Mandolin factory on youtube

[MongoMando]

Anybody like Bean Blossom? Epiphone?

Someone posted some videos from a Chinese factory on Youtube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0TbZKoz8PdQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zZq44RNcZMI&mode=related&search=

http://youtube.com/watch?v=h2uyUxkr1e8&mode=related&search=

[Jim Hilburn]

I wonder how that binding girl would feel about living in Colorado?

[Desert Rose]

As long as she got the same benefits as her Chinese factory

Free dorm living

Three good free meals a day

Profit sharing

Wage that fairly translates to the American buying power for her wages, including overtime allowence for anything over eight hours a day

She would love it Im sure

But I doubt any American factory could match her conditions

Scott

[good_ol_al_61]

Rose:

Having lived and worked in mainland "Red" China, they have learned how to spin what they have and how the economy works. I got really tired of the saying, "It's for the people!" whenever personal sacrifices were required at the government's direction.

The government owns everything, even any foreign firms a minimum of 51%. So the "free" housing, meals, healthcare are simply provided, then deducted from the take-home wage. That is why you hear the reports and rumors of the Chinese workers working for "5 dollars a day" or whatever the saying is for that day. It all really balances out comapratively speaking. The only real difference is production. The people I dealt with worked 6 or 7 days a week a minumum of 10 hours a day. Remember, they are a communist country and therefore a non-religious country, so there are no Sundays off. The weekends are just more work days. So the impact of the overtime paid was reduced since you cannot receive overtime for food, housing and healthcare...those are fixed costs.

Added to this is the lack of government regulations...No OSHA, EPA, Minimum Wage Law, Social Security, FICA, EPA, PETA, NOW and the list goes on. Most of all, if you are a Chinese worker there is no legal recourse. If you are hurt on the job there is no worker's compensation, they simply replace you.

That is how they are able to sell and export inexpensively, they get more production for the total cost of the worker per hour. Then the government steps in on certain commodities and sets the selling price since they own the producing company anyway.

I am not being political here. I love the Chinese people. They are hard-working and take pride in working with thier hands. I am simply stating facts as I learned them in person.

[Desert Rose]

Al

Dont know when you worked there but Im not speaking of heresay I work in China as well in numerous musical instrument factorys and I do it now

From Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and others

What I mentioned was just the average condition at all the factories I work at

I have lived in Japan for twenty one years and find the Japanese situation in factories much more dispicable. The work till you drop for the good of the company is the RULE in Japan, work ten hours a day six days a week OR ELSE, and the factorys will terminate any and all employees at a minutes notice if it fits the needs of the factory, the lifetime employment myth was proven to be just that when the economy went bad here and I have seen MUCH worse saftey situations in Japan and #Korea than any Chinese factory. In Chinese musical instrument factorys they work over time of course just like Americans, when shipping day approaches you do what you have to, but in general I find Japan much worse, they work massive overtime when there is no need, and overtime in Japan is much less than time and a half wages!!

In my life I have never seen so many workers missing fingers in one place than the eleven years I worked at Fujigen in Japan is was sickening, safety was a joke, the management didnt care and Fujigen was the showcase factory of the whole country. Ive also worked at the Daina and Chushin factorys in Japan and the conditions I mentioned are cultural and everywhere

In my experience what I see VERY common is someone will go to China and see that they do EVERYTHING different than we do, and some of the things they are definately strange to us BUT what they dont understand its NOT that the Chinese are so bad but ifg they had more experience they would see that its not Chinese but the ASIAN way to do things, Korea Japan etc etc but they see something wierd and have only experienced it in China so they mistakenly blame China when in many cases they learned the point from business with other Asian cultures but its trendy today to blame China even if its not right

Today in 2007 in China its nothing like it was even five years ago and its different in a BIG better way.

The Chinese workers have pride and want to show what they can do, and their wages are QUITE on a par with ours when you measure the buyingpower.

Ive mentioned it here before, a NEW two to three bedroom house with all the goodies the wife wants in the kitchen and a couple modern nice bathrooms in the small citys where most instrument factorys are found will cost $5000 to $7000 TOTAL, makes that $5 a day sound a bit different for sure

Make no mistake China has a way to go and in some things a long way but unlike us in some ways they ARE making progress, they know the air sucks, nobody likes the fact that you cant drink the water and they know it has to change.

Scott http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[earthsave]

Dang it, whenever someone posts a YouTube link, I end up trapped over there for hours watching all the amazing bluegrass videos. Stanley Brothers, James King, Butch Robins, etc....

[good_ol_al_61]

Scott:

I think you and I are close as to our experiences. I worked there 1998 and '99 in the construction field, namely the Beijing Airport which was the "pet project" for the premier at that time. I have never worked in Japan, just passed through.

As for the Chinese worker, I have the GREATEST of respect for each of them I encountered. They never complained, never seemed to have a bad day and worked vigilently in whatever they were tasked with. I know that Eastman is doing great because of the pride that the worker has in his craft.

As for the government, well let's say if I said what I really thought, Mr. T would lock this thread up and be 100% right in doing so.

As for pointing out China when it is an asian thing, I agree. Thier thinking is different, not better or worse, just different. I really had to get used to working with extremely talented female engineers. Man they were good! But at 10:30 am they all left the room to serve us (men) tea. I inquired why these trained, knowledgeable engineers became servants to us. It took several days before I could phrase the question in a way that they understood what I was asking. I finally gave up as one of them gladly offered, "it is the Chinese way". I aquiesced and understood that if they were happy, then fine.

Lastly when I was there, the internet was just making inroads. I could tell it would drastically change the culture. Everyone was talking about what they had seen and read in the 'net and was fascinated at the things found in other countries. I knew the government couldn't stop this infiltration of Western Culture and I have been patiently watching to see if the Chinese government would try to regulate or restrict its use. Apparently they haven't done so.

[John Flynn]

She would be much more productive if they would get her a tape dispenser! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Walter Newton]

Lastly when I was there, the internet was just making inroads. I could tell it would drastically change the culture. Everyone was talking about what they had seen and read in the 'net and was fascinated at the things found in other countries. I knew the government couldn't stop this infiltration of Western Culture and I have been patiently watching to see if the Chinese government would try to regulate or restrict its use. Apparently they haven't done so.
Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project) about "The Great Firewall of China", realtime URL testing here (http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/) (the Mandolin Cafe is apparently OK)

[Ted Eschliman]

Eight posts, and only one with mando content. Too much politcal potential here, so I regret we're closing it down before it gets too heated.