I remember the sixties, and that attitude was very common; a Made in Japan label on anything was viewed in much the same way as Made in China is now. In fact, the view of Japanese products back then was even more negative than how people see Chinese products today. Part of that was WWII: "We beat them in the War, and they're all just a bunch of silly little guys who copy stuff. Yeah, they can make cheap toys and gimmicks and some of their cameras are okay, but the idea that they might actually come up with something original or challenge the industrial might of the USA is just absurd."
That blinkered prejudice against Japan was a large part of the reason the US car companies that were riding high in the post-war years took such a hammering in the eighties and later years. Their executives were too short sighted, set in their ways and arrogant to take a serious look at what was happening with companies like Honda and change the sort of cars they produced in Detroit and how they made them.
Was it ever the same thing with South Korean products? Another one of my former teachers, who is like 40 now, claims that a " made in South Korea " label was frowned upon as recent as the 80s, but is now considered to be a
" seal of quality. "
I'm sure that's right. I was a kid in the sixties, and my dim recollection is that Korean tat was even cheaper and tattier than Japanese tat. Of course, in the 1960s, South Korea was undeveloped and mainly an agriculture-based economy, so Japan was well ahead of it in industrial terms.
I've never really been interested in cars, but I vaguely remember the appearance of Hyundai cars in the States in the mid-seventies, and I'm pretty sure they were considered not all that great.
IIN That I hate cars from the 80s?
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I remember the sixties, and that attitude was very common; a Made in Japan label on anything was viewed in much the same way as Made in China is now. In fact, the view of Japanese products back then was even more negative than how people see Chinese products today. Part of that was WWII: "We beat them in the War, and they're all just a bunch of silly little guys who copy stuff. Yeah, they can make cheap toys and gimmicks and some of their cameras are okay, but the idea that they might actually come up with something original or challenge the industrial might of the USA is just absurd."
That blinkered prejudice against Japan was a large part of the reason the US car companies that were riding high in the post-war years took such a hammering in the eighties and later years. Their executives were too short sighted, set in their ways and arrogant to take a serious look at what was happening with companies like Honda and change the sort of cars they produced in Detroit and how they made them.
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Anonymous Post Author
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Was it ever the same thing with South Korean products? Another one of my former teachers, who is like 40 now, claims that a " made in South Korea " label was frowned upon as recent as the 80s, but is now considered to be a
" seal of quality. "
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Boojum
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I'm sure that's right. I was a kid in the sixties, and my dim recollection is that Korean tat was even cheaper and tattier than Japanese tat. Of course, in the 1960s, South Korea was undeveloped and mainly an agriculture-based economy, so Japan was well ahead of it in industrial terms.
I've never really been interested in cars, but I vaguely remember the appearance of Hyundai cars in the States in the mid-seventies, and I'm pretty sure they were considered not all that great.
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donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
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hyundai didnt start imports to the usa until the late 80s and they were dirt cheap for the one model they had available
5 grand for the excel
theyre now decent car makers but also more notably somea the best heavy equipment industrial equipment and shipbuilders in the world
hyundai is a humungous corporation in sk