Not Only Tubas may be coming from China

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Dan Schultz
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Post by Dan Schultz »

iiipopes wrote:.... I am going to have to figure out something to do about my SU carburettor diaphrams so they don't dissolve away now that all gasoline is mandated to have an ethanol content.
Have you checked with Victoria British in Lexana, Kansas? It would surprise me if they haven't addressed this yet.
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iiipopes
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Post by iiipopes »

TubaTinker wrote:
iiipopes wrote:.... I am going to have to figure out something to do about my SU carburettor diaphrams so they don't dissolve away now that all gasoline is mandated to have an ethanol content.
Have you checked with Victoria British in Lexana, Kansas? It would surprise me if they haven't addressed this yet.
Thanks. I called. My SU carburettors are the large 2-inch. Victoria British only have parts for MG, Austin, Sunbeam & Triumph, which for those older models that use SU carburettors, have the smaller 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 inch models, not the large 2 inch.
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Post by tubatooter1940 »

Don't know about carburettors and such but I hear the Chinese got a new form of S.T.D. over there that will make your talleywhacker fall off. :shock:
We pronounce it Guf Coast
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MaryAnn
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Post by MaryAnn »

Wow, memories. Many, many years ago I had a Datsun 2000 roadster (with a rollbar, no less) that had those SU carbs on it. Big honking diaphrams (yes, I took them apart; why not?) Little sucker was fun to drive. And it had an amazing design perk in that with the top down at 75 mph the driver and passenger could have a conversation at normal volume levels. It was a really stiff suspension though to drive cross-country in, which we did a couple times. That was .... uh....1971, methinks.

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Post by iiipopes »

Indeed. Which illustrates that, as far as the "Chinese Ferrari" is concerned, it's not the first time an Asian auto manufacturer has copied a famous sports car. Hmm. SU's and a squarish front end -- can anybody say MGB?

Then there was the short lived Toyota 2000GT, the E-type inspired roadster that was made famous in the Bond film You Only Live Twice. If I didn't have my E-type, that's one I'd consider, but I'd have to purchase a coupe and have it converted: http://www.qv500.com/bondtoyota.php
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Post by Rick Denney »

We are saying the same things about the Chinese now that we said about the Japanese 50 years ago, right down to the "monkey-see-monkey-do" sorts of comments.

But the Japanese have earned their spot in the creation of wealth. And they did it without slavery, despite that the typical Japanese worker in the 50's was both a highly motivated worker and also desperately poor. That is an unsustainable combination, however.

When a country creates more wealth through actually making things (as distinguished from digging things up), the workers eventually come to expect a better life for their troubles. If they don't get the better life, one of two things will happen: 1. They will slow down, or 2. they will rebel. Doing either will drive up costs of manufacturing for that country, and eventually it will occur to their rulers that making the workers' lives better is the cheaper alternative. That's what happened in Japan, and now the Japanese have about the same quality-of-life expectations that we do.

Countries that create more wealth only to see that wealth hoarded by the ruling class will eventually stop creating more wealth. We need to pay attention to that ourselves.

Thus, I'm not that worried about China's threat to us. Yes, they will make things cheaply, but they will also come to expect to buy and own those things. That will lead to expectations of better pay to make that possible. Better pay will lead to more consumption and that will lead to a larger market for their own products. It will also lead to higher costs and less of an advantage in the world market. Eventually they will reach equilibrium with other industrialized nations, if they don't get in their own way.

The Chinese government is walking a tightrope right now. Chinese workers smell success and they are motivated. But Chinese culture demands personal reward for labor, and there are too many of them to force them into economic slavery for too long. They will either lose their motivation (as they have in countless countries from the former Soviet empire to Mexico), or they will rebel. The government is more afraid of the latter, and will seek ways to allow reward to the people. That will increase consumption, etc.

The issue for us is maintaining our own economic strength while the Chinese are willing to work too much for too little. We've done well in some ways and poorly in others, but we are still the world's most productive economy despite all that has been said.

If you think the Chinese are incapable of sustaining technological progress, you need to go to your nearest grad school and interview a few of the Chinese students. It's their economic system's progress that will tell the tale.

We are a bigger threat to ourselves than the Chinese are, if we forget how important it is not to stand in the way of creating new wealth.

Rick "much more worried about those willing to shoot at us to get what they want" Denney
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