Jobs coming back from China? New report says 3,000,000 jobs coming back...

[rchiu]

Didn't we have a thread on this 6 months ago about toy companies bringing production back??

I think it said that once Chinese labor costs hit $3 an hour it is no longer cost effective to operate a Chinese plant due to the shipping and logistic problems of operating factories 8000 miles from their customers.

I have been saying for a long time that this fear of China was irrational just as the fear of Japan was during the 80s.

Seriously I don't why American want minimum wage job back to the US and I don't think those jobs are ever coming back. Those jobs in China once labor cost hit $3 or some other limit, will not come back to US but move to Vietnam, Indonesia, India and other developing countries.

It's true that fear of China is similar to fear of Japan back in the 80s. But the manufacture job went to Japan didn't really come back as Japan reached developed nation status. It moved around to Taiwan, Korea and now China. It will be the same as China become developed and their income becomes higher.

American jobs need to be high value added to catch up with the high level of income. It cannot be those $3/hr toy making jobs. Good value added jobs like fixing/setting up machines for automation is great, manufacturing high value good is great, providing high value added service is great. Expecting jobs from China to come back to US is dumb and not gonna solve any problem.

And if

 

[Engineer]

Seriously I don't why American want minimum wage job back to the US and I don't think those jobs are ever coming back. Those jobs in China once labor cost hit $3 or some other limit, will not come back to US but move to Vietnam, Indonesia, India and other developing countries.

It's true that fear of China is similar to fear of Japan back in the 80s. But the manufacture job went to Japan didn't really come back as Japan reached developed nation status. It moved around to Taiwan, Korea and now China. It will be the same as China become developed and their income becomes higher.

American jobs need to be high value added to catch up with the high level of income. It cannot be those $3/hr toy making jobs. Good value added jobs like fixing/setting up machines for automation is great, manufacturing high value good is great, providing high value added service is great. Expecting jobs from China to come back to US is dumb and not gonna solve any problem.

And if

$3 hour jobs in China = much more when you factor in shipping, storing, etc. Oh, and not everyone can be an engineer. We need jobs that make things (i.e. creating wealth) for everyone. Otherwise, you can sit and bitch about those at the bottom who don't work (because there are NO jobs) or work at such a low rate that they don't pay taxes. Your choice.

People have no clue what manufacturing provides for this country. Not just jobs, the the R&D and learned skills from those factories....

 

[BladeVenom]

With the shale gas, the US has significant reserves of natural gas and it is producing quite a few good paying jobs right now.

Until environmentalists shut them down.

 

[Zorba]

$3 hour jobs in China = much more when you factor in shipping, storing, etc.

Don't forget the much higher productivity in the US. I was talking to some engineers from one of AVON's manufacturing plants and they were telling me their labor costs were nearly the same in the US and Mexico, because the US was so much more productive. A lot of the increased productivity comes from the fact that at $15/hour it is easy to justify automation, which isn't true at $2/hour.

 

[Zebo]

God I hope this is true. Unlike many I understand my income depends on enough people having jobs and better paid the better.

As a matter a fact my entire net worth depends on it. Even the value of your house....the value of stocks and bonds...the value of your schools and police departments...it all depends on enough people having jobs.... This is why I cringe at free traders and policy that siphons money to a few country-less citizens.

 

[Engineer]

Don't forget the much higher productivity in the US. I was talking to some engineers from one of AVON's manufacturing plants and they were telling me their labor costs were nearly the same in the US and Mexico, because the US was so much more productive. A lot of the increased productivity comes from the fact that at $15/hour it is easy to justify automation, which isn't true at $2/hour.

I mentioned it in the OP!

God I hope this is true. Unlike many I understand my income depends on enough people having jobs and better paid the better.

As a matter a fact my entire net worth depends on it. Even the value of your house....the value of stocks and bonds...the value of your schools and police departments...it all depends on enough people having jobs.... This is why I cringe at free traders and policy that siphons money to a few country-less citizens.

I agree 100%. Not just your income but many of our incomes depend on having a good "chain supply" or workers from all levels producing and getting paid to produce.

 

[Infohawk]

I'll believe it when I see it. We also have to realize it's not just about job numbers. Even employed people suffer from this massive outsourcing in suppressed wages and more onerous working conditions. But at some point we will see jobs come back when China is a ginormous fully industrialized totalitarian state sucking up the world's natural resources and driving those costs higher.

I have been saying for a long time that this fear of China was irrational just as the fear of Japan was during the 80s.

It's a different ballgame. Japan has a much smaller population than China. Japan was able to industrialize by only killing off a relatively amount of the US manufacturing base. China has hundreds of millions more people that need to be brought into a modern lifestyle who are all willing to work for pennies. By the time they are all working the US will be deindustrialized.

Seriously I don't why American want minimum wage job back to the US and I don't think those jobs are ever coming back. Those jobs in China once labor cost hit $3 or some other limit, will not come back to US but move to Vietnam, Indonesia, India and other developing countries.

We want manufacturing jobs back in the US. History shows those don't have to be minimum wage jobs. Sure, goods cost more than the Chinese crap at Walmart but those increased prices pay increased wages which pay for goods and services that middle-class and wealthy people provide, like legal services, dentistry, etc...

But you're right about one thing, with the current system countries like Vietnam or Indonesia will get the manufacturing jobs first. That's why we need to change to a system where tariffs are levied against countries with ridiculously low living conditions, primitive political systems, and lack of environmental regulations. They need to industrialize by themselves. Once they have a high standard of living like Europe or Japan, then we trade with them.

 

[Engineer]

One thing that people seem to forget is that R&D follows the manufacturing. The US has dropped from 40% of the worlds R&D to 34% in just two years while Asia has went from 24% to 30% in that same two years (per Bloomberg TV today).

I'll see if I can dig up the manufacturing report that stated that 70% of R&D dollars in the US are provided by manufacturers.

Edit: Not sure if I read it right or the statement above is as it seems now...

http://www.newamerica.net/files/manufacturing_report.pdf

Source of innovation.
The manufacturing sector is of vital
importance in maintaining our innovative
capacity because it is the source of many of
the most critical inventions and scientific
advancements. In 2006, private businesses
and government invested $172 billion in
research and development in manufacturing,
nearly 70% of all R&D in the US.

 

[bfdd]

$3 hour jobs in China = much more when you factor in shipping, storing, etc. Oh, and not everyone can be an engineer. We need jobs that make things (i.e. creating wealth) for everyone. Otherwise, you can sit and bitch about those at the bottom who don't work (because there are NO jobs) or work at such a low rate that they don't pay taxes. Your choice.

People have no clue what manufacturing provides for this country. Not just jobs, the the R&D and learned skills from those factories....

It sucks man, it really does. I was looking at my flip flops awhile ago and they are made in Malaysia. I bet if I wanted to, I couldn't even find a job making flip flops in the USA. Not like the highest quality kind of flip flops, just some you know decent machine stitched kind.

 

[Engineer]

It sucks man, it really does. I was looking at my flip flops awhile ago and they are made in Malaysia. I bet if I wanted to, I couldn't even find a job making flip flops in the USA. Not like the highest quality kind of flip flops, just some you know decent machine stitched kind.

99% of all shoes are now made outside this country with 96% of all clothing as well. As a co-worker stated, if we ever went to war with these people, we would be fighting them naked.

 

[bfdd]

99% of all shoes are now made outside this country with 96% of all clothing as well. As a co-worker stated, if we ever went to war with these people, we would be fighting them naked.

luckily most my clothes are made in mexico lols

 

[Engineer]

luckily most my clothes are made in mexico lols

I was surprised at the number of pieces of clothing that is made in the USA in "Forever 21" stores. My wife and two daughters dragged me into the store and I spent my time looking at the "Made in ......" labels.

Also, I found that about 25% of socks at Walmart can be found to be "Made in USA". From what I can tell, they are made in multiple areas (some packages of the same socks made in other countries while some made in USA) but about 25% of the packages were stamped Made in USA on them.

 

[Albatross]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/07/us-globalaffluence-idUSTRE79621720111007

On a side note, don`t count on India and China to save the world economy anytime soon.