To: mishedlo who wrote (8322 ) 2/19/2004 6:43:49 PM From: t4texas Respond to FDI - foreign direct investment in plant and equipment is what is going on in china and india. labor substitution is where the job hiring is going. millions of jobs have been and are being being substituted and created by us, canadian, japanese, european, taiwanese, etc., companies in china and india. indigenous chinese and and indian companies are NOT providing the competition for the usa, canadian, japanese, european, taiwanese, etc., companies. so fair trade is NOT the issue. all these companies are attempting to reduce product costs by substituting lower labor and benefits costs whether it is for manufacturing or whether it is for legal, engineering, design, etc., employees. this is why i reject the standard politicians' tripe, techno-type, white collar worker, and man-on-the-street's idea that more money for education is the answer. more education in an area were labor substitution can be had is similar to the particle physicists when i got out of university, i.e., there weren't enough jobs for all those guys who wanted to study the little buggers in those particle accelerators. so we had highly educated particle physicists bagging groceries. if one wants to train for a job that can't be so easily substituted, one needs a job with some degree of face-time with the end customer or one needs a job working with raw materials that china/india does not have.
