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Comment by VeejayRampay | Hacker News Reader

Really surprised to see the UK so high in the rankings. It might be my French bias talking, but it's a label that doesn't inspire confidence these days.

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AFAIK, "Made in France" for mechanical/technological goods is usually seen as "overpriced and fragile".

As French, I don't remember the last time I've seen "Made in France" for a mechanical/technological good.

Cars

Wine, Cheese, Cars.

D.O.C. seems to be more common than Fabrique en France. ISTR Citroens having Fabrique en France on their manuals back in the day.

Calling wine and cheese technological goods seems to be pushing the definition a bit far.

I'd guess the French rating is mostly due to the high quality food they export. Same as Italy. Outside of Europe, you probably won't see a "made in France" label on anything except for cheese, wine and champagne.

Also fashion. Paris is still considered one of the great fashion centers of the world so any clothes coming out of there gets an extra reputation 'bonus'

Surprisingly, those are a very large share of France's exports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_France#/media/File:...

French cars have a pretty poor reputation - budget, unreliable cars, vintage Citroen notwithstanding.

Devialet are a recent one. Very, very impressive engineering indeed and all designed and made in France: https://www.devialet.com/

The study didn't specify mechanical/technological goods. So food, clothing, etc. all count.

I live in the UK, and I'm also surprised to see it so high. The TV series "The IT Crowd" used "made in the UK" as a joke explanation for faulty products, which is closer to how I perceive it.

The pertaining clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBfxjSFAxQ

Right? Probably moved up a couple places under the promise we'd not let British Leyland tape together any more vehicles.

A lot of HiFi kit is designed and made in the UK from Meridian, KEF, Naim, Linn, Bower & Wilkins, Chord and a bunch of others I’m doubtless forgetting.

All world class stuff and at a range of prices from expensive to eye watering.

Video game design is another interesting one. Believe UK is third in the world for number of game houses after Japan and the US. That’s a very surprising figure to me and one I’d love to know the reason to.

Doubtless many industries like that across our fair isle which are world class in their little niche.

I certainly value British manufactures more highly than many continental ones, German, Swiss, and some Scandinavian ones being the exceptions.

'these days'? Brexit FUD? If not please explain.

Here's a nice reminder of the kind of thing UK engineering can do (nothing comparable from France recently): http://cars.mclaren.com/ultimate-series/p1

I think certain British items are valued, especially in the luxury range where heritage and quality matters:

-Fashion / clothes, e.g. suits and fabric in general, shoes.

-Engineering(even if foreign owned), e.g. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin.

-Design, e.g. furniture.

-Consumables, e.g. alcoholic drinks such as whisky or gin.

Same for Italy. I always thought, like Greece and Poland, it's where EU manufacturers get cheap labor. On the flip side, I thought made in Japan would be top 3. People always look for the label on Japanese line products (zojirushi, fujifilm, etc)

Made in Italy still carries a lot of weight when it comes to cloths, leather goods and other fashion accessories. I guess that explains the positive score. They're also considered a producer and exporter of high quality food.

Labor in Italy isn't cheap at all, because of high pension contributions and labor taxation. Most "cheap" labor intensive productions moved abroad during the last 20 years, what's left is mostly high-quality high-price products, or highly automated ones.

I've found that in the UK, it's common to put made in the UK on there not out of any sense of national pride, but it's just a tradition (which makes sense given it's origins).

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