Quote from: DutchDimension on October 10, 2011, 09:26:30 AM
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And us Westerners have gladly taken advantage of that situation for decades because we're addicted to cheap!
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I think with "we" you mean the manufacturers/companies? Not us consumers, because we're being taken not so gently in the ass for say 20 years by now because of this capitalistic business model.
I'm pretty sure you can produce whatever product here Europe or US, ask the same price for it and still make some money.
It won't be as much as when you produce it abroad in, say China, but still.
But capitalism/share holders only allows one thing: more profits than last year.
Regardless whatever company it is, it is the underlying mechanism of capitalism which creates these awful situations.
All superbig producers of consumer products are guilty for these practices.
I don't believe any company is more or less guilty than another.
US and European government should add extra tax on the profits of these big companies when their profit is generated by selling products in US/EU which is made dirt cheap in China and decrease tax if you produce within US/EU. (they should add tax on any financial transaction on the stock market anyway, if it is not only for thieves like Goldman Sachs who earn hundreds of millions a month by High Frequency Trading, but that's another discussion).
The Chinese government indeed aids in making this possible by giving the companies a lot of room in paying wages/taxes/etc.
This way you can level out the great advantages of producing cheap in China with all the awful side-effects and create more jobs and economic growth in the US/EU.
Regardless of whether this idea is great or simply sucks, the problem is that the lobby of these big multinationals is so head-deep into the asses of the politicians that the result is that intensive changes like these or any other type will NEVER ever occur.
Cheers,
Martin
(OTOH and something totally different; yes China is becoming a superpower, but they will face similar problems like us, but a lot quicker.
For example, within 20-30 years a vast part of the current population has aged past working age and a social security system needs to be designed to support the elderly. The scale of this aging-problem will be much bigger than say here in The Netherlands where elderly are draining money because of healthcare, retirement and additional costs. In China none of these systems exist yet so they are extremely behind. Their economic growth is staggering, but their future problems grow a lot quicker if you'd ask me.
Given China's socialistic history, not, I don't see a that much flourishing future as many do.
They will get their problems as well, but bigger and much faster, since their demand for food and resources will become really huge.
Most negative scenario is that our world economics, distribution of resources and availability of food do not allow for billions of people with the same level of wealth. I guess many people know what happens when threats are becoming that big...)