[Paleopsych] defiant habits

[Lynn D. Johnson, Ph.D.]

The same thing has happened to Mexico. You can buy a very nice 
embroidered mexican style shirt for $10 if made locally, but if it is 
made in China, the same shirt is $5.  Guess which one the Mexicans are 
buying?  Same thing with the dark heavy furniture popular in Mexico, it 
is now being made in China at half the price.

As Homer Simpson says, "Stupid poetic justice!"  The maquiladoras at the 
border just cannot compete by being the low cost labor source. Some of 
them have shifted to being the quality producer, trying to stay ahead of 
China by focus on customer service and total quality.

In the long run, this will not persist. As free trade raised the Mexican 
quality of life, and then made them less competitive by dint of low 
wages alone, so also eventually (I predict) China will raise its living 
standard, wages will rise, and a new equilibrium will be established. I 
hope.
Lynn Johnson

Michael Christopher wrote:

>>>Perhaps America will wake up and realize we have
>>>      
>>>
>been giving China the family jewels. What happens if
>we pull out a lot of the manufacturing that we have
>exported to them in recent years?<<
>
>--What's odd to me is that despite growing
>anti-immigration and anti-globalization sentiment in
>the US, people are still content to shop at WalMart
>and reap low priced goods in return for the exporting
>of jobs. And, despite the widespread recognition that
>the Saudi regime is corrupt and leaks money to Al
>Qaeda and extremist schools of Islam, people are still
>content to drive cars that eat a lot of gas. 
>
>At some level, personal decisions are not being
>connected to the big picture. Once a person splits his
>own actions from the effect on the whole, it becomes
>very difficult to reconnect them. Guilt and cognitive
>dissonance build up and result in defiant continuation
>in habit. Thus, someone who uses more gasoline than
>necessary can say "No treehugging environmentalist is
>going to tell ME what to drive!" when he could just as
>easily say "No Saudi royal is going to use MY gas
>money to fund hateful Madrasas. I'm going to WALK!"
>The question is, does a point come where defiant habit
>becomes defiant reaction against habit? Will we
>defiantly buy American to support American jobs, and
>force WalMart to switch to American-made products? Or
>will we just go for what's cheapest and most
>convenient?
>
>Michael
>
>
>		
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