The "slave labor" as you call it in China is nothing more than what the typical labor market in China is like. They have 10% unemployment there in China, and the factory jobs there pay 4-times as much as you can make in rural farm areas. That so called "slave labor" is still a very good wage for 90% of the population in China.
The labor market in China is very fluid. If a factory does not pay enough in wages, they could lose their entire workforce, and I have seen some factories there lose 40-50% of their employees in one month when their 1-year employee contracts are up. The factories adjust or die. That's a pretty free flowing labor market if you ask me.
Here are some of the reasons you need to blame for the free trade of goods we have today which has elevated your living standard whether you realize it or not:
1. The collapse of communism and the spread of free markets
to the developing world.
Up until the 80's we had half of Europe locked behind an
iron curtain, and sister states around the world used the
same failed command economy model. Once that model was
discarded, explosive growth took off and new markets
emerged. Since they started from a low wage base, they
were very competitive exporting their products.
2. The rapid adoption of intermodal shipping.
While Malcolm McClean invented the shipping container
in the 1950's, it really didn't get going big-time
until the late 1980's with the advent of economies of
scale. Vessels that once carried only 400 40-foot
containers with 40 crew members now carried 2,000
40-foot containers with 25 crew members. Today there
are vessels that can carry 6,000 40' containers with
22 crew members.
Productivity also increased on the railroad side with
the introduction of double stack cars in the mid 1980's.
The cost to ship a container across the country almost
dropped in half due to that innovation alone.
The deregulation of trucking in the 1980's also dropped
trucking rates across the country, bringing lower costs
yet to shipping. Add in the huge productivity gains at
ports and rail yards, and things that could not be
sourced competitively from far away places could now
be purchased affordibly.
The cost to transport goods from overseas to the middle
of the US has dropped about 70% in real terms in the
past 30-years due to the above innovations and changes.
3. The Internet and other advances in communication
Information and orders can be moved around the globe,
and international collaboration can be done in real
time.
Engineering on a new product can be done in the US, the
plans for tooling can be sent for bid to Brazil, Mexico,
the US, and China. The best bid can get the tooling
job. The product can be bid out to manufacturing, with
the best bid winning. The product is made and shipped
to the markets it will be sold in.
If that product is sold in the US, probably 80% of
the product value stays here regardless of where it is
produced. Engineering, tranport, warehousing and
distribution, wholesale and retail mark-ups, and
service stay here.
This is how the free market works on a global scale.
The "greed" you rail against is motivation for profit, which is the fundamental basis our free enterprise system operates under.
The days of a high school drop-out turning a bolt on an assembly line in the US and making more than a college graduate with a masters degree are over (unless you have a masters in social work, in which case you're still screwed).
The sooner people realize this isn't 1960 anymore, the better off they'll be.
Oh, I just love it when people rant on about foreign made products on message boards while typing on their Chinese made keyboards. It so legitimizes their arguments. |
