 apiece when you can buy nasty
> little scrape of the dregs for $75 from who-the-hell-knows-where.

Here's another quote:

    I was thinking about this the other day. I was walking to work
    and I wanted to listen to the news so I popped into this Radio
    Shack to buy a radio. I found this cute little green radio for 4
    dollars and 99 cents. I was standing there in line to buy this
    radio and I was wondering how $4.99 could possibly capture the
    costs of making this radio and getting it to my hands. The metal
    was probably mined in South Africa, the petroleum was probably
    drilled in Iraq, the plastics were probably produced in China, and
    maybe the whole thing was assembled by some 15-year-old in a
    maquiladora in Mexico. $4.99 wouldn't even pay the rent for the
    shelf space it occupied until I came along, let alone part of the
    staff guy's salary that helped me pick it out, or the multiple
    ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of this radio went on. That's
    how I realized, I didn't pay for the radio.

    Who did? The people who lost their natural resource base, factory
    workers, those who are made sick from factory pollution, and
    retail workers without health insurance.

    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120907E.shtml


- Mike

--
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
                                                           /V\
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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