The Newest Product To Be Made In China.... VACCINES!

What is to be done?

You might try the streets along with the Occupy people. It's a start. We gather and storm the bastille - uh, excuse me, 11 Wall Street - at dawn.

In our internet age we need to take wide spread campaign. Call and write representatives, senators, media. We need pressure on each individual issue. We need to be frequent whistleblowers. I am inventing a Whistleblower Day when masses call the local media, and their representatives.

If doing that sort of thing makes you feel better, that's reason enough to try. But the only thing it'll be doing will be making you feel better. Your representatives and senators don't read the mail. Computers read the e-mail and sub-wonks read the letters, and the communications get crudely classified (anti-abortion, pro-abortion, pro-balanced budget, etc.) Elvis has left the room.

What then happens is your e-mail address is used to beg money from you. There'll be an insulting generic response to your letter that probably won't even mention any specifics to do with your letter to him/her (I have a number of these gems, several of which show that both my "senators" are using the same computer program to deal with mail), and there'll be a link to a wheedling website pointing out how the other Party is trying to screw you and that the only thing you can do is give money - and they cover all the bases by making the basic contribution as little a five or ten bucks on your credit card - to help re-elect the "representative" who "responded" to you. They want everyone's money, even the people who can only afford five bucks on their already-nearly-maxed-out credit card.

It is not a democracy when the "voters" do not have accurate information upon which to base an intelligent vote. We are not a democracy. Get over it. The OWS people are a start. Make the time to hit the streets and get in the way of the machine if you can. Otherwise, suck it up and just go Christmas shopping. Hope you're one of the lucky ones who are secure in their homes and income.

We're the third world now, and have lost the ability to make lots of things either in quality, quantity, or at all. Shoes, clothing, large steel girders (the large girders for the new WTC memorial buildings had to be shipped in from Luxemburg), large machine tools (when a large gun on the USS Iowa exploded in the Carribean a while back the tools necessary for replacement parts were no longer extant in the US, but were in China), etc.

We're at the mercy of these people, thanks to Republicrats in Congress who kissass the 1% in exchange for pollitical contributions that get them their jobs. Vaccines are just one more instance. We could do it, but it's cheaper to do it in China. You might remember the heparin scandal, where the Chinese were doping heparin with sulfated chitin prepared from crabshells. People died. But that's no matter to the 1%. "Corporate personhood" describes a Frankenstein monster, far more powerful than normal "persons" such as we. These monsters write the laws to suit themselves, and it does not suit them to pay more then they have to for pharmaceuticals if they can throw Americans out of a job (and their homes and lives) and subcontract to slave labor in China so they can stick a few bucks more into their already stuffed pockets.

Check this out. Just got to my inbox today:

Merck blueprints Asian R&D HQ in Beijing in $1.5B research blitz

By John Carroll

Pharma giant Merck ($MRK) has mapped out 47,000 square meters of new lab and office space for itself in a Beijing business park destined to become its new Asian R&D headquarters. The first phase should open in 2014 as the new home for 600 workers, who will handle everything from discovery through clinical development and regulatory projects for the company's global operations.

Peter S. Kim, Ph.D., president of Merck Research Laboratories, announced the news to a gathering of reporters. "By strategically locating in China, we are able to complement our existing R&D capabilities," he said in a statement, "and facilitate new collaborations with scientists in the region and across emerging markets." The R&D complex is part of Merck's ambitious $1.5 billion plan to grow a major research operation in the country, which it sees as an important emerging market.

Two primary disease focuses for the Merck investigators will be cardiovascular disease and diabetes, both big growth markets in China and indeed around the world. Like other Big Pharma groups, Merck expects its relatively low-cost China R&D operations to tackle new drugs that can be marketed around the world. Shifting research work to China helps eliminate some costly overhead--and employees--in the U.S. and Europe while giving the company a more prominent place in the Chinese pharma industry.

"We have plans to invest in research and development at all stages of vaccine discovery and development, starting with basic early discovery all the way through clinical programmes," Kim told Reuters. "We see opportunities to include China in our worldwide clinical trials for our drugs and vaccines."

You know, the statue in the picture looks kind of like a Chinese guy.

I was born in 1951, thus grew up in the 50's and 60's. During that time Made in Japan was always synonymous with cheap, shoddy, junk, and worthless. Now look at the technology that comes out of Japan: Nikon, Panasonic, JVC, and Sony just to name a few. We used to build equipment of this grade right here in this country but no more. China is the new Japan and they will probably overtake Japan eventually, provided the planet's natural resources are not exhausted prior to that.

As to the percentage of goods made in China in Wal-mart, I would say it is 80 to 90%. Wal-mart would not be able to exist without Chinese products.

This was the capitalist's dream, exploit the Chinese market. But the Chinese were smarter, making them give up 51% of any company started in China to the Chinese. Now they are not only exploiting the Chinese market, the Chinese are exploiting our markets. Capitalists are fools, only looking short term to make the most money then get out and leave the rest of us to pick up the pieces. The Chinese have beat America at its own game, to paraphrase Calvin Coolidge: "After all, the chief business of the China is business."

You're right about the amount of stuff American manufacturers have allowed to be made in China in the name of profit, but those weren't things going directly into our bodies. I'd like to remind you of the Chinese milk scandal, in which the Chinese dairy producers were selling contaminated milk to their own people and the Chinese babies who were dying because of it. Also recall the Chinese-made toys shipped to the US, containing lead paint and which had to be recalled. What they're learning is how to maximize profit and cut corners, in some cases to the detriment of human life. Unless and until their government clamps down with stricter quality controls (but then profit wouldn't be so deep, would it?) they can keep their Chinese-made vaccine and I'd suggest ALL Americans refuse to be vaccinated with it.