I'm tired of hearing that "China is stealing American jobs". Do you think Chinese workers enjoy building those iphone 5's for ya'll? Does anyone not know that it is the decision of white collared white Americans to outsource in order to boost the bottom line and line their own pockets? Yet, they are praised like god in this country for all the money they have.
I'm tired of hearing it, too. The fact is, it isn't true. People scream, "They're stealing our jobs!" In actuality, if manufacturing can be more efficiently allocated to China, that simply frees up resources here in the States for use to satiate other wants and needs that aren't being satisfied in the present time. In short, it's economic fallacy. The folks crying foul hear would do more economic damage if they had their way and had us adopt protectionist measures to keep jobs here that could be more efficiently allocated elsewhere. Nationalism is disgusting.
Yes, but that's the system we all signed up for. Capitalism. We each will do what we can to maximize our wealth. This system has its pros and cons. The persuit of wealth sometimes leads to discoveries and technologies that end up benefiting humankind. Flip side, you'll screw over your own neighbor to do so. It's the game we play. World won't move without that carrot on end of the stick. Just like nature, survival of the fittest. Don't want those jobs to move to China?? Accept a lower wage...or vote to change the system.
The U.S. has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs over the last decade. $10 an hour could never compete with $1 an hour. That's just math. If you ran a company you'd have moved jobs to China too. Soon the production cost in China will reach a point when it's no longer profitable to make stuff in China. Then companies will start moving manufacturing jobs out of China, but not back to the good ole' U.S. of A. Instead these new jobs will be in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, you name it. The bottom line always wins.
Further, I've never understood the concept of "stealing" a job. It's the CEO that is giving the jobs away. If people want to blame something, blame it on the man that is outsourcing the job.
er, so does Switzerland, and Japan, and holy batman, the ECB considered the export effects of devaluing currency in its' decision-making. People that say China is a currency manipulator should wake up and smell the roses. Everyone manipulates currency to a certain degree. It might not be as systematic as the PBoC, but you don't think balance of payment issues play some factor in the decision-making of central banks worldwide? And if China's the drug dealer, America's the junkie who complains about his fix. I don't hear so much complaining about the cheap goods China floods into America. I hear a lot of noise about inflation though, from the right wing, as if it were some lesser form of death. Guess what holds that down? Yeah, currency being manipulated favorably for American consumers.
I really don't feel sorry for the Americans on the side of the equation. Or hell, the Chinese government. The Chinese people who are "benefiting" from this exchange by providing knock-down cheap prices on the goods they produce are getting suckered.
This article agrees but is even more specific in its accusations and blames the business schools for teaching this mentality and specifically Harvard: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2009/bs2009105_376904.htm
Like Doug Stanhope said, "there's a grift in the system." Buy the stock or do whatever else you can to get a piece.
The question you should be asking is why it's advantageous for companies to operate in China rather than the US. What competitive advantages does China have and how can they be eliminated?
They have a crapload of people willing to eat s**t, though that might not last long. http://www.ventureoutsource.com/con...-chinas-growing-labor-unions-on-your-company/ Yeah, in terms of competitive advantage, I'm not sure asking the average American worker to accept about $1/day will work, but let me know if you think it's a good idea to try.
hmm. You're the kind of guy that would want Tiffanys to compete with Wal-Mart. Strategy-wise, I'm telling you that's a losing preposition. Americans can compete on productivity. That shouldn't entail dragging it down to the level of a Chinese worker and paying Chinese-level wages so much as dragging them up to Scandinavian/German levels, and paying Scandinavian/German wages. Well, unless you're a masochist.