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Old news. Just new hype. http://www.chinahush.com/2010/...

Not a real thing, not practical in almost any area that needs high capacity transit, and just a distraction from real things we already know how to build but refuse to pay for.

Parent is absolutely NOT off-topic, in fact it is insightful.

Old news. Just new hype.
http://www.chinahush.com/2010/...

Not a real thing, not practical in almost any area that needs high capacity transit, and just a distraction from real things we already know how to build but refuse to pay for.

Hold on there, the coin as usual has two sides. Chinese women tend to be quite open about asking to see wage slips, bank account balances, and pre-ordering the home and car they want from their prospective husbands. http://www.chinahush.com/2011/...

So these ones will run, what? $8000 to offset Union Labor costs?

You have to pay the longshoremen's union to take it off the container ships whether the parts are assembled in the USA or China. And it doesn't say which state has the assembly facility; there ARE non-union states, actually. Anyway, the biggest reason computer parts are manufactured overseas (China) is the absolutely horrible pollution.

But by shipping the parts to the USA to be assembled by some robots, people can get a warm fuzzy feeling for having bought a domestic made product.

not being chinese I probably have no idea what is considered attractive in china,
on the other hand most of the chinese women on this site would probably rate as more attractive

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/08/31/top-ten-cities-in-china-with-the-most-beautiful-women/

However as a pilot she has some class probably chosen for her skill and not for her looks.

China isn't clean; pick your pollutant there's plenty of it being dumped into the environment. And Greenhouse gas is one type of pollution (not the only one but its all the media goes on about these days).

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

Make higher quality meat than most of the current producers (that's not hard, we're not talking wagyu here) and do it cheaper than them (and that *really* shouldn't be hard, you're basically making beer here).

Economics will do the rest.

You've got it wrong, buddy, the "economy doing the rest" I mean. Here's my take on the "faith in the economy at work" (I dare you to prove me wrong, with real-world examples in the last 10 years):

1. set up the process to produce meant and do it at a good enough quality (don;t care even to do it at "higher than most of the producers", the trick is: you don't need to. Don't believe me? Continue reading)

2. outsource the production plants to India/China. This is how they'll become cheaper (and the associated env impact NIMBY, who cares that some people the other side of the globe commit suicide or are poisoned in the process?)

3. create the MeatMart chain of stores to distribute the product to US. Macas and BurgerKing will be quite happy to have a slice of it (better said "a mince of it")... after all, their most stable consumers don't care if it can be made to taste reasonable (read: "deep fried and/or full of saturated fats, MSG and other flavor enhancers"), it's dirt cheap and comes in supersized serves (now they'll be able to have it HYPERSIZED for the same price).

4. drive into the ground the US farmers, by I-don't-know-what-miracle (hormones and mexican workforce in slaughter-houses?) they still manage somehow to produce excess of beef carcases for the export (7.2 percent in 2009).. That's simply unacceptable, better drive them 9 feet under, they'll be quiet and won't get to use their shotguns the X-th amendment allows them to bear for just-in-case

5. ... profit... (what else).

As extension, whine hard about taxes and use some of your (untaxed, in a Cayman Island bank) profit to sponsor the Tea Party, lobby the Congress and fuel another bubble (at your choice, but don't try another house bubble as yet: the "economics" isn't now quite on the "build and they'll come" side)

A year old, but I doubt things have changed: http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

Page:
http://www.chinahush.com/2010/07/31/straddling-bus-a-cheaper-greener-and-faster-alternative-to-commute/

Direct link to video:
http://www.umiwi.com/player/flvPlayer.swf?flvID=1541&autoPlay=0

This is the original article: http://www.chinahush.com/2010/07/31/straddling-bus-a-cheaper-greener-and-faster-alternative-to-commute/

Unlike the one posted on the story, that adds nothing (except for stealing ads money from the actual source).

It also includes a translation of the video.

Unfortunately no one really does care but the shareholders and Goldman Sachs. Guess which side they are on?

I think the Chinese just are used to this and the factory owners there obviously do not care.

I think we are screwed as this is hte new norm and the only way to fight it is to lower our wages and environmental and safety regulations. We can't stop free trade but we can end our livelihood and wealth thanks to globalization.

Case in point, look at the current recession? If banks do not have capital people save because the result is a recession. When people save then banks have capital again and the problem corrects itself. When product A is in short supply and too expensive then the market creates competitors that make an alternative.

That's quite an interesting example you've chosen. The roots of recession trace themselves back to the deregulation of financial sector. We have the repeal of Glass-Steagall that allowed the largest banks to underwrite the CDOs and the mortgage backed securities that caused the mess. We also have very people that derailed the world economy continuing to say how "they know better" and off balance sheet structured investments should remain off the record, even though there the very same instruments that Enron used to hide their debt. (More on Enron later.) We have the deregulation in the 80s that ushered in ARMs which caused the Savings & Loan collapse and appeared again in this banking collapse. Without oversight, we now have the financial advisors who are paid by their clients to given them advice, lying to their clients because the advisors are betting that the client will lose money on the investments.

Should we have bailed out the big banks? My initial reaction like everyone is a big "no," but the fact is that they alone account for a significant fraction of GDP. We simply can't let that evaporate. What should have been done, and still could be done, is to simply cap the size of the banks. You can't be "too big to fail," if you're not too big to start. But of course the brain trust on Wall Street and the conservative think tanks say that this would be "too much" and we should simply let these people continue to be rewarded for their expertise. But of course these are the same folks that say that by allowing the largest purchaser of prescription drugs to negotiate prices like every other purchaser, that would now be a government price control.

Enron showed us how the deregulation of the energy markets led to rampant manipulation of prices and energy supplies, most notably in California.

Even these last two months with the Deepwater Horizon and the West Virginian mine disaster, we've seen how deregulation and intentionally lax oversight has led to safety equipment not being tested, inspection reports being filled in by the inspectee.

You say that "the real world" and an introductory economics class taught you that the only way to succeed is to compete is to race to the bottom, and that regulation and safety standards cost jobs. Well the thing is, as someone that has lived in "the real world" all his life, has learned that there's this little thing called "data." We've heard these same complaints for over a hundred years, and yet whenever regulations are imposed, the economy continue to grow, sometimes even faster than before(!). History simply doesn't back this up this claim.

You claim we need "less taxes" but taxes are at the lowest rate in 50 years. FIFTY YEARS! We have less taxes, and yet the economy sucks as hard as every. So that's not the problem. You talk about "less lawsuits," but why shouldn't someone be held responsible for their actions?

You say we should race to the bottom. Well, I've been boogey man China. It's shit. You have bought into the false choice that we can either voluntarily submit to birth defects and carcinogen soups or we can have birth defects and carcinogen soups thrust upon us. That's not the way how history has taught us that economics actually work.

For all your talk about "the real world," you haven't actually examined it. You've only been paying attention to a cartoon version of it. The deregulators have consistently been spectacularly wrong.

Sorry, copy and paste fail. I intended to link to these:

• Lu Guang from People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”
• Industrial Pollution Kills Hundreds Along the Huai River Basin in China
• de-industrialization of the west just moved the western problems of the past to a country that doesn’t seem to care much about pollution control.

...as just a few examples of the incredible disdain with which China pollutes its own backyard and poisons its people. Even Ceaucescu's Romania has nothing on this mess.

Which china has recently gone after as well with their Sweeping the Yellow crack down... No really thats what its called!

while i believe we can not change the direction the global climate goes i do think we humans should try to keep a clean environment: http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

Which is why Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are environmental Garden of Edens.

Don't forget China

Dude, check this out:

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

There's a difference between mindlessly twitching about unimportant, blown out of proportion issues and realizing that the human race has already started breathing and eating it's own toxic waste.