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The Coming Decline of 'Made In China'
retroworks writes: Adam Minter documents the move of Chinese steel mills to Africa, and speculates that China's years of incredible rates of economic growth may already be over. This one steel mill's move to Africa, by itself, increases Africa's production by two-thirds. "The officials in Hebei Province who oversee the company may have felt they had no choice. First, they undoubtedly faced political pressure to reduce their environmental impact in China: reducing production of steel, cement and glass -- all highly polluting industries, especially in developing countries -- will have a direct impact on Xi Jinping’s pollution goals. (Starting in Hebei will have the added benefit of cleaning up polluted, neighboring Beijing.) Second, Hebei may simply be at a loss as to how to scale back businesses that they recognize have become massively bloated. Officials in China’s construction-related industries clearly have too much capacity and too little demand." It's also possible that these moves will be encouraged by China's transition to clean economy, though that could be a bad thing for pollution in Africa.
They won't run out. By the time Africa becomes too expensive, around 2050 or so, they'll just move manufacting back to places like Detroit and most of the former Confederate states. These places are already well into second-world living conditions, and rapidly approaching third-world standards in some areas. The collapse will become fully complete during the upcoming decades, making them ripe for reindustralization due to the cheap labor that will be found in such areas.
You could always go and kill the rich.
They need a good culling every now and then. And it frees up money in the form of inheritance taxes.
Yes, from THEIR perspective, Chinese factory workers may feel as if they are improving their lot. Does that mean that those Chinese workers are not getting the shaft, even though people who are (or could) do their job in other countries would get paid a lot more? Lets face it, labor is tied to local conditions - are we to say"it's OK for a Chinese factory worker" to work in what we could consider to be inhumane conditions for a pittance (compared to what we would make) just because they feel "good" about it?
What "good" does it do ANYONE to work 14-16 hour days, 7 days per week, whilst leaving one's family behind for the better part of a working year? It really rankles when people start justifying what the wealthy and connected classes in ANY culture can do to justify paying the labor quotient in their businesses as little as possible. It's still, basically "screw the worker; I will get as much out of them as I can, for as little as possible". Instead of justifying this, call it what it is - exploitation of those with less relative power.
Incidentally, why should the yuan be considered less valuable than a dollar? I understand the supply and demand variables of foreign exchange, but isn't it convenient to have a monetary system that - based on currency values - makes one hour's work in one country only worth a fraction of that same hour's work in another country. How very convenient for developed nations,
Incidentally, I'm a tried-and-true capitalist. It's possible to treat workers fairly and make a profit. I see less and less of that these days - all around the world.