So I was just buying some electronic components on eBay and noticed that once again Chinese product sellers (and their US resellers) lie, cheat and poison US customers. This 100W solar panel for $12.99 is actually 5W:
The pictures all prominently say "100W". The specs says output of 5V 2A (10W). The specs also say max output of 5V 1A (5W). It is nowhere near 100W. Customer rating of the seller is 99.1%. People expect to be lied to? I've been buying lots of stuff, both professionally and personally for many years and this has been a concerning trend. China is selling us childrens toys that contain lead paint and lead based solder in electronics. Laser pointers that can easily blind you labeled as safe at 5mW but really have no IR filter (to cut costs) so they output 50 to 150mW which people can't see and which can invisibly blind them. Electrical products that are not UL certified and are not safely designed (there are teardown channels on Youtube where they take apart products and they'll find AC powered stuff where the ground line is left hanging loose inside, not connected to anything). And our government lets this happen, has been letting this happen for decades. Ebay profits from it. No one is held accountable. What happened to law? Like Truth In Advertising? What happened to UL listing? What happened to fraud prevention? Our government is not fulfilling it's function. Crime is rampant and obvious. This is an obvious and serious failure of government. China is cheating US customers (and Chinese customers also apparently), and is poisoning and harming us. Seems like an absolutely real Chinese plot to attack democracy and it is working and our government is letting it happen. Why? Because "cheap stuff"? eBay profits? I think people see this kind of thing and think that there is no rule of law any more, which influences them and corrupts their behavior as well. Everybody is doing it, so they think they should also.
Any thoughts about this? It seems to have been a gradual loosening of standards. It's happened across the business world, in government and in policing. The police won't investigate a crime unless it involves more than $10,000 or harms a person. Business advice for startups is to "fake it until you make it". Hospitals will charge people without insurance 20 times the normal price. Corporations considered fines for breaking the law the cost of doing business. Private equity "extracts value" by destroying companies. It seems like everyone has given up and corruption rules the day and everyone has to watch out for themselves. Are there just too many people now making the world too complex to oversee? Maybe these systems have never worked because they rely on most people complying and a lot of people now cheat? Maybe the internet/web makes it too easy to start a new company identity if reputation is lost? Have corporations captured government and hollowed out law? The level of lawlessness seems to have grown a lot; corporations, government departments, and police agencies all often just disregard demands from higher up for accountability and say they refuse to provide requested data. Go ahead and sue them and they'll pay the fine (years from now), continue doing it, and pass the costs on.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/165973941939
The pictures all prominently say "100W". The specs says output of 5V 2A (10W). The specs also say max output of 5V 1A (5W). It is nowhere near 100W. Customer rating of the seller is 99.1%. People expect to be lied to? I've been buying lots of stuff, both professionally and personally for many years and this has been a concerning trend. China is selling us childrens toys that contain lead paint and lead based solder in electronics. Laser pointers that can easily blind you labeled as safe at 5mW but really have no IR filter (to cut costs) so they output 50 to 150mW which people can't see and which can invisibly blind them. Electrical products that are not UL certified and are not safely designed (there are teardown channels on Youtube where they take apart products and they'll find AC powered stuff where the ground line is left hanging loose inside, not connected to anything). And our government lets this happen, has been letting this happen for decades. Ebay profits from it. No one is held accountable. What happened to law? Like Truth In Advertising? What happened to UL listing? What happened to fraud prevention? Our government is not fulfilling it's function. Crime is rampant and obvious. This is an obvious and serious failure of government. China is cheating US customers (and Chinese customers also apparently), and is poisoning and harming us. Seems like an absolutely real Chinese plot to attack democracy and it is working and our government is letting it happen. Why? Because "cheap stuff"? eBay profits? I think people see this kind of thing and think that there is no rule of law any more, which influences them and corrupts their behavior as well. Everybody is doing it, so they think they should also. Any thoughts about this? It seems to have been a gradual loosening of standards. It's happened across the business world, in government and in policing. The police won't investigate a crime unless it involves more than $10,000 or harms a person. Business advice for startups is to "fake it until you make it". Hospitals will charge people without insurance 20 times the normal price. Corporations considered fines for breaking the law the cost of doing business. Private equity "extracts value" by destroying companies. It seems like everyone has given up and corruption rules the day and everyone has to watch out for themselves. Are there just too many people now making the world too complex to oversee? Maybe these systems have never worked because they rely on most people complying and a lot of people now cheat? Maybe the internet/web makes it too easy to start a new company identity if reputation is lost? Have corporations captured government and hollowed out law? The level of lawlessness seems to have grown a lot; corporations, government departments, and police agencies all often just disregard demands from higher up for accountability and say they refuse to provide requested data. Go ahead and sue them and they'll pay the fine (years from now), continue doing it, and pass the costs on.