Add a Comment
Email This
Statistics
We've been through this before. The vast majority of people used to be farmers, now fewer than 2% of Americans are. We used to pretty much supply raw materials to Britain, and eventually our own manufacturing capacity blossomed and was able to compete against the Anglo juggernaut.
I think our manufacturing economy is another phase of this process and that we will move on to greener pastures, even as the Chinese, Indonesians, Malaysians, Vietnamese, and many African nations go through it too. The real trick of it I think is managing the pace so that we don't terminally leave anyone behind. I also think you are correct in that now with the falling dollar, the Chinese cheap products aren't looking quite as competitive. Their people are going to start evolving up the chain as well as their wages and standard of living goes up. And remember, there are always jobs you can't outsource, and you can't sell things to people who are destitute.
RSS
It's been a tough road, but it may actually work out.
I have commented in the past about the woes of the manufacturing sector faltering under the more or less sudden rush of cheap labor that caused much job loss and plant closings. At the time the thought was; "If this continues at this rate, we'll all be out of a job soon." In the plastics industry, our main competitor was China with its seemingly endless supply of cheap labor and industrial capacity. The hope of their people becoming equal consumers of our goods seemed very far away up until fairly recently, despite past hopes. Suddenly because of a number of factors, mainly inflation and product safety issues, the pendulum is swinging the other way a little, hopefully giving us a chance to recoup. As Bortnyk already hinted, it's the McDonalds, Starbucks, and mankind's inherent need for fashion that may be driving this change faster than I've ever imagined.
Lateral trade unions may ultimately work out economically in the end; if we're able to sustain the initial blows and loss of skilled people in the meantime.
View Full Discussion