Yeah, I should have been more specific in my criticism of chinese goods - the country is more than capable of making high quality products but, of course, we in the west 'demand' low prices meaning that quality takes a nosedive and we get garbage that lasts no time at all. Electronic goods are of course also badly affected; poor designs mean early failures, as do cheap components which mean that a part costing just a few pence can cause a device to fail after relatively little use. What happens then? The failed item is often binned, so increasing the amount of Electronic Waste.
The thing is that buying the cheap items usually costs more money in the long term - it's a bit like buying a pair of cheap shoes that last only six months, then buying the same cheap shoes again, and six months later yet again, and again ....... when a more expensive pair would have lasted many times longer yet only cost twice as much, therefore saving the buyer money.
I know that times are tough (although penny pinching has been around for a very long time) but we do ourselves no favours by wasting money purchasing cheap and nasty garbage that isn't fit for its intended purpose.
Sorry, went on a minor rant there ........
