Christmas at risk because toys are only made in Asia

We have X-Mas and 2 birthdays at the end of the year, so I always stock up on toys as they go on clearance throughout the year. So we good in the Haymitch House.

Is there any possibility of just moving some manufacturing stuff to Mexico instead of China? Would that be a good idea?

 

Once the third world countries are no longer 3rd world you’ll just have cheap pockets inside countries , Perhaps even here in the US .

 

I agree with you to some extent, but most of the individual companies are as much a victim of offshoring as everyone else. When your competitors get a cost advantage by offshoring, you pretty much have to follow suit if you want to stay in business. You could try to hold on for the day (like this Christmas) where being offshore becomes a liability and clean up with your wise and patient strategy of manufacturing in the US -- but only if you stay in business that long. And honestly, you probably can't reap enough windfalls to justify passing on the offshore cost benefits.

So yeah, the industry did it to themselves, but they could only refrain from doing it with government policy that removes the incentives for doing it. If we built government policy that prioritized US manufacturing, we'd have toys for Christmas and maybe jobs to pay for them. But in the macroeconomics, I don't know if it really makes sense to pass up the cost savings of offshoring to do so. There's a good argument for doing so -- American jobs -- and we hear that one repeated often. There must be a pretty compelling case for offshoring because, even though we never hear it, that's the one we consistently stick to.

That's a thing. It's called nearshoring. Maybe not the absolute cheapest you can find, but has supply chain benefits just from being close by.

 

Is the D&D part discussing how people in Asia mostly don't believe in Jesus and needs a good Crusading for Jolly ol St. Nick to deliver Xmas on time?

Faster Rudolph!
::whip::whip::
Faster Chang!
::whip::whip::

 

@Os Trigonum

No Tickle-Me-Bernie dolls for the suckers here for Christmas then

Send these Scrooges some lumps of coal

 

Is it possible? Yes. It is probable? No. The cost of labor in Mexico is cheaper than the US, but it is currently not that cheap. Setting up a toy factory is not a trivial expense or effort, and it probably doesn't make financial sense to make that investment if Mexico's economic development could make it cost prohibitive to keep making toys there one or two decades later. Greater China has over half a century of experience and expertise being the world's factory, and that reliability and knowledge should not be understated.

 

For sure. It just seems that having so much made in Asia is problematic.

 

Same I’m usually done with Christmas shopping by the end of summer.

 

I agree we should totally diversify our manufacturing base, esp. for essential goods like PPE and microchips. I do think the whole "move manufacturing back to the US" political movement is misguided because jobs that involve making toys and iPhones are never coming back to the US unless you want to pay 2-3X+ the price, which isn't going to happen. We can't even find enough workers to wait on tables and drive Ubers, how are you going to find hundreds if not thousands of reliable workers per factory to assemble goods? I have family in Asia that is in the toy manufacturing business and it is a very low-margin and competitive business unless you own your own IP like Hasbro or Mattel, which more Asian factories do not.

 

I would argue it's in our interest to bring some of that manufacturing from China to Central America instead of having a bunch of semi narco countries creating chaos and creating massive migrations.

It would seem we are going from globalism to regionalism as the Biden admin continues the Trump trade war (soon to be the Biden trade war) that increases the costs.

 

The net goal is to create exports which admittingly has been very difficult. This is why America loves their software companies and pay astronomical salaries to their tech workers. There is little to no mass being created to export.

There are more reasons than cost to outsource manufacturing. Part of it is to flood foreign markets with USD to help maintain the USD as the world reserve currency.

However in the process, we have gutted our manufacturing base and have lost a generation of manufacturing skills. This is why we can't find workers. We treat manufacturing as if its a low skilled service industry job...like waiting tables and driving for uber. I do not expect Uber drivers or waiters to program, maintain and repair robotics nor do I expect them to understand work flows in a high speed factory. Instead of having UBI discussion, we should consider using the costs saved through robotics and passing it on to the workforce.

Robotics is the future and we should be throwing everything at becoming a world leader in robotics, not just in software.

 

Looks like my nephew will be getting a MyPillow for Christmas.

 

that is called capitalism, a powerful monster. the trade war, tariffs , cold war, kidnapping, covid19... none has done anything that can get jobs back to US. ... promoting a hot war seems to be the next try.

 

that is so 1970s mentality

this is 2021, where China is the #2 largest economy in the world, VietNam is reminiscent of the mfg tigers (SK, Twn, Singapore) in the 1980s/90s.
you need to venture out of your cave sometimes.


btw,

currently, China has 51 pairs of bullet trains operating daily, connecting people from 51 metro areas.
and the US has no bullet trains.

if China is a 3rd world country, as you have conveniently claimed, what does that make the US ?

,

have you been living in a cave? US conglomerate save lots of $ by offshoring mfg
​

Bush Sr implemented NAFTA and then Trump USMTA

 

clearly, you're using terms that you don't understand

btw,

there is a school of thought that 3rd world countries don't have free healthcare.
while many countries provide that to its citizens, the US doesn't​

 

Looks like the War on Christmas is starting to turn for the Liberals. Take that, suckas!

 

lol The jobs will come home to us when we are third world, duh. We are letting in massive amounts of third world immigrants so don't worry we'll be there soon. It's coming to us because we have dems in power who want to demographically screw border states for their future gains and help their corporate partners. The Republicans meanwhile are feckless cowards who will also appease the corporate class and pretend to do something about the border. Either way, the US is going third world as an alarming rate.

And I agree it's amazing how people are acting shocked.