Why are we allowing companies to make mass profits off of inferior products?

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Over 60% of our vehicles are made of parts manufactured in far off lands, and these manufacturers received these contracts because they were cheaper than their competitors. The cost of products commonly used by you are often imported, and made in the most cost effective manner possible. That often means they were the cheaper, less costly to make and possibly least scrutinized products in the market.

Whether you are NASA, Ford, Apple or Sony the parts that make up their products are the least expensive components on the market. That is one way of saying they were the cheapest out there. Years ago, I had the opportunity to help develop a door handle pull for an American car firm. We developed a product that would be guaranteed to not break even after 2,000+ pulls.

The buyer found this unacceptable claiming the guarantee we needed was for approximately two hundred pulls. If they break early, a future sale is guaranteed. The corporate world makes visible, loud claims that they are selling the very best of their products on the market. That is what they claim, but we know better. The cell phone device that sells for two thousand dollars most likely actually costs less than $390.00.

In Ontario, private consortiums pave our highways. They guarantee the pavement will last for years. Often this does not happen. A severe winter later and the paving is cracking. The purchasing process demands that the buyer purchase the least expensive item from a proven contractor.

Imagine the bridge you just drove over was treated in the same way. I like to fly gliders. You have 1/4″ material between you and the open sky. The quality of the glider is paramount in maintaining my safety. What if the manufacturer used cheaper products or shaved some time in its manufacturing?

As long as we maintain this economy of the cheapest, buying products that are satisfactory, but certainly not excellent, our domestic economy will remain inert, stalled forever. Our domestic manufacturers cannot compete with the labour markets overseas, and nor should they. If our economy were based upon safety first, quality, and excellence always, there would be no need for low quality imported products. If there is a need for some product on the market today, our domestic manufacturers should have the ability to fulfil that requirement. The safety and durability of products used by our fellow citizens should be the first and second reasons to buy local.

The power of the consumer will always reign supreme. What is needed, what should become commonplace, is that local manufacturers be elevated within their communities, and their products receive the principle approval of our public governmental purchasers as well. With the cost of transportation, fuel and logistics, domestically sourced products make sense.

A lighting fixture on a pole is something commonplace in most communities. Held by four bolts, the safety of your neighbours is reliant upon the quality and strength of the bolts.

What will it be; a matter of cost or one of assured quality? Well made brakes for your vehicle, or the cheapest your supplier can find?

Only the determination of the consumer can end our society’s mass profiteering off of inferior products. We should demand quality, safety and abundance above all aspirations.