Slashdot Mirror
The End of Cheap Labor In China
hackingbear writes "In the past decade, real wages for manufacturing workers in China have grown nearly 12% per year. The hourly cost advantage, while still significant [comparing to the West], is shrinking rapidly. The changing economics of Made in China will benefit both the rich and poor world. Countries like Cambodia, Laos, India and Vietnam are picking up some of the cheapest labor manufacturing left by the Chinese. And there is already evidence of at least the beginning of a shift in manufacturing operations returning to the US. Perhaps we will soon stop picking at 'Made in China' but instead complaining 'Made in Vietnam/Cambodia,' while serving the flood of Chinese tourists stocking up on brand-name merchandises on US tours and Chinese students paying high tuitions to our cash-strapped universities."
"The changing economics of Made in China will benefit both the rich and poor world."
It won't help the U.S! We keep demanding cheap goods, no matter how poorly made they are, and the only way to get that is to take advantage of poorer countries and manufacture overseas. Of course, that means there are no manufacturing jobs anywhere in the country, so in another few years, the only place in the U.S. where anyone will be able to shop or work will be Walmart.
On the one hand, you have the iPhone--built in China and it's an absolute miracle of modern technology. Have you SEEN one of those things on the inside? Rows and rows of tiny little dots on a board and I can't even guess what any of it does. I'm sure, given U.S. labor costs, it would cost a lot more than it currently does.
On the other hand, I don't know where to buy decent clothes. I bought a 12-pack of socks a couple weeks ago and three of them were mis-sewn. Every time my wife buys a 3-pack of underwear for the kid, she takes them out of the package, washes them, and 1 or 2 will come out of the washer--their first wash, having never been worn--with the waistline frayed.
I'm not saying that everything that is (or was) made in America is automatically great, but wouldn't it be great if people DID give a shit about the quality of what they made, and that the money would stay within our borders? But I think the opportunity to do good has passed. I saw Schmatta a few months ago and that, too, is depressing as hell. It's the story of New York's fabled garment district and it ends with some fun stats: 40 years ago, 95% of clothing sold in America was made here. Today, 5% is.
The only thing America has now is an entertainment industry and bullshit I.P. laws. Oh yeah, and prisons and wars. And a bailed-out, fucked-up auto industry that somehow managed to learn almost NOTHING after they started loosing their asses in the 80s. (They started to regain their composure a bit in the 90s but then they just started making SUVs.)
Maybe I've seen Jerry McGuire too many times but I really would be happy owning fewer things that held together better and I would be more than happy to pay more for that. My parents bought a microwave within a few years of when they first became common (early/mid-80s) and it has been replaced exactly once, and that replacement is still in use. Sure, new ones cost less than $100 at Walmart now, but I've bought 3 or 4 since buying my house in the late 90s. I don't care if it costs less overall to live like this--money isn't everything. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch should make anyone stop and think "hmm, maybe rampant consumerism isn't the way to go."
PS: we also, as a country, need to stop looking down on blue-collar work. Not everyone needs a college degree. We really need to have trade schools at the high school and college levels.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
'nuff said.
China will simply move the cheap manufacturing to Africa.
You don't think china's been buddying up with East African nations for nothing do you? They've had a military medial ship there for six months late last year spreading China's good will.
China is not dumb, not in the slightest, they've been preparing for the growth of their economy for at least a decade and manufacturing will not start to move for at least another decade, China intends to branch into the more advanced side of manufacturing such as aircraft and high tech. Much the same as Japan and Taiwan did, when I was a lad, "made in Taiwan" was not a symbol of quality, now days Taiwan makes some of the highest quality electronics in Asia (along with Korea and Japan) so why can't China do the same thing? Unlike the other poor Asian nations such as Thailand or the Philipines, China does not have a incompetent leadership mired in corruption.
So chances are, in 15 years we'll still be buying Huawei modems, except they will have "made in Tanzania" written on the side.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
A once-proud nation with a free and well-functioning economy is reduced to a pathetic mess, with a small number of very wealthy individuals and a huge masses of the poor.
I was having trouble deciding whether to mod jcr up or reply to this braindeadedness.
Huge masses of poor? In the US? The only way you can come to that conclusion is if you don't even know what poor is. I don't need to show you, but this is poverty. In America, homeless people are fat, and the only reason they are homeless is because they have serious mental or emotional issues.
In America, we have 'poor' people, as measured by the poverty line, but the poor people have refrigerators. They frequently have cars. They definitely have shoes. I'm not saying that everything is perfect here, or that there aren't people who have money problems (the primary problem people will run into in that case is healthcare), but in America, we have it good. If you don't think so, you really need to get out of the country and see the world.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Once you get out of South Africa and Egypt there is no infrastructure for manufacturing in Africa. Even with 15-25 years of solid investment and construction, there won't be infrastructure for manufacturing in Africa outside of Egypt and South Africa.
China isn't investing in the Republic of South Africa or Egypt, they are investing in places they can strip bare of mineral wealth.
This seems to be a popular argument on Slashdot lately. Taxation is theft, and yet prosperity is only possible because the government allows individuals to accumulate wealth. In other words you want the government to protect your liberties and your property, you just don't want to pay them for it.
Think about the biggest advancements of the 20th century. Most of them were government lead. The national electric grid, improved transport links, military hardware advances, space exploration etc. When it comes to big, expensive and/or risky projects the government does what private enterprise cannot.
It is interesting that you should paint centrally planned economies as being run by Luddites. China is doing the exact opposite, pushing ahead with high tech projects and automation. China is not dumb, just look at how it manages America through Chinese banks lending them money.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Actually, many in the US are homeless not because of mental health issues, but because of the justice system, and then leads to mental health issues.
Go to jail, do not ever find a real job again unless you are staggeringly unlucky. What else have you got other than going back to jail or living on the street?
I used to work with an organization that trained homeless in useful work skills and tried to find them jobs and get them on their feet. Overwhelmingly these were men, overwhelmingly they had followed a trajectory similar to "had a good job, went to jail (almost always for drug offenses, and almost always for ridiculously small quantities), got out and nobody would hire them because of their record"
Not to say that your larger point is not dead on - we have SOME poor people in this country, but the vast majority considered poor by our standards are quite well off compared to real poverty.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.