The paper shredder lasted an hour...

I went to Wal-Mart recently and purchased a paper shredder, made in China, for $12.95. It was just the top part of a shredder, as I didn't need a whole unit that included a bucket for the resulting confetti as I already had one from a previous shredder.

I brought the shredder home and started on the task of shredding some bill stubs and other papers that I didn't want to otherwise throw away into the town dump, fearing worries about identity theft, though frankly I am not sure why anyone would want my identity in the first place since it hardly benefits me.

I shredded about 10 pieces of paper. Then the button on the top to make the shredder shred wouldn't work. It would run the shredder in reverse, allowing the paper to spit back out of the machine. but it wouldn't shred in natural shredding order.

In one day. No, in less than one day. In one hour, the Wal-Mart $12.98 paper shredder, made in China, was broken.

I know there's the saying about "getting what you pay for," but I still do live in a world where $10 is a sizable chunk of cash. It can mean about two and a half cartons of milk, or a gas tank half-full, or about half of a three-month subscription to a community newspaper, or at least 10 cans of the cheaper chicken noodle soup. It can mean whether the last week of the month is buoyant or restrictive. I don't like wasting $10, let alone $12.95.

So, here's my question to the quiet masses of American consumers who end up buying junk from Wal-Mart, made in China, because it is at a reduced price: Have you ever purchased anything made in the modern China that was a long-enduring, quality product, otherwise beyond the realm of junk? I don't mean a jar from the Ming Dynasty. I mean something produced in a factory in modern China?

Anything produced in a factory in modern China. And where the workers are woefully paid and probably forced to work long hours standing on their feet, which is probably why American chain stores find such joy in doing business in the Chinese market? And a person can't help but hope that one day the Chinese workers will get ticked off enough to kick that old-man Commie-Capitalist government and all of the complicit, douche-bag American companies out of there.

When I was a boy, I remember that all of the junky trickets and souvenirs, like a buffalo salt shaker from a tourist shop in Yellowstone Park or a gas station near an Indian reservation, was "made in Japan." Back then, "made in Japan" denoted junk. Though I never did jump on the bandwagon about how Japanese-produced cars became better than American-made cars and don't believe it to this day, Japan was able to raise its product quality identity as it developed technology, mainly media products, and took the lead in the creation of interesting but pointless robots.

So, now, it's apparently "made in China" that carries the stigma of junk, brought to us by chain stores like Wal-Mart. Thus, I should have known better when I purchased the paper shredder that shredded paper for less than an hour.

(Please send in your list of high-quality and/or long-lasting products made in modern China to this column, though I would be really surprised if anyone has any such products.)