Original vs. Knock-off

[drift freaq]

Ok I am going to throw in here, I did quite awhile back as well.
First in the last few posts Drew has made some good coherent reasonable arguments as has Max. I want to clarify some things here though. Yes it might give away my age which most people guess to be at least 10 years different when they see me in person. Yes I live in Hollywood and its a guarded secret hahahhaha.
Anyways, First off, someone said earlier Taiwan Factories are not iso9001 or 2. That is flat wrong! In fact most of Taiwans steel factories are ISO9001. I know this because I mountain bike and the majority of Mountain Bike frames are designed in the U.S. assembled in Taiwan per U.S. specs!! These are robotic ISO9001-2 factories. Taiwan steel while once cheap shit back in the late 70's early 80's has changed quite a bit.
Two: Japan used to signify cheap shit (just like Taiwan does) back in the 1950's through till the early 70's. Guess what? They automated their factories based on what they saw in my fathers automated factories (Fairchild Semiconductor) He was VP in charge of Technology)
It allowed them to get up a leg up on a lot of antiquated american companies assembly lines. Hence Japanese quality rose. Then Japans economy took off . Costs of living soared. All of sudden now you have a situation were Japan's manufacturing costs are expensive much like what happened to American companies especially our Automobile companies in the 70's-80's and consumer electronics companies.
Now, what happened to U.S. then is happening to Japan. Taiwan , Korea and China are pulling simialar tactics that the Japanese used on the U.S. on Japan. i.e. cheaper labor , newer automated factories , lower costs of living. Hence Japanese automobile companies manufacturing here, Canada , Mexico to keep costs down. If Japanese performances parts companies expect to stay alive in this market they will have to follow suit as costs in Japan are not going to drop magically. Now are knocks better? Most likely no. Should you buy a part for your car from Japan because the car was made in Japan. If that part is of superior quality then you get what you pay for!!
If the knock off part is worth purchasing due to lack of availibility of the original and cost of original is prohibitive ? That is your call. It is subjective. Are there people here in the states making their own products that are very good that some would call knock offs? Yes. Are they worth purchasing ? Yes.
Before you guys start blowing the trumpet of Originality for Japan realize that Japans electronics and car industry exist today because of them taking american idea's and designs and innovating them. In a sense knocking off U.S. products.
If this arguement was going on in the 70's you all would be crying about how the Japanese were knockinng American products and you should buy American . Hahahhahahaha funny how Ironic that is and this whole thread has become. This post should put a end to this thread it pretty much sums the whole situation up in a nutshell .
Thank you and have a nice night!!
Steps down from the podum and leaves to get a haircut.