will the west become a 3rd world..

[yours truly]

apologies if this has been asked before..

a question's been bugging me for awhile.

since everythings being manufactured in china and the IT industry has been outsourced to india, where exactly does the west, 1st world countries, fit into all of this. aside from military contracts, wheres the big investments coming from. what keeps us ticking over and competing with asia.i mean india/china are changing so fast, they'll be 1st world countries soon.

will the day come when people in the west will become financially poor and live simpler lives..and we'll be in the 3rd world

thanks

 

[Juno]

so, when will you move out of america?

 

[Capt Caveman]

No

 

[yours truly]

im from the uk. nothing is made here anymore. maybe we just rely on saudia arabia for investment. i mean its not economically viable to do much business here

 

[FDF12389]

I think the west will be hopeless in 2074.

 

[TruePaige]

Well it involves...erm..

http://xkcd.com/398/

 

[yours truly]

maybe if things did change and roles reversed. maybe living simpler more spiritual lves would be better. growing own vegetables rearing livetock etc could be good thing

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: hopeless74
maybe if things did change and roles reversed. maybe living simpler more spiritual lves would be better. growing own vegetables rearing livetock etc could be good thing

Sorry mate, but I'm not rearing any livestocks, regardless of how desperate the times will be become.

 

[Deeko]

Ya know that its OUR companies that are outsourcing over there, right? its not like all the software manufacturers are moving their headquarters to india.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: Deeko
Ya know that its OUR companies that are outsourcing over there, right? its not like all the software manufacturers are moving their headquarters to india.

Look at it this way. If all trade ceased with China, we pay higher prices for consumer goods that will have to be sourced from somewhere else. Everything manufactured in China is still manufactured somewhere in the U.S., just at a higher cost. China on the other hand, would return to eating dirt almost overnight. We are an extremely diversified economy, and have the capability and know-how to do anything. China, and other Asian countries make plastic toys, cheap electronics, and clothes, with imported technology from the west or Japan. So who holds the real power here?

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx

Originally posted by: Deeko
Ya know that its OUR companies that are outsourcing over there, right? its not like all the software manufacturers are moving their headquarters to india.

Look at it this way. If all trade ceased with China, we pay higher prices for consumer goods that will have to be sourced from somewhere else. Everything manufactured in China is still manufactured somewhere in the U.S., just at a higher cost. China on the other hand, would return to eating dirt almost overnight. We are an extremely diversified economy, and have the capability and know-how to do anything. China, and other Asian countries make plastic toys, cheap electronics, and clothes, with imported technology from the west or Japan. So who holds the real power here?

no, someone else would buy their cheap crap.

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx

Originally posted by: Deeko
Ya know that its OUR companies that are outsourcing over there, right? its not like all the software manufacturers are moving their headquarters to india.

Look at it this way. If all trade ceased with China, we pay higher prices for consumer goods that will have to be sourced from somewhere else. Everything manufactured in China is still manufactured somewhere in the U.S., just at a higher cost. China on the other hand, would return to eating dirt almost overnight. We are an extremely diversified economy, and have the capability and know-how to do anything. China, and other Asian countries make plastic toys, cheap electronics, and clothes, with imported technology from the west or Japan. So who holds the real power here?

exactly.

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx

Originally posted by: Deeko
Ya know that its OUR companies that are outsourcing over there, right? its not like all the software manufacturers are moving their headquarters to india.

Look at it this way. If all trade ceased with China, we pay higher prices for consumer goods that will have to be sourced from somewhere else. Everything manufactured in China is still manufactured somewhere in the U.S., just at a higher cost. China on the other hand, would return to eating dirt almost overnight. We are an extremely diversified economy, and have the capability and know-how to do anything. China, and other Asian countries make plastic toys, cheap electronics, and clothes, with imported technology from the west or Japan. So who holds the real power here?

no, someone else would buy their cheap crap.

The point is, many of the things that have "made in china" plastered all over them are products of American companies. So if we pulled out of China, they would no longer produce those cheap plastic toys, unless new companies started.

Meanwhile, we'd still have cheap plastic toys, they'd just cost a little more.

 

[Xavier434]

If your definition of "3rd world" matches up with the traditional definition then the answer is no. Will the west ever become considerably less advanced/rich than a bunch of countries in the east then the answer is possibly, but that doesn't make us 3rd world. It just means they advanced faster than us for a while economically. Technologically, we will most like stay up to par because we buy so much of their technology already...assuming we can afford it should our economy bomb for many years.

In any case, I highly doubt we will see this sort of thing happen during the lifetime of even our current youngest generation assuming it happens at all.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: hopeless74
maybe if things did change and roles reversed. maybe living simpler more spiritual lves would be better. growing own vegetables rearing livetock etc could be good thing

how old are you

 

[oddyager]

There would have to be a complete economic breakdown of epic proporations for that to happen.

 

[compman25]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: hopeless74
maybe if things did change and roles reversed. maybe living simpler more spiritual lves would be better. growing own vegetables rearing livetock etc could be good thing

how old are you

I bet 10

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: oddyager
There would have to be a complete economic breakdown of epic proporations for that to happen.

Or a steady decline over a very long period of time as the world continues to prosper without us. That doesn't mean that we will regress to being an agricultural based country, but the definition of what we consider to be "3rd world" may very well change over that long period of time too. Not that I believe it will happen any time soon.

 

[BudAshes]

The real question is why do people need to buy so much worthless bullshit.

 

[TruePaige]

Man, am I going to have to learn another language?

Screw that noise. =p

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: BudAshes
The real question is why do people need to buy so much worthless bullshit.

Because they disagree that it is worthless. Your trash is my treasure and vice versa.

 

[alkemyst]

I think we have been setting the stage for this for a long time. I believe of a lot of it has been orcestrated by the real wealthy to further insure their fortunes and power.

Many of the ultra rich are the same ones driving this outsourcing and investing heavily in foreign markets. For the first time in modern history you have people NOT wanting the US dollar.

All it takes it the upper 2-5% to pull out of the US markets and it'd fck everyone overnight.

They could easily create a slave nation with no one able to pay their debts and require labor in trade.

 

[BudAshes]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: BudAshes
The real question is why do people need to buy so much worthless bullshit.

Because they disagree that it is worthless? Your trash is my treasure?

It all ends up in the landfill anyway so how much did they really value it?

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I think we have been setting the stage for this for a long time. I believe of a lot of it has been orcestrated by the real wealthy to further insure their fortunes and power.

Many of the ultra rich are the same ones driving this outsourcing and investing heavily in foreign markets. For the first time in modern history you have people NOT wanting the US dollar.

All it takes it the upper 2-5% to pull out of the US markets and it'd fck everyone overnight.

They could easily create a slave nation with no one able to pay their debts and require labor in trade.

That's a bit over-exaggerated.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

One of the things we need to realize is that the country was founded on foreigners... they need to be and should be allowed to come here from their countries so that things can be created. Even though there's a lot going on in other countries, their infrastructure isn't nearly as well developed as the one here in the US.

I think this is a good time to make it easier for people to immigrate into our country and further things, otherwise the position of power and wealth will be changing.