Chinese Waeco!!

Yeah Dave, they are a worry. Even more so, saw on the news last night that Putnin is taking Russia back to the cold war era & is now teaming up with China. I reckon thats a bit frightening.
The Chinese have a booming economy & we are supporting it at the expense of locally made stuff.

That's the sort of thing we said about Japan 40 years ago. I reckon China is the greatest manufacturing country in all history and like all manufacturers will make sure its warlords don't upset their markets.

They will have hiccups but will continue to bring down the price of everything and buy our raw materials big time so people can earn mega bucks in WA & Qld.

Just get your kids to do mining engineering, not manufacturing!

Max

That's the sort of thing we said about Japan 40 years ago. I reckon China is the greatest manufacturing country in all history and like all manufacturers will make sure its warlords don't upset their markets.

They will have hiccups but will continue to bring down the price of everything and buy our raw materials big time so people can earn mega bucks in WA & Qld.

Just get your kids to do mining engineering, not manufacturing!

Max

That's the sort of thing we said about Japan 40 years ago. I reckon China is the greatest manufacturing country in all history and like all manufacturers will make sure its warlords don't upset their markets.

They will have hiccups but will continue to bring down the price of everything and buy our raw materials big time so people can earn mega bucks in WA & Qld.

Just get your kids to do mining engineering, not manufacturing!

Max

Whoops - sorry about the triplication - nothing happened and I clicked the submit button again. Up came three responses.

Red face
Max

It's nothing to do with China taking over the world you silly people. It's simply cheap labour being available there. Don't you realise that Waeco are having their product made there - it's not a Chinese copy!! China is also the biggest purchaser of much of our raw material. Waeco of course is not the only Australian company using Chinese labour.

Gets me going to Gerhardp1. Trouble is, the 'majority' are choosing the cheaper priced product, so manufacturers go of shore. Not good for the future of Oz though.

Easily solved Gerhardp1! Just convince Australian workers that they don't need 6 weeks annual leave, RDOs, workcare, superannuation, and the many benefits and allowances that employers have to give them. Then we will have a manufacturing industry that can compete. On the subject of superannuation I wonder how many workers appreciate the fact that their boss has to pay an amount equivalent to 9% of their salary into a super fund because the majority of them are too stupid to save during their working lives and will end up penniless and on the pension if noone saves for them?

Mick; work hard all your life to save up a little for your own retirement and get nothing, not even a health card when something goes wrong and you need help. Sit back on a pension/dole/benefit or whatever, and get looked after for life. Who is the system encouraging?

I'll duck for cover now, as this has taken the thread way way off topic.

Motherhen

I agree with you Mick, but I also disagree to an extent.

What I mean is, the last employer I had I was with for 15 years. Then they mismanaged themselves to the point where head office had to shed 700 people because they had grown from 800 when I transferred there in 1984 to 2000 in 1991.

I took voluntary redundancy, but the mongrels ripped me off in the payout to the tune of about $5000, or about 10% of my pay. This was despite having 140 days of unused sick leave and about 150 hours excess flextime credit.

You appear to be a small business man which I applaud, but when you choose to leverage your income by employing people, you can't really whinge at the cost structure involved. After all, buying labour at wholesale and selling it at retail is the objective, and it allows you to make more money than you could working on your own. I know there are lots of factors you can't control, like the ridiculous RDO and benefits levels, but these are like tools - if you don't have them, you can't do the job.

The stresses involved in employing people is the reason I didn't go down that path in my business, in which I am still self employed after 16 years. A friend who started a similar business when I started chose the leveraged route - his business now turns over some $40million and he is divorced with 3 heart attacks behind him, but he is wealthier than me.......

But I have squirreled enough away that I'll never need to see the inside of a Centrelink office

Olcoolone, We purchased the little Waeco from a camping retail outlet here in Newcastle for $99 & right next to it was an Engel, same capacity & very nearly the same design & it also was also $99. My wife chose the Waeco because the colour scheme blended better with vehicle interior!! Logic of course.
The earlier response about Japanese made products & our reaction to them 40 years ago is very true, we all thought them rubbish at the time but now view Japanese made stuff as quality.

The Waeco and Engel cooler are made in the same factory.
I got the Engel on special for $50.

If they had of been the same price I would have got the Waeco because of the colour too: )

Engel?? China?? You sure??

My brand new Engel 40L is Made in Thailand