OT, regarding the glasses in hong kong on ebay,

[Bill R.]

I'm sure it will please whoever was carping to me about buying american that i've now ordered 7 pairs total from the Optics guys in hong kong and i've had at least 8 of my customers order glasses from them as well after they saw mine...:)

[winfred]

oh my god you are going to bring about the end of civilization as we know it

[Jr ///M5]

Don't feel too bad Bill, look at it this way, you're just doing your part to help those poor starving Hong Kong children....;)

Send me the link and I'll check them out, I need some new glasses, and hair and joints for my knees, elbows, wrists....this getting old crap sucks.

Hey, you and Yvonne should fly into Chicago for the E34 meet picnic....I'll buy your lunch! :)

[shogun]

Good, cheap, and fast service.
I lived 5 years in HK. Many visitors from overseas I had bought glasses in the optical shop I used.
Usually next day delivery. Had one case where we went there in the early morning to the shop, late afternoon delivery, as the visitor was leaving HK in the evening.
Price much cheaper (>50%) compared to European countries where most of the visitors came from.

[Evan]

Bill, you're gonna put America out of business ;)

[632 Regal]

your on crack man, almost everythings from china, just cutting out about 5 middlemen by going this route. This USA country is going wayside quick so for what its worth why not buy direct and save?


Bill, you're gonna put America out of business ;)

[genphreak]

your on crack man, almost everythings from china, just cutting out about 5 middlemen by going this route. This USA country is going wayside quick so for what its worth why not buy direct and save?I am not passing any judgement on the merits of buying foreign consumer goods, but since we are back on this long-standing topic, the parallels with England being overtaken by the US all those years ago are interesting. To some they might be frightening; For example, if you consider that Japan could have done it by now, but hasn't, primarily because it never allowed foriegn investment (as China now welcomes), it not hard to argue that China will overtake US economic dominance within our lifetimes.

Check out this talk (http://www.itconversations.com/audio/download/ITConversations-770.mp3) from the East Meets West session at Pop!Tech, by Oded Shenkar if you want to hear some interesting viewpoints most of us miss. It's a 16Mb Mp3 you can listen to, and here's a quick summary;

"Shanghai Automotive has declared its intention to go from selling no cars to being one of the five or six largest car makers in the world. Within ten years they could be selling cars under the Rover brand for $119/month with zero down. This is just one example of the rise of the Chinese economy.

No economy has been dominant forever, so why do we believe that the US economy is any different? Oded Shenkar is one of the world's experts on China and the effect of its rising economic trajectory on the US economy. Shenkar, the author of The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power, and Your Job, says that China will overtake the US as the world's largest economy within the next 20 years.


Thus the question isn't whether the US will remain the biggest, but whether it will remain the best. Britain faced a similar upstart economy in the 19th century. Their reaction was to say "let the Americans make our garments–we're making steam engines." That arrangement didn't last long. Soon the US was innovating, coming up with new ideas, and, ultimately, creating more jobs.


What will happen to the US and European economies as China comes into its own? We are in uncharted territory with no precedents. In this provocative presentation, Shenkar admits that there are a lot more questions than answers--challenging many of the comforting aphorisms that commonly surround this topic.


Hope you all enjoy it :) Nick

[rob101]

your on crack man
don't get me started on colombia, you should buy local cocaine:p

[shogun]

Clever made how to select
http://myopticalshop.com/ebay.htm#howtoorder


If you consider that Japan could have done it by now, but hasn't, primarily because it never allowed foriegn investment

No, no, Nick.
You can invest freely in Japan. A foreigner can buy land/apts., establich a 100% wholly foreign owned company, transfer profits and whatever you like.

When we established our company in 1970 it was still the case that a foreign company could only own 49% shares in a Japanese registered company. But this time is long over.
Since 1985 we bought back all shares from our japanese partners and are 100% foreign owned Japanese registered company.

The japanese government even promotes investment in Japan
http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/invest/
http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/invest/whyjapan/success_stories/

Look for example at Renault, which controls Nissan. That was a very good example how to turn around a debit ridden japanese company and make it profitable.
Mercedes Benz or Daimler Chrysler failed with Mitsubishi and sold their shares.
GM is selling their shares in nice japanese car companies as they need money to restructure the whole worldwide operations. In my opinion a mistake. Suzuki for example is a juwel in minicar production.

[genphreak]

No, no, Nick...HaHaaaa of course that's true, thanks Erich, how silly of me. I think the point is that Japan has not taken the lead yet partly because it took some time to reach a point where it did allow foreign investment (in the meanwhile missing the great window of opportunity it had with its cheap, industrious labour and capacity presented after the war). Perhaps there are other reasons too (incoming immigration, etc.) but I don't know how easy it is to immigrate into China either. I doubt however that if one had to move there for business that it would pose a problem. Thanks for the catching that. :) Nick

[shogun]

Ever read about Captain Perry and the black fleet forcing Japan to open for trade. Now he might be hanged for that error/success ;)

The Black Ships
American expansionists looked toward the Pacific and Asia. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry commanded an expedition to Japan in July 1853 that sought protection for shipwrecked sailors and attempted to secure a treaty to open Japanese for trade. The stunned Japanese accepted the American proposals, but played for time while they considered their response.



In the mid-19th century, it took an average of 159 days for ships to sail between New York and San Francisco and the increasing volume of transcontinental trade moving between America's Atlantic and Pacific coasts put a real strain on shipping. Responding to the growing demands of the California trade, Yankee ingenuity and skilled New England shipwrights produced a contemporary transportation miracle - the clipper ship. With its 225 foot, narrow-beamed hull, the 1783-ton clipper ship was built for speed rather than cargo capacity. On August 31, 1851, Captain Josiah P. Creesy proved the value of the ship's graceful design by sailing the clipper Flying Cloud into San Francisco Bay 89 days and 21 hours after departing New York Harbor. Captain Creesy's remarkable voyage made American commerce in Eastern Asia more than just a possibility; it proved the potential for transpacific trade with the Orient. The clipper ship soon became the key element in the newly burgeoning tea trade between New York and China.

The Japanese islands sit along the great circle route between San Francisco and the Chinese treaty ports at Shanghai and Canton, only three or four weeks sailing time by clipper ship from California; much nearer in fact than Europe. As pioneers settled the last western frontiers of North America, expansionists looked even further west - toward the Pacific and Asia. Already steeped in the tradition of serving American commercial interests, a number of American naval officers developed a philosophy for action in the Pacific that had far-reaching results in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

[genphreak]

Ever read about Captain Perry and the black fleet forcing Japan to open for trade. Now he might be hanged for that error/success ;) How do you mean hanged- he;s already dead?

I did see that movie 'The Last Samurai' recently where Tom Cruise does a dramatic but typically unremarkable performance as Captain Nathan Algren, the officer thaton behalf of the US sells guns to Japan and seals the deal by leading the ruler's gun-toting troops to Battle against the samurai (who have only swords). Algren is captured after the samurais' swords prove mightier than the Emperor's new guns and somehow ends up finding his lost honor in Bushido custom. By spring, Algren has regained his sense of duty to causes higher than simply men and their governments, and he and Katsumoto join forces against the Emperor's men.

"There is something very moving in watching the convulsions of society and culture trying to change. People want to hold onto what is valuable, yet they have to live with what is inevitable," said Driector Ed Zwick.

I preferred the movie 'The blind samurai', however Zwick made an intersting point there given our discussion...