Dudes.
It's pretty simple. With a free trade world economy, the country that does the deed the cheapest gets the business. The floodgates opened more than a decade ago; this will not ever change. If another country does it better and cheaper than China, things will change accordingly.
It's called free trade in the economy. Now with that stated, do I support the working conditions that these folks may suffer through? Absolutely not. But then again, you can't make apples to apples comparisons because the US 100 years ago had horrid working conditions as well. There is a certain context to place working conditions in, not all countries which are underdeveloped (and i'm not saying this applies to china) have the same standards which other countries do. But don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe in workers rights. I hate that there are those suffering. But what can you do, China''s government has to fix these things. And they will over time. Just like the US did slowly over time. And Europe did over time. Things improve over time.
But the bottom line here is:
FREE TRADE
Economic free trade means the cheapest country develops a niche; other countries send their business there to get that done. There are some countries that specialize in textiles. The US actually does really well in agriculture believe it or not - the US exports a TON of agricultural goods because it is DIRT CHEAP in america. In fact, our farmers are suffering. Low wages and incredibly low margins with unbelievable competition. Not quite the same as third world country workers suffering, but nonetheless, it's true.
Again, I can't stress enough, I hate it when I hear about poor working conditions. But it is what it is. Free trade dictates that if one country can develop and produce silicon cheaper than others, 99% of the business goes to that country. Guess what? Most agricultural exports, a LOT of it is from the US. Because agriculture is dirt cheap. It's our niche for whatever reason.
I am CERTAIN that things will improve in China. You know what else i'm certain of? When Chinese workers get their higher wages and higher standards of living, the world will either normalize with everyone having similar costs for silicon production -- or -- more likely in the short term - another country will do it cheap. Perhaps Thailand will do it cheap. India. Then the goalposts move. All silicon business goes to those countries which do it cheaper. And then we'll have more complaints about their working conditions. It's just a continual shifting of goalposts, and there isn't jack that any of us can do about it even if we deplore the working conditions.
If you dislike these conditions, tell your respective congressional leaders that you do not want world free trade. You know what happens then? They will laugh at you. You take the good with the bad with free trade. The good is cheaper prices. If silicon were produced in the US with super great working conditions, would everyone be happy? I don't know. This would come at a cost. Namely, SIGNIFICANTLY higher prices. There's nothing we can do except wait. China will improve over time. China's government is already looking at appeasing these workers and increasing their wages. It will happen. It will improve. But then again, all silicon business will simply move to the next country that does it cheaper. It sucks but what can you do. You can say you hate it, but you don't hate lower prices do you? You take the good with the bad when it comes to free trade, that's the bottom line.
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