4 ms·

It looks to me whether or not a "stuff" can be "Made In China" is a strong indicator of whether it's becoming more expensive or affordable. Basically if it can

by fredliu 10y ago

It looks to me whether or not a "stuff" can be "Made In China" is a strong indicator of whether it's becoming more expensive or affordable. Basically if it can be "Made In China" it'll be cheaper, otherwise it'll go the other direction. "Made In China" is used loosely here referring to anything that can be outsourced anywhere else, not limited to China.

HillaryBriss 10y ago
Yes. Another aspect of this same idea is: if a service or good must be performed or manufactured by credentialed or union workers in the US (e.g. heart surgery, college education, building inspection, electrical grid maintenance, etc) -- it's probably getting more expensive. Selective labor protectionism.
- scottkduncan 10y ago
  While there is certainly a credentialed labor issue in higher education, we don't exactly have a shortage of PhDs and it's not like there has been a rapid ramping up in compensation for professors. In fact it has been the opposite as colleges have moved to use more adjuncts who have far fewer protections than tenured professors and yet the costs continue to rise unabated. In healthcare too I don't think the credentialing of doctors and nurses is the predominant reason for why healthcare is so expensive. It is rather a complex mix of tremendous overhead and administrative costs, drug/device monopolies, over-consumption of medical services, etc.
  - fredliu 10y ago
    Definitely a good point, and a puzzling one as well. A follow up question to think about would be: what's the reason for those overhead/administrative cost/monopolies, etc? And more intriguingly, what if there were no "Made In China", would have everything's price gone up like in healthcare/education?
  - HillaryBriss 10y ago
    Ok. Fair points. There are other causes of high prices in certain domestic sectors. For higher ed, I do think the people who work in the administrative layer are "credentialed" too. Maybe that's wrong. But these administrators and even their assistants frequently hold post-grad degrees. And it's true that the admin layer has ballooned. Others point to federal educational loan guarantees as a big reason for higher prices in higher ed. For health care, it's true that Doctors are behind the push to keep their own numbers limited through licensing requirements enforced by state laws. And Medicare is not allowed to reimburse patient care provided by MDs in other countries where costs are lower and systems are more efficient. I believe domestic doctors are helping to keep that constraint in place. But, yes, sure, there's also big pharma, big hospital corporations and big medical device manufacturing -- all of which appear to have captured their governmental regulatory agencies. The main theme seems to be that a system of laws creates and maintains an expensive domestic market for goods and services with well paid domestic workers.

by fredliu 10y ago

HillaryBriss 10y ago

Yes. Another aspect of this same idea is: if a service or good must be performed or manufactured by credentialed or union workers in the US (e.g. heart surgery, college education, building inspection, electrical grid maintenance, etc) -- it's probably getting more expensive. Selective labor protectionism.

scottkduncan 10y ago
While there is certainly a credentialed labor issue in higher education, we don't exactly have a shortage of PhDs and it's not like there has been a rapid ramping up in compensation for professors. In fact it has been the opposite as colleges have moved to use more adjuncts who have far fewer protections than tenured professors and yet the costs continue to rise unabated. In healthcare too I don't think the credentialing of doctors and nurses is the predominant reason for why healthcare is so expensive. It is rather a complex mix of tremendous overhead and administrative costs, drug/device monopolies, over-consumption of medical services, etc.
- fredliu 10y ago
  Definitely a good point, and a puzzling one as well. A follow up question to think about would be: what's the reason for those overhead/administrative cost/monopolies, etc? And more intriguingly, what if there were no "Made In China", would have everything's price gone up like in healthcare/education?
- HillaryBriss 10y ago
  Ok. Fair points. There are other causes of high prices in certain domestic sectors. For higher ed, I do think the people who work in the administrative layer are "credentialed" too. Maybe that's wrong. But these administrators and even their assistants frequently hold post-grad degrees. And it's true that the admin layer has ballooned. Others point to federal educational loan guarantees as a big reason for higher prices in higher ed. For health care, it's true that Doctors are behind the push to keep their own numbers limited through licensing requirements enforced by state laws. And Medicare is not allowed to reimburse patient care provided by MDs in other countries where costs are lower and systems are more efficient. I believe domestic doctors are helping to keep that constraint in place. But, yes, sure, there's also big pharma, big hospital corporations and big medical device manufacturing -- all of which appear to have captured their governmental regulatory agencies. The main theme seems to be that a system of laws creates and maintains an expensive domestic market for goods and services with well paid domestic workers.