Originally posted by: StormRider
Originally posted by: Xavier434
Originally posted by: StormRider
Is there any possibility that it is you that do not see the big picture?
Your position sounds very similar to the position many in the US had when they felt threatened by Japan. "Don't buy Japanese cars!", they screamed as they smashed Japanese cars with baseball bats in front of television cameras. "Only buy American cars! If you buy Japanese cars you're putting American workers out of jobs! You're only hurting yourself -- by saving yourself a few bucks now, you're ruining America's economy for the future -- and that means you'll reduce your chances of finding a job where the pay is reasonable"
What exactly has happened since that time? Yes, Michigan has lost a lot of automotive jobs. But that was offset by Japanese companies opening factories in our south (Tennessee, Kentucky etc).
Automotive Jobs in US
How do we know that in the future the same thing won't happen with China? Maybe China will also open factories in the US.
Different industries from different countries result in different outcomes. Japan is extremely different from China both now and in the past in regards to many different industries and economics in general. So much to the point where I would venture to say that you are comparing apples with oranges.
A better question to ask yourself is how do you know the result will be more jobs in the long run? A good set of follow up questions would be, "Are you willing to take that chance? What is at risk if you are wrong?"
Also consider why China would open factories over here and employ Americans when we demand such high wages in comparison to the Chinese? It is not like China is lacking people to fill them either.
Regardless, I hope you are right because that is the only good thing that can happen unless the government steps in and prevents so many jobs going over seas.
Japan was known as a producer of cheap knock-off products in the past. Their workers worked for much lower wages compared to American workers. They also had a reputation of being robotic workaholics. We were told that American workers could not compete with that -- because Japan doesn't play fair.
However as living standards improved, demand for higher wages in Japan made American workers/factories more competitive. In addition, other countries like South Korea was able to produce products more cheaply than Japan so a lot of manufacturing moved to South Korea. Then South Korea's living standards and wages increased and manufacturing started to move to the cheaper China.
China's living standard are increasing. Wage increases are occurring in China. I just heard on NPR that Walmart has signed a contract with the government unions in China to increase wages by 8% over the next two years there. Some manufacturing is already moving from China to other countries such as Vietnam because it's cheaper.
My point is that history has shown that the free market has lifted a lot of countries from poverty while supplying the richer countries with cheaper and more affordable products. Wages have always risen in these poorer countries. Eventually, there will come a time when there aren't any really dirt poor countries anymore (at least that is my hope) and the US will be competitive again.
Meanwhile, some parts of the country might be hit hard for a little while. But it's usually been temporary. For example, the South lost a lot of textile jobs but it's starting to pick up a lot of automotive jobs now. In the end, was this the right move? I think so. Why would we want the South to remain a low skilled textile industry instead of progressing into a more skilled automotive industry?
If we had "protected" the textile industry, most of us would pay a lot more for clothes, the South workforce would still be low skilled, low educated textile workforce and those poor countries would still be poor.
BTW, here is one possible reason why I think China (or any other country) might start up factories here: The price of fuel is so high it might be cheaper to start a factory here to service America instead of building products in China and shipping them here.
I think COMPARING China to Japan is like comparing apples to oranges. We FORCED Japan to play fair and they eventually did that. I doubt China would ever capitulate to anything that remotely resembles "fair trade".