Today I read another article on tainted goods(drywall in this case) out of china. This got me thinking.
Would it be legal, international treaty wise, to impose, not tariffs, but inspection fees on incoming goods? The fees would go to a system that actually, you know, tests this stuff. Lead in toys, contaminated foods, drywall, other building materials. Make sure the steel in those beams is actually the correct grade, etc...
My second thought involves Microwaves. My parent's first microwave was relatively simple, yet lasted 20 years until a lightning strike took out the timig circuit. I imagine now that I know more about electronics that it probably would have been easy to fix by somebody with a decent knowledge of electronics, even if they had to replace some parts with non-original spec. My parent's second microwave lasted just over a year, and the third two.
My father reports that with AC units, many of the high efficiency models suffer from increased repair costs and reduced longevity due to cheapness - cheapness that ends up saving no energy because a system has to be replaced in 5 years rather than 20 or more. It's probably the same with the lower efficiency units, but especially noticeable on the more expensive ones. And some of the most expensive have the most problems.
Basically, do you know of any way to encourage 'quality' among manufacturers, or at least make it known? I do a lot of reading at Consumer Reports, but even then it's often a crapshot.