I bought a new DVD player today. It will play just about anything I put in it, from a CDR with MP3's burned on it to every DVD-R format created under the sun. It even has my beloved fiber-optic audio to make my Dunlavy speakers sing in beautiful DTS 5.1 surround goodness. If I had a progressive-scan HDTV it'd make that thing happy as well. Hell, I think if I put a slice of bologna in this thing it would play something wonderful. It was $60 at Best Buy. That's less than half of what I was expecting to pay for the features I wanted. Ah, China mixed with modern manufacturing, you're so good to us. I welcome the rise of the third world and all that shall come with it. There isn't a thing we can do about it and those hard working people deserve to be upwardly mobile.
With Ford and General Motors already tanking, what would it take to really put a stake in the heart of the American manufacuring sector? I think it is going to be cheap, high quality Chinese automobiles. The world is flattening, as Thomas Friedman is fond of saying, and nothing is going to flatten it more than the second largest purchase you'll ever make coming from China. It will be a gradual process over a decade or so, but I think we are going to get our butts kicked on this one, fair and square.
From The World Peace Herald:
WASHINGTON -- Chinese companies are racing to enter the U.S. auto market.
One manufacturer previewed this week at the North American International Auto Show, and another plans to hit dealerships by the end of next year.
"For sure, nobody needs another manufacturer, if all we were going to do was manufacture another car. But we are going to make a dramatic change in the price [structure] of higher-priced cars," said Malcolm Bricklin, the 66-year-old chief executive of Visionary Vehicles, a New York City company that has long-term plans to sell 1 million cars a year built by China's Chery Automobile Co. in the U.S.
Mr. Bricklin plans to introduce midlevel cars, competitive with Japanese and Korean sedans and crossovers, to the U.S. by the end of 2007, he said yesterday from his New York office. Cherys, which will be sold under a yet-to-be-determined name, will be priced about 30 percent less than competitors.

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