Discussion of Moving Production Outside of China

[natasha]

It's not quite capitalism.  China is only cheaper, monetarily, in the short term.  There are other costs which most people don't consider.

Also, there is a huge culture disparity here.  "Salary is almost nothing, they can work 24/7, and if they complain they are fired." That isn't exactly true: 

You can't really compare salaries that simply.  Does your employer provide for all your food, clothing, and shelter requirements?  For your whole family?

8 hour work days are strictly enforced in China.  They have a very large population and the government is very committed to making sure everyone has a job. And they are very good at this.  If work shifts were longer, less people would be employed.    Now this isn't that simple either.  Workers have other responsibilities to their employer outside of working hours.  But again, it's a whole different culture.  We commute to get away from our employer outside of working hours. They do not.  (Nor can they.)

If they complain, they don't get fired.  You don't really get fired in China.  You might get relocated though, and this is not a good thing.  So you don't complain.  And why would you?  The grass isn't greener in the other place.  Workers have good incentive to be where they are because they really do have it much better where they are.  Not that they really have a choice though.  They work where they do because government gives them the opportunity to.

Here's why I don't buy "Made in China".  China has something that other places, like the USA have.  They have tremendous resources.  They can do anything they want without anyone else's help.  USA has this too, but we (in general) have this culture of making other people do things that we consider "too dirty" for us to do, for some reason.  And we have strange ideas about preservation (in my opinion).  China makes it seem lucrative for us to rely on them, for the sake of bringing our economy down: and theirs up.  And they are highly successful at this, mostly because people outside China turn a blind eye to the real cost.

We don't need China, and China doesn't need us.  This isn't USA specific, but I can only stress this from a USA perspective.  It doesn't seem to me that other states have it any different.

Ideally, in my opinion, we hardly need to trade with China at all.  But it does make sense to trade some things.  It makes sense to buy Chinese tea, just like it makes sense to buy Cuban cigars.

Ironically I write this wearing a made-in-China shirt.  But I bought it in China as a souvenir.

Your post is an insult to human rights.

One thing is to acknowledge that we are abusing China and many other countries using their cheap labor force, but we have no option. We have also to live in a society where we can not be the heroes refusing to buy cheap merchandise (such as your shirt). Similarly, we all know the bloody conditions on African mines so we can have our fancy technology. etc.

But it makes it even worse if you try to say that Chinese factories are fair with workers. Man, we are talking about a country without freedom. We are buying there because the prices are sooo cheap. Why are prices so cheap, because they abuse their workers. They are not paid, they work extra hours, and if they fight against the system, they will be jailed