[ExI] undercover at Walmart

[Emlyn]

2009/2/13 Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com>:
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 2:13 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2009/2/11 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
>>
>>> Last month I bought some Chinese power tools, two drills, two jigsaws, three
>>> grinders.  Each one cost me 11 bucks.  Seventy seven bucks, for a box of new
>>> tools durn near too heavy for me to hoist!  Their quality wasn't stellar,
>>> but acceptable.  The only possible way western manufacturing can compete
>>> with that is to have a completely automated assembly line, a lights out
>>> factory, employing approximately one person.
>>>
>>> This isn't Walmart's fault, it is ours, for not building the robofactories
>>> when capital was still available.
>>
>> It seems to me there is no good reason why the labour of a Chinese
>> worker should be so much cheaper than that of an American or European
>> worker.
>
> ### The labor of a worker in China is much less efficient, on average,
> than the labor of a worker in America (whether it is a Chinese or
> American worker is almost irrelevant here). This is the reason for the
> low cost of workers in China - they offer little, therefore they
> cannot demand much.

I call bullshit.

Chinese workers get paid little because they don't have any other
options; it's not like they can go down the street to where the
workers get paid more.

The jobs are there because the companies look for the cheapest usable
source of labour. If they demanded more money, the jobs would go away.

This situation exists because capital can flow effortlessly around the
world, but labour cannot.

> ----------------
>
>  A massive rebalancing of exchange rates is needed.
>
> ### Exchange rates are always in the long term defined primarily by
> average labor efficiency. The only way the Chinese can become as rich
> as us is by working as efficiently as we do.
>
> Rafal

Long term is the key mistake here. Everything so far is short term.
The differences between the US economy and the Chinese economy take
time to even out. But perhaps we are now seeing some serious shifts.

You would expect to see China moving up the food chain from low cost
manufacturing to high end stuff & design.
http://www.supplychain.cn/en/art/?800

And of course you'd expect to see rising wages.
http://www.ventureoutsource.com/contract-manufacturing/industry-pulse/2008/china-s-manufacturing-wages-the-olympic-hangover

-- 
Emlyn

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