Why The Strategy Of Shipping Our Jobs To China Will Ultimately Fail

[Me.]

There has been, over the last 10years or do, a race by businesses, manufacturers to get their good produced in China. Our jobs and manufacturing capabilities were shipped over there in exchange for lower prices and bigger profits. But what has also happened in the last ten years is that the Chinese, because the society became more open, were exposed to both American and European cultures. They liked what they saw and want a better life too, now. They want the latest styles, cars, new TV etc. And they are going to get it. Chinese prices are going to skyrocket over the next few years and the loss of our jobs will have been for naught.

There is also another element to the price rise, payback. Huge companies pulled some pretty nasty tricks on the Chinese. Someone, say a Walmart, would give an order for perhaps a million jean jackets. The price would be agreed on and the deal would go forward. After the jackets were made and ready to ship, the company would go back to the Chinese company and say if they didn't lower the price even further the company wouldn't accept or pay for them. The Chinese company, with a huge amount of a specific product on their hands was in a lose/lose position. If they said no they would be stuck with both the goods and the costs, which most can’t afford. The other option was to make less of a profit which they had to make up by paying less to workers. But now, as businesses are so reliant on Chinese goods the Chinese are going to get their own back. Because they can.


Anger explodes at ”Happy Meals” toy factory

“More than 1,000 workers staged an angry protest on 22-23 July at the Hengli factory, owned by Hong Kong-based Merton Company, a major supplier of plastic toys to US and Canadian transnationals like McDonald's, Disney, Mattel and Hasbro. The protest over low wages, lack of public holidays and poor living conditions began in the workers' dormitories on Saturday night 22 July. It then developed into a "self-organised labour riot" that stretched into Sunday, according to US-based campaign group, China Labor Watch. Pitched battles ensued with company security guards and, later, with more than 100 regular local policemen and those from the riot squads. Dozens of workers were reportedly arrested and many injured. According to an anonymous report posted at Tianya Club, an internet forum, a violent clash between workers and security guards spilled out of two dormitories on the night of 22 July. Workers opened fire hydrants to push back the guards, cars were overturned and computers were smashed until the riot police finally took control of the factory.” Cont…

*shadow government*

[Jim__]

1. The workers dormitories?

Kind of says it all right there.

[Me.]

4. What They've Been Doing

Is getting people from the rural areas, people who have nothing, a lot of times not even running water or good sanitation. And the owners build huge dormitories where they all stay and cafeterias where everyone eats. It was great, in the beginning for a lot of them, and a step up. But now they're becoming more worldly and want to become consumers in their own right, with homes and cars etc.

As a side issue, the fact that so many rurals have been brought into the factories to make the goods has created problems because these people don't know anything about anything and have no references to draw on. People on the artistic end of manufacturing, fashions, dolls, decorative arts etc., have been having an excruciating time getting the look to their products that they need, and will sell in this country and Europe. And as each prototype, every change (even of the fault is their) costs a fee, having to do them over and over is costly, as are the missed deadlines getting the good to market.

*shadow government*

[Tsiyu]

13. it is also impacting the rural areas

Traditionally, these rural folks had close family ties to their communities. I believe I read somewhere that in recent years up to 300 million Chinese had left rural areas to find employment, and this means a shortage of workers for farms as well as culture shock and overcrowding in cities.

[Mr_Spock]

17. My company builds small cities over there

Everything a person needs to live and work 6 days a week in 6 month stints.

Oh, and did I mention that they laid off all but a few American engineers recently?

[RamboLiberal]

2. Interesting - do you have a link to this

would love to read it all.

[Me.]

5. Sorry, Forgot

Here's a link to a google page which has several articles related to this.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=riot+at+chinese+toy+factory&btnG=Search+News

*shadow government*

[Warpy]

3. There was a late night Frontline segment on factory conditions

in China, one of their 15 minute stories after the main story had run. It seems the average longevity for a young factory worker is 3 years in a poor factory and 5 years in a well run factory. When there is a push on, workers are expected to work 20-22 hours a day and simply nap for a few minutes here and there. Refusal of orders means the workers won't get paid at all. Line speedups are business as usual, and as workers tire, they can't keep up. Then new young workers are brought in for a few short years until they, too, get too exhausted to compete. Health care is no longer provided and must be paid for out of a worker's wages.

It's as brutal a system as we had in this country in the bad years before the unions finally took control.

I've been seeing a lot of really shoddy workmanship lately on things we used to produce here but no longer do. I'm talking about things like bike cable locks, clothing, and simple tools. Either quality control is non existant or there is some serious monkeywrenching going on over there.

In any case, I expect customers here as well as workers there to start to rebel, bigtime. The gravy days for the Waltons may soon be over.

[Me.]

6. It's A Combination Of Both I Think

"I've been seeing a lot of really shoddy workmanship lately on things we used to produce here but no longer do. I'm talking about things like bike cable locks, clothing, and simple tools. Either quality control is non existent or there is some serious monkeywrenching going on over there."

They often don't have the time or the interest in quality control. Many times, when you say you want something a certain way, the reply will be, "No this is better" when it actually isn't. They're producing for a European and American market but they have no understanding of the market or references to rely on. Even getting a correct color can be an issue, as all the artisans etc., were gotten rid of by Mao thus depleting the country of anything but the basics.

*shadow government*

[Warpy]

10. The artisans did just fine

as an exhibition of "China: 5000 Years of Technology" at MIT proved to me in the very early 80s (1981, I think). The artisans were protected. It was performance art and intellectual pursuit that suffered under the Gang of Four (plus one).

Seeing silk brocade wovern on an ancient and badly patched draw loom and seeing woodworking done with a bow saw made with a wire with dings hammered into it by a rock told me a lot about Chinese artisans and what that country might be capable of.

I think it's a combination of speedups and monkeywrenching. I feel quite certain the Chinese are capable of kicking everybody else's butt on quality if that becomes the priority. Right now, it's not. CHEAP is the priority, meaning workers are abused and occasionally stiffed. That makes for resentment and sabotage.

[Me.]

12. Perhaps Artisan Is The Wrong Word

And the Olympics will be a good showcase for where things now stand. Also, an unfamiliarity with a "European" sensibility and the fact that many people in the factories besides being totally uneducated are not even acquainted with the best traditions of their country. Speed-ups and monkey wrenching are certainly a factor. I used to think the Chinese were going to beat us at our own game but now I tend to think they have learned the wrong lessons from us. Also, corruption in China is rampant, the very thing which brought them down in the first place. In addition, a problem for us and them is the concentration on the word "cheap", for that is a huge determinator.

*shadow government*

[reaper66]

7. why do our jobs go to china. Simple, it's called slave labor

All of our jobs are going to china because people over there will work for $2.00 an hour or even cheaper. Walmart ships in goods from actual slave pits in china. This is why Bush wants total open borders. To bring in cheap labor to take the jobs that can't be shipped overseas. It's about gettiing rid of the middle class because a middle class is independant and can resist tyranny. And tyranny is exactly what they want.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi reaper66!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[FormerDem06]

16. When Clinton signed NAFTA and handed it off to Bush they didn't tell us...

Check this out if you have time:

http://www.nascocorridor.com/

This is the NAFTA plan. Goods made with slave labor in China are brought into Mexican ports (never touched by US union workers on our docks), placed on trucks and driven straight to the MEXICAN inland port in KANSAS CITY.

So far the goods are in Kansas City and the US hasn't seen a dime off of them, and no US hands have touched them (what if it were a bomb?). They are then checked moved along the corridor (by unregulated Mexican truckers) anywhere they need to be taken along the corridor.

There will be MILLIONS of acres of land taken for this and they are holding hearings in Texas this last month and this month and people are showing up in droves to protest this. The land siezed for this in Texas might be upwards of 590,000 acres.

None of us will have jobs when the elites are through, but damn they will all be billionaires.

[okieinpain]

8. I keep saying this and I'm not even close to being an expert.

what the hell is going to happen to all of those cities and factories when a million people go on a wilding spree. just think 1 million is probably what 1% of total population, if a million people get tired of being poor, and oppressed what can any army do about that.

[Me.]

9. You Make A Good Point

And there is concern that there is trouble coming down the road; between the populace and business because business is ruining the environment, there are no safety measures in place to protect the environment from such accelerated growth, and there is trouble coming between the authoritarian government and big business which wants a free market and the ability to do as they want when they want with whomever they want, they want out from under the controls. And then there are the people. They have gained a glimpse of the good life and they want it, now, not in 20 years, and they don't want to have to work themselves to death to achieve it.

*shadow government*

[ladjf]

14. The operative word here is "Ultimately". The Republican

administration has no concern about "ultimately", or the future. They only care about selling out their own people to make themselves rich. Its as simple as that.

[Me.]

15. Yes They Are Terribly Shortsighted

And sorrowfully we will pay the price. I hope there is a sea change in November so we can staunch the bleeding.

*shadow government*