I went to college, now about 15 years ago I studied the benefits of globalization. Visiting business leaders gave presentations, eagerly attended by management students who were about to graduate into a hot economy. Globalization, we were told, would mean a leveling of the world economy, an expansive supply chain and ultimately benefit for all involved. Salaries would normalize and jobs in the US exported to China or Europe would be of no great consequence because that meant we’d all be managers and the lost jobs weren’t ones we wanted anyway.
In 2014 the situation isn’t that way. Wages never normalized. The profit realized from low cost has not been passed onto the worker in most cases. The worker, for most of our US consumer products is enslaved to our desire for low cost goods, perpetuating the cycle of lost US manufacturing, rising unemployment and abused workers in China and the far east.
I just watched a very interesting documentary on counterfeit products that focused on China and ventured into Thailand. Many things I knew already, having been fascinated by this situation for years. A few items made the list that I was unaware of and it has changed my perspective from one of curiosity to one of dismay.
Alibaba, as I’ve mentioned the last time I wrote about this stuff has since come out with it’s newer sales platform, a “Buy-it-now” only version of Ebay for Chinese sellers named AliExpress. I’ve been buying small items off AliExpress with zeal. I bought some small bike parts, then some sunglasses, a battery charger, a jacket that was produced for Tour De France workers, some camera batteries and even considered buying a bike frame to race on. (they didn’t sell my size) Everything was shipped within a week and the products, when replicas, were nearly perfect in every way. Feedback was encouraged. Was the seller honest? Was the product good? Yes and yes I answered. The answer isn’t quite as clear though. Are they honest? The basic tenets of capitalism rely on an imbalance of knowledge between the buyer and seller but seldom mentioned are morality and honesty. Is the seller honest if their product is of perfect quality but is a complete copy, a theft of intellectual property? Is it moral? Is it moral for us to capitalize on the transaction by paying 1/10th of the product’s value knowing it’s probably been made by a child? Is it moral for the marketing company to increase profits and not pay the worker a living wage? We know the answers.
I bought Ray-Ban Wayfarers from an AliExpress seller. It was motivated by two things- one to spend a small amount of money. The second, as a method to prove that I source my goods as far up the supply chain as possible, a challenge. I understood through reading about Luxottica and their “saving” of Ray-Ban and their monopoly of the sunglasses industry that they were reproducing our beloved US goods post-takeover, in China. Why then should I pay USA-Oakley or Italian Ray-ban prices if they come from China? Why would I, the consumer choose to essentially pay Luxottica $90 when I can go to their producer and buy the same sunglasses for $4.95? When the Wayfarers arrived at my house from China, 4 days after I ordered them the packaging was a perfect replica- the brochure “printed in USA” The glasses “made in Italy” the case embossed, the lense laser-etched “RB”
I find the proposition of buying at this unbelievable low wholesale level so interesting that it’s hard to resist searching for every normally store-purchased goods on AliExpress. Tonight I found a documentary on counterfeiting in China that investigated the effect on Europe and the United States, first for the fashion industry, then on something far more impactful, the drug industry. This was something that I never considered before and therefore something that never influenced my decision to usurp retail channels. This is the link:
In 2009 when fake auto parts started to enter the market I correctly identified them as a threat to us as a shop that sold “real” parts through authorized suppliers. At the time the copies weren’t good. They were easily identifiable as low quality and this made our job of communicating risk to the customer easy. Only a few years later they’re far more advanced. Copies are so good that even the packaging is indiscernible from “real.” I’ve said this before though, considered it before. What if these car parts served a more important role in our lives. What if they were drugs to fight breast cancer? insulin? birth control? What about condoms that have terrible quality control and are sold under brand names you know, on the shelf at the pharmacy you patronize? This is real. 10% of drugs sold in Russia are counterfeit. This means millions of people are taking drugs that are fake and often have no medication in them. In many cases these fake drugs are making it into normal pharmacies in the UK and drug companies aren’t doing enough about it. Compounds cannot be accurately tested or verified by the layperson. Companies don’t want to confirm a problem or, drugs or otherwise, because they fear consumer confidence will be hurt. “Fake Advil has been found” Ok we say, we’ll buy another brand.. Why would they bother. What about when a family finds porn on the Disney DVD they bought? It’s because it was counterfeit.
Watch the video.
My interest in this subject is enhanced because it encompasses EVERYTHING in life. Our desire to own more, save more, appear successful, satisfy our need for responsible spending. More than that companies with whom we’ve invested as part of our retirements are successful because they rely on this system. Our jobs rely heavily on foreign manufacturing, our cars, clothes, our whole economy. We aren’t readily willing to sacrifice our lifestyles, our phones, cars and clothing for the betterment of humankind. We are essentially structuring our lives on a global credit system. What would our cost of living be if everything were produced by fairly paid workers? Impossible. This explains the global income inequality as well as that of our own country. There may come a time when quality is impossible to find and our debt to China will make a manufacturing shift politically unsavory. This isn’t a two-page criticism of China. This is self-examination.
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