wages rising in China

[ThaSaltCracka]

Robots.

[TomVeil]

That doesn't leave the workers much of an option....

Oh well at least the robot firms will be rich!

[ThaSaltCracka]

plus companies won't have to pay benny's.

[T50_Omaha8]

[ QUOTE ]
You know that once China is sucked dry and they demand real money, they will just move somewhere else.

[/ QUOTE ] Instead of being "sucked dry" they are more nearly "pumped full of money."

And at that point, they'll be the ones demanding cheap foreign labor--they'll be just like us.

[TomVeil]

They are while the corps can still use them. When they can't, they'll move on.

[AlexM]

So if wages are rising, it must be because they raised the minimum wage, right?

[natedogg]

[ QUOTE ]
They are while the corps can still use them. When they can't, they'll move on.

[/ QUOTE ]

With his posts throughout this thread, Tom has done an excellent job of showing off the classic fallacy of zero-sum economics thinking.

natedogg

[TomVeil]

[ QUOTE ]
With his posts throughout this thread, Tom has done an excellent job of showing off the classic fallacy of zero-sum economics thinking.

natedogg

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you. Now please point out why this won't happen?

[andyfox]

Partly yes, partly no:

http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/en/we...ticle_id=50226

[andyfox]

When the Chinese government, under Deng, first decided to go capitalist, it opened up the southern coastal areas as test areas for the new economics. Almost all the coutryside peasants who migrated, either legally or illegally, went there. Now, with other areas, particular those around Shanghai, opened up to capitalist enterprise, there is much greater competition for the peasant worker in other areas of the country. Note that the bicycle factory example in the article was a company located in Shenzhen, just outside of Hong Kong, the first boom area in China. With Shanghai now the new boom area, it stands to reason that labor is harder to come by in Shenzhen.

When I first went into China, probably around 1990, the train station in Guangzhou was a scene right out of a movie--thousands of people milling around, looking for work, many of them finding it. No more. The combination of the competition of other areas, plus a population being more educated and thus not as interested, in the aggregate, in factory work, has meant increasing labor scarcity and thus higher wages.

More rigidly enforced labor and environmental standards will also mean higher prices for China goods for Americans. Many of the bigger companies, however, will follow cheap labor to Vietnam or India or ???.