Ask HN: How do I minimize money to China?
How do I minimize how much of my money goes to China ? Is there any tech manufactured in the EU/USA ?
The following story is my mental model for long term savings when I first moved out and realized how to help to save money. When my parents moved to America 30+ years ago, they bought a pretty pricey hand can opener from Germany for around $15 (1980s money). They still own it. To this day. I have a USA one that cost me like $20 about ten or so years ago. Still own it. I have friends who buy a new $1-$5 chinese one from Walmart every year because they keep breaking or dull out to uselessness. While that might seem silly/frugal. If you're replacing stuff constantly, you're dumping lots of potential spending money. I apply the same mentality with everything I buy. Buy quality so you buy it once. Not cheap shit every year. Be aware of what you buy. The more aware you are, the less you actually end up needing to buy.
Tech is a hard one. But is still doable. I'm looking at most of the brands around me right now, it's all either Korean or Japanese. Some parts are from China. Even if the brand is Korean or Japanese, they still do a lot of manufacturing with China. But oh well. It's the nature of the global economy. Same with a good amount of computer parts. You'll have a bunch of the commodity parts and pieces for boards made in China, then other stuff in other countries, with assembly in the USA or elsewhere. Sometimes it's Taiwan though, which is a separate nation.
You gotta do legwork and research on your own. Not everything is made in China that's available in the USA. I find it weird that people think they can't avoid chinese products. I never actually "avoided" Chinese made anything. I just happen to avoid it because I go for mid-tier products so I never have to rebuy most of my stuff. Like, I eat sardines a lot. Go to that section in walmart or any other grocery store. You'll find China, Poland, Canada, USA and German sourced sardines. All side by side.
Over the years, things like this happened to serve as anecdotal data points:
* https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-feb-28-la-fg-china... * https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/02/cross-border-b...
lots more in other articles that are google-able.
I did have a startup in the food industry for a while. We had to constantly cut off suppliers for counterfeit goods. One asked us what our budget was and offered a cheaper "AAA alternative" (code work for counterfeit).
A friend left the honey trading business because it became too troublesome to keep track - suppliers would mix a little sugar water into it, which they could tell, but customers couldn't. Things like stevia or milk often had a little water added on. As much as we blacklist companies that add water to 'fresh milk' they're top sellers because of the lower price. Parmesan is also commonly counterfeited and mixed with MSG or something.
I'm not sure American goods are much better, but at least everything is what it says on the label.