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Originally Posted by DonQuigleone
One thing to bear in mind is that economics is not a zero sum game. One region of the world doing well does not mean that another region will be harmed.
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Yes. But it doesn't mean one can just throw jobs at China and expect unemployment to decrease in the west. Not without rather more hustling than what we've seen from our politicians.
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And as I said, wage costs are only a small part of the story.
1. They could be, and many of our industries are. Most of them are not consumer goods though, but much more valuable and more complex things (like power generators, trains, cars, buses, machine tools, satellites...)
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Which they're also learning to make.
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It is incorrect to equate quality with cost. Often some of the cheapest goods are also the highest quality, in that they are extremely reliable. With so called "luxury" products, what you're really buying is an inefficient "hand crafted" production process, which outside the fuzzy world of romance is no better then a normal "mid range" product (I'll admit that the cheapest of the cheap is often quite unreliable). For example, I have a "mid-range" set of boots I bought for $100 that I have worn constantly for 4 years, and they're still in fantastic shape(and ultimately probably better value then the 40$ pair that only lasts a year). I doubt a $2000 pair of hand made boots would be at all better.
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The problem is, the poor (which are such a big part of the market) will rather spend $40 than $100. To them, those additional $60 are a luxury.
Also, where were made your $100 boots? Because, while I've never paid attention to footwear, I've got plenty of mid-range clothing. All made in the far east.