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Pretty sure it's a very obvious decision. Fire your unionized US workforce. Replace them a cheaper non-unionized workforce. Sell the goods at the same price. I

Pretty sure it's a very obvious decision. Fire your unionized US workforce. Replace them a cheaper non-unionized workforce. Sell the goods at the same price. Increase your current profit margin while protecting future profit margins from unions. Like half the reason why people do manufacturing in China is because all the manufacturing is there. If you had a problem with the item after it's been molded you can go to the molder and see what's going on. Then walk across the street to the plastic supplier to get them to adjust their output to fix your mold issues. That's not a Chinese specific thing, you can have this situation anywhere as long as the industries are co-located.

freeone3000 2y ago
If the American workers aren’t paid better than the Chinese workers then why would they live in America instead of China? It won’t be for the cheap housing and cheap healthcare…
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- sandworm101 2y ago
  Because movement between countries is not possible for the vast magority of the workforce. An americqn steelworker cannot just up stakes and move to canada/china/europe. Such things take many years and, unless you are allowed to renouce your citizenship, you will still be talking to the IRS every year.
  - freeone3000 2y ago
    Shouldn’t we be trying to (have local manufacturing) to reach the goal of a better life for our people, rather than sacrificing that life in order to (have local manufacturing)? Isn’t “oh we’ll just make sure our population can’t leave” a tad dystopian?
    - lesuorac 2y ago
      I'm really not sure where this sub-thread has gone. My point is that moving manufacturing to China is not done at the government-level; it's a very smart move by business to break the unions in manufacturing while also increasing the current profit margin. Even if the American workers tried to move to China you wouldn't hire them because they're in a union so its pointless for them to moving (ignoring practical issues like language/family network/etc). --- > Shouldn’t we be trying to (have local manufacturing) to reach the goal of a better life for our people, rather than sacrificing that life in order to (have local manufacturing)? This is a false dichotomy. Manufacturing jobs while not as cushy as sitting in an office chair do not need to be deadly. There have been a ton of advances in robotics that allow you to be in significantly less harms way compared to the days of when you use children to repair equipment because their fingers fit in between the blades better. I wouldn't be surprised if most manufacturing jobs had a lower mortality than dating while female.
myrmidon 2y ago
> Like half the reason why people do manufacturing in China is because all the manufacturing is there It sure helps, but the primary reason is price. And the main driver for that are wages. Chinese manufacturing pays workers an average $24k/year, for 49h/week. This is after adjusting for purchasing power-- actual mean wage is <$15k (!!). You can shoot suspected union members on sight and allow dumping dimethyl mercury straight into the next river-- no amount of "regulatory streamlining" will come anywhere close to making the US competitive here.

freeone3000 2y ago

If the American workers aren’t paid better than the Chinese workers then why would they live in America instead of China? It won’t be for the cheap housing and cheap healthcare…

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
sandworm101 2y ago
Because movement between countries is not possible for the vast magority of the workforce. An americqn steelworker cannot just up stakes and move to canada/china/europe. Such things take many years and, unless you are allowed to renouce your citizenship, you will still be talking to the IRS every year.
- freeone3000 2y ago
  Shouldn’t we be trying to (have local manufacturing) to reach the goal of a better life for our people, rather than sacrificing that life in order to (have local manufacturing)? Isn’t “oh we’ll just make sure our population can’t leave” a tad dystopian?
  - lesuorac 2y ago
    I'm really not sure where this sub-thread has gone. My point is that moving manufacturing to China is not done at the government-level; it's a very smart move by business to break the unions in manufacturing while also increasing the current profit margin. Even if the American workers tried to move to China you wouldn't hire them because they're in a union so its pointless for them to moving (ignoring practical issues like language/family network/etc). --- > Shouldn’t we be trying to (have local manufacturing) to reach the goal of a better life for our people, rather than sacrificing that life in order to (have local manufacturing)? This is a false dichotomy. Manufacturing jobs while not as cushy as sitting in an office chair do not need to be deadly. There have been a ton of advances in robotics that allow you to be in significantly less harms way compared to the days of when you use children to repair equipment because their fingers fit in between the blades better. I wouldn't be surprised if most manufacturing jobs had a lower mortality than dating while female.

myrmidon 2y ago

> Like half the reason why people do manufacturing in China is because all the manufacturing is there It sure helps, but the primary reason is price. And the main driver for that are wages. Chinese manufacturing pays workers an average $24k/year, for 49h/week. This is after adjusting for purchasing power-- actual mean wage is <$15k (!!). You can shoot suspected union members on sight and allow dumping dimethyl mercury straight into the next river-- no amount of "regulatory streamlining" will come anywhere close to making the US competitive here.