So, the idea is that we pay too much in this country for labor. The lower the labor cost, the better the profit.

When we decided to permit more trade, larger corporations began setting up shop where the local economy was very different from ours. There were currency differences too.

http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=613

I remember a time when I was young that "made in China" meant cheap ass, largely worthless stuff. A lot like you find in a Dollar Tree store today, in fact.

Now, that's not really so true, is it?

Made in USA, if it can even be found, might not mean the best. It just might only mean, "probably made under labor conditions that are sane.".

To me, this is enough to buy at the higher price period.

When we open our markets like this, we do a few very destructive things:

1. We devalue our own people.

2. Whole industries basically leave the nation, impacting our GDP, and boosting theirs. (Why do you always hear the cry for tax breaks on dollars being harbored overseas? That's why! They don't want to pay to have it made, and they don't want to pay to bring the spoils in to the nation.

Go look at your tax form instructions one of these days. Look really freaking hard at what 'income' is defined as. Next, go look at compensation.

We get compensated for our labor, as we can't get the time and wear on our bodies back. That's not really income, in the sense of the definition.

We are taxed on this why?

Mostly because these same larger corporations don't want to pay anything, for any reason!

I digress:

3. We condone horrible working conditions, through massive consumption. (this is ugly and not often talked about, and that should change)

4. We lose those income streams.

There are other things, but those are important things.

Outsourcing, supply side economics, trickle up, and similar things we've been doing for 30 years have drained this nation dry. And we can't get enough! We want more and we want it cheaper!

I'll bet those kids want more too. At those wages, and under those draconian conditions, they are never ever gonna get it, while we sit and bitch about a little hard work paying for our national follies.

Just thought that might bring a little perspective on what is about to occur here, that's all.

Compare and contrast!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=1

The Dell laptop (property of my employer) on which I am typing this was made in China. The reality today seems to be that there is a very wide range of manufacturing plants operating in China, all the way from state-of-the-art ISO certified plants that manufacture computers and commercial equipment to shady penny-pinching places that crank out low-cost toys and household items. It is the latter where dangerous products come out of.

What I find to be the rub in the way that things work today is this: there are a lot of products whose production is largely automated, yet we import them. Examples include printed matter, such as greeting cards (!!) and electronic products, such as laptop computers. Back in the 1970s, it made sense to have people in low-wage countries stuff circuit boards. Modern circuit boards, on the other hand, are stuffed by robots because those surface-mount parts are too small for humans to handle efficiently.

...and that was supposed to be our reward for the innovation.

Instead of manually building things, we were supposed to capture the gains inherent in innovation over time. That equals wealth for all involved, but clearly it was not enough.

I'm wondering these days, "How Much Is Enough?". (good FIXX tune)

We could have been freeing people and capacity for use on the next innovation, and the next, and next... Who knows where we would be as a nation, had that trend gone undisturbed?

Betcha there would have been plenty for health-care. Plenty for humanitarian efforts. Our leadership would have remained the envy of the world, and we would source our own tech, secure in it's development.

I look back and it's just maddening!