You know, you should think before you post.
When a product is sold in Walmart, there is a ton of the final retail cost that remains in the USA.
For example, a Barbie made in China may retail for $15 at Walmart, and they may make $5.00 profit at retail on that item. The Mattell company likely sold it to Walmart for $10, and Mattell's purchase price from the Chinese factory may be around $4.00. Shipping, duty, and other fees may add $1.00 to the cost, making the cost to Mattell $5.00.
The factory that sold the Barbie for $4.00 needed raw materials, which were mostly imported. Let's say there's $0.50 in raw materials, much of it polymers made from imported oil, although some of the cardboard comes from the USA.
In this example, $11.50 of the retail cost remains in the USA, $3.50 goes to China, and $0.50 goes elsewhere. If you want to back out the overseas shipping, at least $11.00 of the retail price of the Barbie remains in the USA.
Had the Barbie been made in the USA, the retail cost would likely be double, and the sales would likely be 75% lower.
Making the product here does not increase the overall cash generated by that product. Jobs assembling Barbies in the US would pay close to minimum wage, not automaker wages.
Furthermore, buying the dolls from China allows more families and children to afford more Barbies. Intrinsic value from more Barbies isn't even figured in here.
The import formula is much more favorable to the US on other items, but let's stay with this example. There is also marketing support by Mattell and Walmart that multiplies through the system. Design and engineering also stays here. Jobs are created in management, sales, marketing, and distribution here, and those jobs pay far more in aggregate than the entire payroll of the companies making the dolls.
I used the Barbie example because I thought it was something you could relate easily to, but this applies to other items as well. China actually has a trade deficit with almost every other part of the world other than the US. It has huge deficits with other Asian countries. There are many items that are "made in China" that literally only have 5% of their value produced in China. The rest goes elsewhere. |
