The era of cheap Chinese goods may be ending

[Contrary1]

Great, now we will have expensive Chinese crap. Hopefully, more US companies will bring production back home.

"SHANGHAI — Factory workers demanding better wages and working conditions are hastening the eventual end of an era of cheap costs that helped make southern coastal China the world's factory floor.

A series of strikes over the past two months have been a rude wakeup call for the many foreign companies that depend on China's low costs to compete overseas, from makers of Christmas trees to manufacturers of gadgets like the iPad.

Where once low-tech factories and scant wages were welcomed in a China eager to escape isolation and poverty, workers are now demanding a bigger share of the profits. The government, meanwhile, is pushing foreign companies to make investments in areas it believes will create greater wealth for China, like high technology.

<snip>

In an about-face mocked on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Wham-O, the company that created the Hula-Hoop and Slip 'n Slide, decided to bring half of its Frisbee production and some production of its other products back to the U.S..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38151061/ns/business-us_business/

[Duer 157099]

1. Good! Save our jobs and save our landfills!

This can only be good news for Wee The People

[happygoluckytoyou]

71. so exactly how do you make half a frizbee? and will it fly?

[mod mom]

112. +1!

[Wilms]

2. Just saw one in my industry.

Version 1 built in China, version 2 built in the USA.

And I'll bet the increased wages in China are only part of the story. Perhaps a welcome one at that.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. The cost of fuel alone will drive industries home. eom

[jody]

13. Exactly, transportation cost will help make domestic production more competitive. That aided by

aging foreign production facilities that can be replaced domestically with the latest in technology with its attendant very low investment and set up costs.

People forget that basic production facilities in Germany and Japan were destroyed at the end of WWII and rebuilt with US dollars while US plants aged without replacement.

Add to that major corporations now free of some of their long term obligations, e.g. retirement debt, and IMO Government Motors et al will rise like Phoenix from the ashes of a failed economy.

[txlibdem]

80. All that was needed would have been to put a price on carbon emissions equal to its damage

This alone would have brought manufacturing back to the US. Instead we allowed the Corporatistas to decimate the American worker, lose all benefits and safety nets, lower real wages to third world levels.

People forget that if we don't buy anything made in China they will soon quit importing. Buy American or do without (buy used, make it yourself, repair your old one, whatever).

[Skittles]

4. cannot end soon enough

I am absolutely sick of cheap Chinese garbage

[Mimosa]

5. Who un-reced?

Somebody un-reced this good news while I was reccing. LOL There are some crazies here.

[Bobbieo]

9. The unrecs are doing what they may be paid to do. DU has sure changed

over the past couple of years.

[DainBramaged]

38. It amazes me anyone would unrec over jobs

then again, the Pukes are here in droves......

[laughingliberal]

51. +1 nt

[Dr Morbius]

45. This is why I have been maintaining since I arrived that the rec/unrec thing is meaningless.

Meanwhile China's miseries are our gains. I believe there are two, perhaps three major underlying causes to America's economic woes: an over-tolerance, even an embrace, of debt at every level; the overreach of the corporate model which discourages private enterprise; and the outsourcing of American manufacturing in order to create cheaper luxuries for a segment of our population. This last item is unsustainable; as fewer and fewer actually make money, it becomes less and less important how cheap luxuries have become. Inevitably, too few will actually be able to afford any luxuries.

I think eventually the jobs which went to China will return on their own, but I don't think it's wise to wait for them.

[pnorman]

10. I just canceled it out!

n/t

[The Northerner]

6. Good

[rzemanfl]

7. If this means the end of Wal Mart too, I would be happy. n/t

[jody]

15. Disagree, not the end of Wal Mart but bring to heel. With all its bad things, Wal Mart has led the

retail sector by developing distribution and inventory management systems that helped squeeze every penny of waste from its system so products can be marketed at low prices.

It's not by luck that when people check out at a Wal Mart cash register, their transactions are recorded in central data bases and real time redistribution of products made in response to real time demand. That's just one example of how businesses are using the latest IT to benefit consumers.

I join those who protest many of Wal Mart's policies but I oppose throwing the baby out with the bath water when that baby is efficient business management.

[rzemanfl]

22. The shitty wages, part-time work, crappy merchandise and

dirtball clientele have nothing to do with it? It's all distribution and inventory management. Who'da thunk? My bad.

[jody]

23. "My bad"? No, just you and I have different views of what is required for a business to survive and

provide any type of job and whatever wages the prices paid by consumers will allow.

The wonderful thing about the US is anyone, you included, can start your own business and show by example how to do things your way.

[JDPriestly]

52. jody, you don't really believe that

"The wonderful thing about the US is anyone, you included, can start your own business and show by example how to do things your way."

Have you every looked inside the grocery market business. If you did, you would see the brokers who bar small entrepreneurs who produce interesting food products entry into the supermarket, grocery business.

Many years ago, I worked as a temp for a group of entrepreneurs from Jamaica visiting the US in an attempt to sell Jamaican spices to our grocery market. They attended a food convention and were saddened to learn that the only way that they could place their excellent products in American stores was by paying the ransom of the food brokers.

The corporations that buy large quantities of food get a huge price advantage by buying in bulk. The brokers guard the gates to those corporate markets.

Small grocers have to have a lot of capital to compete. And very few small grocers can amass that kind of capital these days.

That is why I volunteered, yes, volunteered, to hand out ads door to door for a small local grocery store where I like to shop. I want to keep that store open. I know what it is up against.

Trader Joe's is one of the very few success stories in the retail business. There is no Trader Joe's in my mother's hometown -- a small city in the midwest. In fact Walmart and another chain store dominate the grocery business. Since my mother is quite elderly, she can shop either at Walmart or the chain store. There just aren't any other grocery stores available to her.

And don't pretend that anyone could start a competing business. They would be run out of town by the predator corporations in no time. You need to watch the famous movie on Walmart again. You are starry-eyed but your statement is simply untrue.

Most people who try to start businesses do not have the capital at the outset to survive. You have to have enough extra cash to keep going over the years when you are building your business and earning virtually no, or next to no profits. Much depends on the state of the economy about two to three years into the life of your new business.

Everywhere I go in cities across America storefronts, shops, plants, everything is closed down and closing down. Your statement is so much pie in the sky. It's false, downright false and misleading.

[jody]

73. LOL Your special cases ignore thousands of other businesses anyone can start if they have the

entrepreneurial drive.

Perhaps you need to read SBA reports on successful start-ups. You as a taxpayer need to see how your taxes are helping start-ups.

See http://www.sba.gov/

[Heywood J]

98. There are many start-ups, yes.

Not so many in the retail sector, though. More in terms of making new or exotic products, or rendering services.

[boomerbust]

75. Of course He does

Walmart Toyota and all the non union right to work Alabama industries.

[jody]

87. LOL at your remark to #15. Have a great day. n/t

[liberation]

65. "The wonderful thing about the US is anyone, you included, can start your own business..."

Let me guess, you have never started a business...

[jody]

72. Yes I have and provided jobs. Thanks for playing. n/t

[obxhead]

53. So the people who can only afford to buy Walmart crap

are just dirtballs.

What a brilliant observation.

[rzemanfl]

81. My last three trips (unavoidable) to Wal Mart:

1) I saw a large young woman walking down the aisle with her hand inside her waistband either scratching something deep in her nether regions or masturbating-take your pick. 2) A skanky looking young lady in very low slung shorts with what I thought was pubic hair sticking out of them. When she got closer I concluded I was seeing the top part of her tattooed pubic area. 3) A woman with three young children who was wearing a too small terry cloth dress with no bra and either a thong or nothing underneath (her dress was caught in the crack of her ass).

What would you call these folks? Free spirits? Avant garde? Victims of poverty? I wonder how much a cooter tattoo costs?

I didn't say that everyone that shops at Wal Mart is a dirtball, but they sure get plenty of them around here.

[opiate69]

95. Well... my wife's "cooter tattoo" cost $250.. and it's gorgeous, asswipe.

[rzemanfl]

97. Despite your calling me asswipe I will resist the temptation to

respond in kind. I have always said that no matter what the question, someone at DU has the answer. I assume your wife doesn't show her tattoo off at Wal Mart. Remember that the post I was responding to talked about people "who could only afford to shop at Wal Mart" or something similar. Of course maybe the young lady in question paid for hers with the money she saved on those price rollbacks....

There is a generational thing here too. Before pubic hair became obsolete (or so I am given to understand)-long after I passed middle age I suspect-there was no sense in putting the artwork under the rug.

[opiate69]

102. No she doesn't show it off at Walmart, though we do shop there..

however parts of it do extend above the belt line, so if it's hot out and she's wearing any clothes that reveal her mid-riff, then yes, pearl-clutching curmudgeons just might catch a glimpse of it and deem her to be in whatever class you have placed the young lady you saw. However,having known the lady for the better part of 12 years, I can assure you she is not a "dirtball", and is in fact far better a person than those who would rush to judge her by her choice of body adornment.

[rzemanfl]

106. You forget that in addition to the tattoo the woman I mentioned

was skanky (she looked like she'd had a long relationship with crystal meth) and her shorts were far lower than the "belt line" or I wouldn't have thought I was seeing pubic hair. I have no problem with body art (although I once had a court appointed client who had "Fuck You!" tattooed on the inside of his lower lip so that he could roll out his lip and make his thoughts known without speaking or using his hands-which I thought was a bit over the top). Besides, it made it easy for the cops to I.D. him.

I considered your comment about the tattoo being "gorgeous." At my age if the tattoo was an outline map of Ohio in that location I'd probably find it attractive.

When my wife got her tattoo she said she wasn't certain what flower it was, I told her not to worry, if she lived long enough it would look like a chrysanthemum.

Peace, and remember it isn't easy being on that roll all day waiting my turn.

[opiate69]

107. rz.. I am sorry for my previous, wholly inappropriate comment..

It was out of line, and if I could edit it out, I would. Sorry.

[rzemanfl]

108. Fergetabboudit....n/t

[rzemanfl]

110. Actually I think its "fuhgedaboudit" whatever.

[rhett o rick]

24. Wal-Mart is horrible to it's employees. Is that your idea of efficient business management?

They sell crap and treat their employees like slaves. That's your efficient business management. Are you a libertarian?

[jody]

25. Please read #15 again and try to understand the point I made. If you want to abolish some are all

businesses then advocate that but understand that position would eliminate those businesses whether owned privately or some sort of public/social entity.

If however, you wish to keep businesses then those businesses IMO should be operated as efficiently as possible and that would inevitably result in adopting the policies, procedures, and systems used by successful firms like Wal Mart.

If you don't understand that, then please explain how you plan to create new organizations that do not use the policies, procedures, and systems used by successful firms like Wal Mart.

You might have an out if you advocate operating businesses inefficiently but of course you will justify that goal.

[Lorien]

26. Americans just couldn't survive before Walmart!

oh yes, we did. And we were all better off without them. Slow, sustainable growth, living wages, quality products, businesses that served customers, not just stock holders, THOSE were what built the American economy. Walmart is only another element of our destruction.

[jody]

36. Americans also survived before Columbus so what is your point? How do you propose to control the

changes in business that move an economy in to the future?

With a committee to dictate what procedures and processes will achieve your idea of "Slow, sustainable growth, living wages, quality products" or would you let each individual decide how to spend her/his wages on products?

[rbixby]

43. I agree about the efficient supply chain, but I won't be a Walmart apologist

They've really gotten their whole supply thing down (but then again so does Best Buy, Target, Kohls, and lots of other retailers). Walmart is definitely not alone in all of this, and they weren't the first to do it either. They simply built on the infrastructure already there and spent a lot of money on the back end to work all the kinks out of it. They haven't always been successful though, I remember reading years ago how they were going to move to and RFID inventory handling system, but couldn't make it work.

Just because they do some things right doesn't mean that they're not a shitty company.

[jody]

76. I'm not "a Walmart apologist" either but I do recognize efficient procedures just as those who tout

universal health care fantasize about saving hundreds of billions of dollars if their particular program is adopted.

They are demanding more efficient health care and I'm simply acknowledging Wal Mart's already efficient distribution and retail systems.

[JDPriestly]

54. The problem with Walmart is the poor quality and poor choice of merchandise.

I took my elderly mother there to shop for a pair of shoes. This was in the Fall of 2008. There was a small shelf of shoes in the store, but not one pair in a style or size right for my mother.

Before Walmart took over in her town, a local shoe store stocked a great variety of choices, styles and sizes. She could buy what she needed if not always what she might have liked. Now it is all cheap, Chinese imports from Walmart.

I traveled in Eastern Europe back in the days when the Communists were running things. Walmart goods are more colorful, that is true. But when it comes to variety, choice, selection, quality, Walmart is closer to pre-1988 Eastern Europe than to pre-Reagan U.S.

[jody]

74. Either some customers buy "poor quality and poor choice" merchandise or they would not be offered

for sale.

Perhaps your taste in merchandise are not satisfied by products that are purchased by really poor people.

[JDPriestly]

101. Before Walmart came to town, the ordinary Americans in my

mother's town bought good, sturdy shoes from American manufacturers.

That went out the window when Walmart came in an introduced cheap, mostly Chinese junk.

The importation of Chinese junk accompanied the exportation of good jobs that Americans used to do. Along with the jobs, decent wages were exported. So, now, in my mother's town, people have less work, cannot afford to buy good products. Walmart, whatever its efficiency in organizing its inventory and accounting procedures, has resulted in less choice of products and poorer quality of products for ordinary and poor American shoppers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

104. That observation has been already made by a few economists

who have said that our current corporate economy has a lot in common with the USSR.

SO your observation is on point, but do google command economy and corporation... you will get a few hits from like ECONOMISTS.

Hell a few are no longer calling this capitalism or free trade or laizze faire either.

As one professor put it to me, as I talked to him about this... this emerging thought process is scary... and "main stream" highly propagandaized Americans will resist it to the last inch of their lives.

[rhett o rick]

30. Call it what you will, but to me "business efficiency" is code for using slave labor. nm

[jody]

35. LOL have a great day n/t

[Quantess]

55. There is some truth to that.

[Hannah Bell]

29. "efficient business management" = more people out of work, leading impoverished lives.

what is the point anymore?

supposedly capitalism's virtue is that reduced labor needs frees people to do higher things.

but poor people living under capitalism don't generally have the resources -- or status -- to do those things.

so "efficient business management" effectively produces degraded human beings as if on an assembly line.

[jody]

37. You know "'efficient business management' does not = more people out of work, leading impoverished

lives". That's your definition used for whatever purpose.

If you don't understand that, then you and I cannot have an intelligent exchange on rzemanfl's post to the OP "#7. If this means the end of Wal Mart too, I would be happy" that is the subject of this branch of the thread.

[Hannah Bell]

49. if you think not, please explain what it means to you.

[jody]

78. Suggest you study business 101 book. In #15 "efficient business management" in context clearly

refers to "business management" and "efficient" means using resources to maximize the production of goods and services.

Whether those goods and services produce revenue so that revenue exceeds costs determines whether "business management" is successful and a business continues to operate and provide jobs and salaries for workers.

[Hannah Bell]

100. a condescending answer, imo. and it should have been obvious i was already aware of the pearl of

knowledge you deigned to drop on me, since that information is implicit in the post you took exception to. though you apparently didn't get it.

"efficient management" = "efficient use of resources" = including the resource of labor.

efficient use of labor = producing more with less labor, supposedly freeing up labor to do bigger & better things.

an increasingly small fraction of the world's labor force can produce & deliver an increasingly larger array of goods & services.

but the result has not been the elevation of all; it's been the creation of larger & larger reserves of essentially "useless" labor, without the ability to support themselves, without the dignity of useful work recognized by others as such.

these people no longer have the alternative of the kind of small scale production (small farms, small workshops) that once backstopped the industrial economy. they're entirely dependent on the market system -- which doesn't need them.

the "normal" rate of unemployment has risen steadily since the 60s, & it's beginning to look like about 8-10% is going to become the new normal.

thus my question -- what is the point of this "efficient use of resources"? what end does it serve? besides profit, that is.

[BrklynLiberal]

59. So let the new businesses that replace them learn their lessons...but to hell with walmart

[jody]

79. What lesson will new businesses learn? That US customers demand products of the type and price

offered by Wal Mart?

What then will have changed?

[BrklynLiberal]

82. To quote your post..

"With all its bad things, Wal Mart has led the retail sector by developing distribution and inventory management systems that helped squeeze every penny of waste from its system so products can be marketed at low prices."

[jody]

84. That's true and those who tout their solution for health-care reform claim it will "squeeze every

penny of waste" from our current health-care system saving several hundred billion dollars a year and using that savings to pay for tens of millions of people.

If efficiency is a worthy goal for health-care reform, IMO it's a worthy goal for any organization that provides goods and services to others.

[rzemanfl]

85. No, it's more like this: If you sell Velveeta cheese really cheap

people will come in to buy it and their kids will whine until they buy them a crappy made in China toy that has a huge profit margin.

I can remember in the 1960's locking the door on the only grocery store in town at 9:00 p.m., nobody starved or died, although we did sell an unusual amount of feminine hygiene products to the first few customers when the store opened at 8:00 a.m. the next day.

[BrklynLiberal]

89. lol...

[rzemanfl]

91. If you think that's funny, read 81. I swear every word is true. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

93. For your entertainment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSKg_rNeFrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQkYD6MNtcw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAQoMF9fhHk&feature=related

There is an entire series of videos at youTube...

and this site.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=113225&provider=top

[rzemanfl]

94. MY GOD! I have to go to Walgreen's and get a ton of

Murine and Visine.

[BrklynLiberal]

96. lolololol

[nadinbrzezinski]

103. And this is the command economy a few economists

are now talking about.

Hi

[TBF]

42. Rec this post. I remember when WalMart started expanding,

and knew it would be a horrible force destroying all small business in it's path. Nobody needs all that crap - it just ends up in landfills anyway. Would love to see that company go bankrupt.

[BrklynLiberal]

60. +1000

[BrklynLiberal]

+1000

[rzemanfl]

83. Someone posted here a few years ago a link to a public official

quoted in a news article, he said something like this: "Wal Mart is a criminal enterprise that destroys communities."

[BrklynLiberal]

90. Very true words...

[Hannah Bell]

8. bring it home? no profit in that until wages come down.

move it to africa, maybe.

capitalists get rich by wage/price arbitrage.

[onethatcares]

16. at the present, I can't see Africa becoming a

major industrial player. I can picture call centers etc, but the resources to build large factories there is lacking. Coal, brick, steel.

Just my thought.

[Hannah Bell]

17. think again. the infrastructure for such a move is being built as we speak.

and africa has more resources than most of the rest of the world.

[WinkyDink]

63. Sub-Sahara Africa is rich in minerals, and can buy whatever is needed.

[KurtNYC]

31. Vietnam has been steadily picking up production orders as

China's costs increase. China is no longer the bottom of the barrel wage-wise and has not been for more than a decade. They have picked up a lot of high tech industry while losing a few clothing making and other low tech jobs to other countries in asia.

[Alcibiades]

11. Notice how it's blamed on workers

Pesky workers, demanding to be treated as fully human!

In actuality, this ought to be a sign that these companies somehow realize that the value of the RMB can only go up. If you sell in the US, China is going to be a much less profitable place to manufacture as soon as the Chinese government decides to let the RMB float.

http://www.google.com/finance?hl=en&safe=off&q=CURRENCY:CNYUSD

[katandmoon]

12. Manufacturers will just open factories in cheaper areas in CHina

[amandabeech]

111. Perhaps, but shipping in raw materials and shipping out finished goods

will become more difficult.

Lower wages, but higher transportation costs with more possible transit bottlenecks may end up as a bad solution.

[Bloofer_Lady]

14. The jobs will just move elsewhere.

The American public is spoiled when it comes to getting cheap goods made by those being paid slave wages.

[Skittles]

19. and a lot of us are fed up with cheap foreign shit

[KansDem]

56. Four months...

Last March I was planning to attend a conference and my attache case of 20-some years was beginning to come apart at one seam. I plan to have it repaired but needed a replacement right away so I bought "an inexpensive" imported attache case at a big-box retailer who will remain anonymous (not WalMart). Well, the handle came off it just last week. Four months!

Four months and now it's land-fill filler...:grr:

[DainBramaged]

46. No, they know the vast majority of the things they buy are crap

and when and if the wage disparity between the wealthy and the middle class narrows, and more manufacturing jobs at living wages return to the US, people WILL start buying American made goods again. I am wearing one of four pair of USA made New Balance shoes. 25% of their production is made here. I GLADLY paid more for these shoes over anyone else in the running/hiking/walking market.
If you look carefully, you'll find LOTS of American made goods, not just assembled in America goods (like the foreign car makers).

http://www.madeinusaforever.com/


http://www.newbalance.com/usa/#/made-in-usa

[grahamhgreen]

18. Next step - the Chinese tell the Americans that all the factories they though were theirs are now

the property of China.

[Fla Dem]

69. Actually, that may be their long term goal.

Let the westerners build their nice efficient factories, make them help subsidize infrastructure improvements, educate their people in running large factories, learn everything there is to learn about making high tech products, then kick the foreigners out. The government takes over the factories, put there own people in charge, prohibit sales of non-Chinese manufactured products in China, and wham-o. China has enough population to satisfy production and they'll have the factories and infrastructure to satisfy demand. They won't have to worry about exporting or importing, they will be self sufficient.

[grahamhgreen]

70. That is exactly the plan. It's all in the Art of War.

[FooshIt]

20. just another jab at the poor

and everyone will move on

[FooshIt]

21. so we still won't have jobs but will no have to pay more for everything anyways

[Kablooie]

27. Not if you buy directly from China on ebay.

They sell single items at wholesale prices on ebay and ship it directly from China for free.
It takes awhile to get the item but everything I've bought so far has been exactly as advertised.

[Lorien]

28. I design a lot of products that are manufactured in China, and I see this as a

good thing. The materials and manufacturing prices are going up there substantially. So far that means that our bosses want to simply produce smaller, cheaper products. Fact is, 20 years ago we were doing at least half of the manufacturing here, and it was cheaper in the long run. The "savings" from Chinese products are an illusion. The quality is so bad that they have to be re-tooled over and over and over again. The corrections end up doubling or tripling the price of production-but accounts manage to put those on other books. We really could make the products here for just about the same costs. Higher rates in China OR a few Federal tax incentives would be all that we needed to bring those jobs back home.

[disillusioned73]

33. I can testify to that as well...

the overhead that is buried in the books over here(US) is astonishing. And the irony is that when all was running along and sales were at acceptable leves the heads of the "powers that be" were firmly shoved in the sand. As a lowly cog in the machine I saw what was coming... It was only when the slow down came, that our inventory levels and frieght costs came into question/scrutiny...

As a small company I'd put us at 80/20 split on import/manufacture ratio, so I see this as good news long term but short term it could cause some issues with the all mighty profit margins of our imported crap. And in our current state could be the deathblow to a ( oh, how do I put this).... bottom line family owned business in which the "family" is aged and and probably fat enough financially to cut and run..

[Lorien]

47. I hope that they don't cut and run

it's a shame that so many "bottom line" businesses don't see the value of "Made in the USA" to consumers. Nor do they choose to understand that making products here for nearly the same costs will cut time to market by 1/2 to 1/3.

[disillusioned73]

64. The leadtimes out of China have become unbearable..

so I'd put it at more like 3/4 or less cut of the time to market. Our customes look at us as more of a "stocking" location vs. a manufacturer... it's a continuous juggling act - and not a fun one I might add..

oh, and I am also hoping they stick around - we just layed off a couple more employees, just heard that a couple minutes ago
:(

[fascisthunter]

68. Wow... Lorein, I did Product Design for three years

I got so depressed working at this one place... I spent hours on illustrations only to see them applied badly on the cheapest crap. But it was a job and it taught me a lot.

[cornermouse]

32. Rule of thumb.

If it goes in your mouth or holds food you plan to eat and it says "made in China", put it back on the shelf. You'll live longer.

[closeupready]

40. Amen.

n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

62. +100

[treestar]

34. This is fine. When Chinese people can afford to buy the products

They come up to our level and are no longer cheaper to employ. Sounds like they are unionizing.

[closeupready]

39. Don't care. I don't buy anything from China anyway.

At least, not if I can help it.

[rzemanfl]

86. Me either, but it is getting harder and harder to find stuff that

isn't.

[crikkett]

41. The jobs will move back home to prison factories n/t

[DainBramaged]

66. Could you list the prison factories for us please.......

This way when I go to jail I can organize a Unin at one.

[AtheistCrusader]

44. There is a window of opportunity that will be exploited to get cheap goods from India

and that will be miked for a few years, probably less than a decade.

[femrap]

48. Chinese workers

hate corporations, too! Workers unite!

Now the greedy evil pricks move inland into china where more poor peasants live.

DON'T BUY CRAP MADE IN CHINA! UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. I've been doing this since 1989 when the state squashed the democratic movement in china.

Mother Nature will kick china's ass so hard, the rulers will have to move to Tibet. One nice EQ where that big 3 Gorge dam is and ........... !!!

can't spell.

[bvar22]

50. NOW,

...if we would simply institute a National Health Care Program, and GET Health Care costs Off the Backs of the Working Class, we COULD compete in the World Market.

(and NO, Obama's "historic" "reform" does NOT do that.)

[louis-t]

57. It happens every time.

They'll find another country that will save them 5 cents per thousand and move. In the '60s, it was Japan. They built a quality product for a reasonable price. When the price got too high, it was Taiwan, then South Korea, etc. Haiti, at one time, made a lot of sporting goods. When Haitians demanded a living wage, the companies said "screw you" and moved. Very few will bring jobs back here. Most will look for a desolate place where people will work for pennies an hour.

[BrklynLiberal]

58. Awwwwww. Does this mean poor widdle WalMart may have to start selling

MADE IN AMERICA goods again!!!????

The company that almost single-handedly gave our economy over to the Chinese..I hope they choke on it.

[WinkyDink]

61. The production will keep moving, to the Amazon jungle, if need be.

[fascisthunter]

67. Darn... I Enjoyed buying the same crap 5 times

because each time it broke. I guess I could have bought one well made product at a higher cost because in the end, I was spending more on cheap shit made by poor people making slave wages.

[intheflow]

77. We won't have expensive Chinese crap.

We'll have cheap Kyrgyzstan or cheap Peruvian crap - where ever the WalMarts and Targets can get the most good from the most cheaply.

[burnsei sensei]

88. I hope it's an effective trend toward more

realistic production costs abroad.
And then I hope it's a tidal wave.
Let there be no escape for the so-called producers: managers and investors.
Let the real producers take hold: the laborers.

[Kievan Rus]

92. It's about time. Hopefully jobs will start to come back here

[lib2DaBone]

99. CONgress has to stop these companies from taking jobs to low wage countries..

.. then shipping this cheap, inferior crap back into the United States.

NAFTA gave us the SHAFTA... restore the Tariffs...

[Hugabear]

105. So? They'll just move production to some other third-world country.

Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, plenty of other countries to choose from. Until we start penalizing companies who outsource jobs, we're not going to see them coming back here.

[Hubert Flottz]

109. How can we fight two wars without boots and flags?

We're fukt!