Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/04/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In the 19. century, when the "Made in" label was introduced by the British government, to protect the national industry against cheap imports from upcoming nations, "Made in Germany" had the same reputation as "Made in China" today. At the time Germany had the status of a "newly industrialised country". And in particular the roots of todays "high tech" industries (optics, automotive, precision mechanics) are in the poorest areas of Germany, with poor farmland, no heavy industry (coal & steel) and thus cheap labour. A cottage industry. To earn a "Made in Germany" label, 60% of the value added has to be from within Germany, including materials & supplies, labour, r&d and management overheads. Looking at labour only, we can assume that even on those Leica products "Made in Germany" very well over 50% of the labour input is from Portugal. Increasing that to 100% would not change that much. I remember Rollei claiming that each of the Rollei branded point and shoot cameras made in the Far East is removed from the box and checked before distribution. Of course the labour input for that exercise was not sufficient to earn a "Made in Germany". But I am also in doubt whether this nominal exercise has improved quality to an extend justifying a DM50 to DM100 higher price tag compared to otherwise identical, "Ricoh" or "Samsung" labeled cameras. International trade and exporting jobs contributes more to the development in developing and newly industrialised countries than "official development assistance". Hans-Peter