Who ever in the RVIA that suggested a junket to China to try to sell RVs should have a friend make them an appointment with a “headshrinker”. Maybe Mr. Coon and the RVIA folks think that spending the Association’s money on a trip to China should first question how many RV manufacturers and Dealerships support their plan. To my way of thinking, a junket to China is throwing away a lot of good money.

Maybe Mr. Coon still has some of his previous employer’s thougts in the back of his mind.

As one of my favorite old mentors was fond of telling me when we would visit a new customer, “keep one hand on your wallet at all times”.

Personally, China may look good on the outside, but there is no infrastructure. They are pretty much a tiger made of straw and paper. However, the China Tiger also has teeth. Thus, never try to pet the Tiger. Remember, Tigers bite….

If the RV industry takes your advise and sits on their hands for the next ten years and does nothing there will be irrevocable damage inflicted on this industry that will be very difficult to reverse.

The RVIA isn’t going over there to count the bricks in the Great Wall that were installed during the Ming Dynasty. It doesn’t sound like sightseeing is high on their agenda if this trip actually happens.

If it does happen, then we must assume that YOUR Board of Directors at RVIA have given their full support to this China initiative and must be communicating that typf of message to the suppliers and manufacturers.

I’m honkin’ at ya Road Guy … don’t wait ten years!

China. Well, it’s about time we got around to talking about COMMUNIST China.

Greg is partly right in his article title - red carpet or trap door? And from my observations I would have to vote for the latter. Why, you ask? Because China hates the United States. Period. And what has been laid out by China for the next many years is a single-minded-of-purpose effort to secure business and industry from all over the world to do one thing - puts its’ nation on a steroids-like program to get as much business from around the world to come in and help the Chinese to literally put the U.S. [and the Dollar] out of business.

China will have its’ economy cruising along in another few years and then BAM! word will come from on-high that all kinds of things have changed and if you, Mr. Business Owner, don’t like the new rules then you can take your company and go home in humiliation because we’ve bled you dry and we don’t need you any more.

However, all that said, the basic issue that will start to rebalance all of the economic and trade deficit damage that American corporations and our infamous government have wrought on this GREAT NATION during the past 20+ years is going to come down to “tariffs on goods and services.” That’s the BIG and very complicated game [that I wouldn’t presume to fully understand.] It’s a process that will take the next 15 to 20 years to have fully implemented itself (and by then China could well be the largest economy in the world if we don’t start hammering China for higher tariffs on goods and services now.]

But with so much of the BIG game years out from making any real difference now, I’d have to say that China selling and/or exporting RV’s (or even a majority of RV components) stands about as much chance of happening as a snowflake lasting for an hour in the Sahara Desert. China has far bigger matters to tend to than to pay much attention to our industry or the subject of putting their citizens in RVs bouncing around on some of the worst roads in the world. Jeez, such an RV would have to be part tank just to withstand the torture. So, Mr. U.S. Supplier and Mr. U.S Manufacturer, you can relax for about 10 more years.

Ya’ll honk as you go by….(and don’t worry, it ain’t gonna be in no ‘Commie Mobile’ just yet)

If an American manufacturer wants to sell their products in China then they are free to develop their own relationships and marketing programs to achieve that goal.

I don’t think an industry association, that represents both manufacturers and suppliers, should be out front promoting an opportunity to destroy many of their members. Is this truly what the supplier community expects from RVIA?

There are already plenty of fixtures. electrical components, and various assemblies being built into RV products manufactured here in the US. That is the right and priviledge of the company that has made that decision.

However, every time that decision is made, it further erodes the American manufacturing community and the very foundation of our country.

Associations should be serving the constituents and doing what is right for their members. If the Board of Directors and Executives of RVIA are doing this because the majority of their manufacturers and suppliers have asked them to do it, then they must be fully prepared to suffer the consequences that impact customer service and product liability when the reversal of fortunes comes back to haunt them as it is now doing with the tire and food scandals.

If the manufacturers and suppliers don’t think this is something that their dues and sponsorhip should be funding, then now is the time to step up and say so.

I personally do not think the association should be bringing our technology to China. If China wants it, then let them come here and prospect and compete for the business with their money and not RVIA generosity of bringing it to them. If any manufacturer or supplier wants to have a business relationship with China then let them go there using their own money and marketing staff.

As for the opportunity to market our products in China to a new audience with a tremendous (perceived) upside potential - all I can say is that when we have finally figured out how to make quality products, resolve our domestic customer service issues, provide dealers with the right parts the first time they are ordered, develop the dealer/manufacturing programs that benefit both groups … then, and only then, should RVIA be taking a slow boat to China and chasing another fantasy to replace the realities of the marketplace as we know it today!

It’s just like James states, the American Corporate CEO today cares more for their own bottom line bonus or the stockholders, then their own employees (which help create that bonus) or our industry, much less you and I.

Companies need to remember something that Henry Ford realized over 100 years ago: His workers were the highest paid in the industry, at the time and had normal 40 hour work weeks, which was almost unheard of 100 years ago. Not because old Henry was a wonderful guy, but because he knew that then his own employees could afford to buy and have the time to use the very product he was selling! There’s a moral there if the American CEO would open his eys and look.

If the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was to take place on December 7th of this year, and not in 1941, there is no way in the world our country could react or recover in the same way it did 66 years ago. Not only have we lost the manufacturing capacity of that time, we don’t have the work force to go with it; and with the present design of inventory control (”first-in, first-out”) we don’t have the inventory of parts, etc., to support that manuracturing capacity.

I’m in complete agreement with Lew. My only problem, just like everyone else is finding what I want, made in America! For example, can anyone give me the name of a U.S. company making kitchen appliances…I would really like to buy an American can opener!

When will US corporate heads realize that the more they depend on China for manufacturing, the smaller their market in the US is getting, since all of the good jobs will end up there!

I don’t shop at Wal-Mart as I don’t have any desire to support the economy of China. I’d rather suport the economy of the US. But it’s getting harder every day to find goods made in the US.

Short range profits are just that….and without considering the larger picture, our insulated corporate executives are writing the script for the demise of the US economy! They will all have their golden parachutes, but the rest of us will be going down with the ship.