A few years back I bought a Silver Creek acoustic off Musician's Friend for about the same price.
 
They are made in China. They were touted then to be as good as a Martin.
 
I had a friend over who has a decent 20 year old Martin. He played mine and said "It's as good as my Martin".
 
Sorry I can't tell you his model as I don't recall right now but he's not a cheapskate so I'm sure it's not a bottom feeder Martin.

A paradox. Our only hope is that the standard of living in China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. rises quickly enough to make it again competitive to manufacture things in the west.
The scale of everything is so incredible. For an example, during the past ten years they have started every year more new fur boutiques than there are in Europe in total. I've seen 800 new fur shops emerge in a rather empty crossing of highways in one year.
The biggest surprise to me was about tea, though. I had always thought tea is the inexpensive everyday drink for any chinese, any. I was wrong. Tea is so expensive that it's normal for, say, construction workers to only drink plain warm water with their meals. (This was 2006). 

I have to admit when I first read the title I thought China was whining.

craigb

 
I tried to buy a back issue of that publication when I was on Hong Kong once. They didn't have any at all. Turned out that I was in the .......
 

 
Mind like a sewer that Paulo.

China, the USA, Korea and Japan are all going to be losing with all the extra military and nuclear supercarriers America is puting in Japan.

57Gregy
Eventually, the 200 million 8 year-old girls who make these things are going to revolt.

Actually since they abort or kill most girls there will soon be a hoard of Chinese men who are going to invade some place in order to get wives.
 
"As a result, approximately 30 million more men than women will reach adulthood and enter China's mating market by 2020."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/14/opinion/china-challenges-one-child-brooks/
 
That is a scary statistic, it sound's like a time bomb to me.

Kalle Rantaaho
A paradox. Our only hope is that the standard of living in China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. rises quickly enough to make it again competitive to manufacture things in the west

 
Nah, sorry. It's got a long way to go before that happens, even if it happens quickly. 

Kalle Rantaaho
Our only hope is that the standard of living in China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. rises quickly enough to make it again competitive to manufacture things in the west.
 

The problem is that the standard of living in much of China is already on a par with the West, at least for those with the money. Wealthy Chinese can and do buy lots of Western luxury products. Perfumes, luxury cars, designer clothing, and Swiss watches have not had a big impact on improving US wages. The cost of living in China is about half the cost of living in the US, but manufacturing wages in China are about a tenth of US wages so disposable income is much less. Farm income is close to third world levels. The vast majority of Chinese are, like the vast majority of US workers, going to be buying cheaply manufactured goods, because it is what they can afford. Currently that means Chinese goods, but as manufacturing wages increase in China, they are moving jobs to Viet Nam, Cambodia etc. where wages are relatively low. As Chinese wages get even higher, they have the incentive to use the profits they have been making to automate their factories and improve the productivity of Chinese labor even more, again increasing the relative cost of US labor. Perhaps there is a future for US factories staffed with industrial robots requiring only a small number of specialist mechanics to operate, but in all likelihood, the robots will be manufactured in China. It is a myth that the Chinese are incapable of doing the education and invention needed to replace US design companies like Apple, but even if they do stay dependent on a small number of foreign design and distribution specialists, there is no good news for US labor.  The flat world is clearly tilted away from the West.