4 ms·

Honestly it blows my mind they were able to give control of one of the most important industries in the world over to a foreign country like that.

by WWLink 3y ago

whimsicalism 3y ago
[flagged]
- TuringNYC 3y ago
  >> i find this rise in nativistic and jingoistic sentiment weird. comparative advantage exists for a reason - we are not going to be the best at every single step of every single industry. There are more considerations than just profits. Consider how domestic PPE plants closed down in the US because even US gov institutions wanted the cheapest product, and went overseas. Then when COVID hit, we had no local supplier for PPE.
- xcv123 3y ago
  This is common sense and has nothing to do with nativism or jingoism. The offshoring was an action of pure selfish greed at the expense of the working class people who built the industry.
chpatrick 3y ago
Brain drain is a bitch
TuringNYC 3y ago
>> Honestly it blows my mind they were able to give control of one of the most important industries in the world over to a foreign country like that. The engines of capitalism only look 1 quarter ahead. And the politicians who support them only look up to the next election. Unless you are majority or largely controlled by your founders, who care about building a good legacy.
- shiroiushi 3y ago
  Exactly. It's why authoritarian and/or single-party nations have so much more potential to succeed. It's why China did so well for a while. However, in practice, as we've seen with China and others, authoritarianism only works well when the people at the top are really smart and don't have some major character flaws (i.e., the "benevolent dictator"). Eventually, you get a dictator who's a narcissist or moron or fruitcake and it all falls apart. In that case, the best case is that the inner circle will murder him in his bathtub and select a better leader before he ruins everything.
  - anonuser123456 3y ago
    Seems to have worked for Russia.
    - shiroiushi 3y ago
      It has? Russia has a dictator now who's obviously some kind of narcissist, and not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. His hold on power is tenuous at best, and there's a good chance he'll be deposed before long.
  - democracy 3y ago
    You cannot have a dictator who is not a "narcissist or moron or fruitcake" - this is not how human mind works.
    - shiroiushi 3y ago
      Yes, you certainly can. It's happened many times in history, thanks to hereditary rule (i.e., they inherited these positions, they didn't actively seek them). Queen Elizabeth I of England reigned for 40 years and is considered by historians to be a very good ruler. Marcus Aurelius of Rome was also considered very good. The problem wasn't these rulers, it was what happened after they got old and died and their shitty kids replaced them.
  - rebolek 3y ago
eddiewithzato 3y ago
That’s the power of slave labour. Global economy is really modern day slavery. When you are making trillions in USD in the USA, paying someone in china $2 a day would’ve been an Egyptian pharaohs dream.
- canadianfella 3y ago
  Calling it slave labour is an insult to the people who had to live with actual slavery.
  - brvsft 3y ago
    The people who flagged this comment must believe that someone working at McDonald's for low wages is the same as someone being held as property, their family members terrorized, raped, beaten, whipped, murdered, etc. at the whim of their legal owners.
    - smoldesu 3y ago
      > someone being held as property, their family members terrorized, raped, beaten, whipped, murdered, etc. at the whim of their legal owners. Which is coincidentally quite similar to the treatment of North Korean and Chinese penal workers. Russian labor camps are pretty far up there too. Many Foxconn factories have armed guards, but it's not to keep people out...
- Urahandystar 3y ago
  Yup nowadays we import the product not the slaves.
  - manishsharan 3y ago
    >>Yup nowadays we import the product not the slaves. I think you may be undermining what slavery was . I have met folks who work in workshops in India that export stuff to USA and other developed nations. Those workers make a whole lot more money than their neighbors who produce for the domestic market and they have better working conditions. Their overall quality of life, while nowhere close to G8 standards, is so much better. And their community benefits from their increased wages.
creato 3y ago
It's amazing to me the number of people ranting at each other about this, when it seems like straight up BS. Intel's current and past manufacturing sites are not in low cost of living locations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_sites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_si... There are two exceptions: one in China, one in Malaysia, but that is two out of dozens in the US/EU/Israel.
- dukeyukey 3y ago
  And even then, Malaysia has a bigger GDP PPP per capita than Chile, Bulgaria, Uruguay, and only slightly behind Greece! Quite a bit above Mexico too! They aren't a low-cost country.

Honestly it blows my mind they were able to give control of one of the most important industries in the world over to a foreign country like that.

by WWLink 3y ago

Honestly it blows my mind they were able to give control of one of the most important industries in the world over to a foreign country like that.

whimsicalism 3y ago

[flagged]

TuringNYC 3y ago
>> i find this rise in nativistic and jingoistic sentiment weird. comparative advantage exists for a reason - we are not going to be the best at every single step of every single industry. There are more considerations than just profits. Consider how domestic PPE plants closed down in the US because even US gov institutions wanted the cheapest product, and went overseas. Then when COVID hit, we had no local supplier for PPE.
xcv123 3y ago
This is common sense and has nothing to do with nativism or jingoism. The offshoring was an action of pure selfish greed at the expense of the working class people who built the industry.

chpatrick 3y ago

Brain drain is a bitch

TuringNYC 3y ago

>> Honestly it blows my mind they were able to give control of one of the most important industries in the world over to a foreign country like that. The engines of capitalism only look 1 quarter ahead. And the politicians who support them only look up to the next election. Unless you are majority or largely controlled by your founders, who care about building a good legacy.

shiroiushi 3y ago
Exactly. It's why authoritarian and/or single-party nations have so much more potential to succeed. It's why China did so well for a while. However, in practice, as we've seen with China and others, authoritarianism only works well when the people at the top are really smart and don't have some major character flaws (i.e., the "benevolent dictator"). Eventually, you get a dictator who's a narcissist or moron or fruitcake and it all falls apart. In that case, the best case is that the inner circle will murder him in his bathtub and select a better leader before he ruins everything.
- anonuser123456 3y ago
  Seems to have worked for Russia.
  - shiroiushi 3y ago
    It has? Russia has a dictator now who's obviously some kind of narcissist, and not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. His hold on power is tenuous at best, and there's a good chance he'll be deposed before long.
- democracy 3y ago
  You cannot have a dictator who is not a "narcissist or moron or fruitcake" - this is not how human mind works.
  - shiroiushi 3y ago
    Yes, you certainly can. It's happened many times in history, thanks to hereditary rule (i.e., they inherited these positions, they didn't actively seek them). Queen Elizabeth I of England reigned for 40 years and is considered by historians to be a very good ruler. Marcus Aurelius of Rome was also considered very good. The problem wasn't these rulers, it was what happened after they got old and died and their shitty kids replaced them.
- rebolek 3y ago

eddiewithzato 3y ago

That’s the power of slave labour. Global economy is really modern day slavery. When you are making trillions in USD in the USA, paying someone in china $2 a day would’ve been an Egyptian pharaohs dream.

canadianfella 3y ago
Calling it slave labour is an insult to the people who had to live with actual slavery.
- brvsft 3y ago
  The people who flagged this comment must believe that someone working at McDonald's for low wages is the same as someone being held as property, their family members terrorized, raped, beaten, whipped, murdered, etc. at the whim of their legal owners.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    > someone being held as property, their family members terrorized, raped, beaten, whipped, murdered, etc. at the whim of their legal owners. Which is coincidentally quite similar to the treatment of North Korean and Chinese penal workers. Russian labor camps are pretty far up there too. Many Foxconn factories have armed guards, but it's not to keep people out...
Urahandystar 3y ago
Yup nowadays we import the product not the slaves.
- manishsharan 3y ago
  >>Yup nowadays we import the product not the slaves. I think you may be undermining what slavery was . I have met folks who work in workshops in India that export stuff to USA and other developed nations. Those workers make a whole lot more money than their neighbors who produce for the domestic market and they have better working conditions. Their overall quality of life, while nowhere close to G8 standards, is so much better. And their community benefits from their increased wages.

creato 3y ago

It's amazing to me the number of people ranting at each other about this, when it seems like straight up BS. Intel's current and past manufacturing sites are not in low cost of living locations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_sites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_si... There are two exceptions: one in China, one in Malaysia, but that is two out of dozens in the US/EU/Israel.

dukeyukey 3y ago
And even then, Malaysia has a bigger GDP PPP per capita than Chile, Bulgaria, Uruguay, and only slightly behind Greece! Quite a bit above Mexico too! They aren't a low-cost country.