posted on December 4, 2002 01:13:47 PM new
Thank you for your insights CD,
The widget is a luxury item that sells for several thousand dollars. It is an exclusive design, but not unique in its field. Similar items are already extensively knocked off, so that if someone wants a fake, they can get one, but the people who want the real deal know what they want, know the difference, and are willing to pay for it. For example, you can get a cartier diamond and platnium ring or you can get a sterling silver and cubic ring in exactly the same style.
posted on December 4, 2002 02:14:24 PM new
Speaking of having items made in China, mostly because it is cheaper due to low labor costs, it reminds me of a recent conversation with an old friend. He had lost his high-tech job due to a lay off and now was collecting unemployment and working under the table at a small electronics company ( he's an engineer ). He wanted to know if I knew any companies that wanted to buy their computer cases and uncomplicated internal support parts for a greatly reduced price because his company was having parts manufactured in China at much lower costs than available in the USA.
It gets one to thinking how many companies are doing this business practice and how many jobs are lost due to this practice. End consumers are getting the products cheaper but ...
posted on December 4, 2002 02:43:07 PM new
Tooltimes:
This is simple economics, and nothing to get too worked up over unless you happen to be employed in a field that is shipping jobs overseas. It's been going on for a long, long time and there is nothing that can stop it.
Many companies have tried to go against this tide, in fact. They run "made in America" campaigns and whatnot, hoping to offset the fact that their products simply cost more. It never works.
This all boils down to something economists call the "Law of Comparative Advantage." In simple terms, it states that certain nations will be better at producing some things than others, and that the best benefit for the most people is derived by letting countries produce what they're best at. It sounds simple, but politics usually foul it up.
An economics professor I knew used to give a lecture with a pencil. The pencil, he would explain, if manufactured completely in the USA would cost around $6. Now, nobody in their right mind would pay $6 for a wooden pencil. It's just silly. But the common pencil is composed of parts from many nations. The (inside) wood comes from one. The outsite paint comes from another. The graphite from another. The metal band from another. The eraser actually comes from two places: one for the inside of it and one for the coating that holds it together.
The free market system would normally sort all this out, but politicians erect barriers to this to cater to special interest groups. Ultimately that just costs you and I money, and it can also cost jobs. If my cost of doing business is increased because the things I buy are more expensive, I may have to tighten up my labor budget. (Or I raise my prices, and my sales drop, and I have to lay people off.)
posted on December 4, 2002 03:47:29 PM new
I wasn't getting worked up, just wondering. I know it's like the old saying that water will seek the easiest path to the lowest point.
I do find it very ironic that you can be in a line at a store and you'll hear conversations about how there are few good paying jobs any more while the people holding the conversation are buying a cheaply manufactured item in their hands.
The economic thing happens and is going to happen and will always happen, but most people don't realize that they help make it happen by buying the foreign-made reduced price item. I understand it fully but many people don't and in my eyes that makes them a bit of a hypocrite. Great Britian once was the big world power and they had to watch to slowly slip away and now the US is in that same position.
posted on December 5, 2002 07:37:05 AM new
Tooltimes,
When you vote for Globalization, you are voting for a importation of cheap goods and a 3rd world level of poverty to the U.S. For those of us who have a job, our standard of living goes up, for those of us who do not, or who lose their job to a producer in China, you get a stagering level of poverty... Good thing we are limiting the amount of help we are giving those people. Helping people can get expensive.
posted on December 5, 2002 08:49:13 AM new
Dejapooh
When you vote for Globalization, you are voting for a importation of cheap goods and a 3rd world level of poverty to the U.S. For those of us who have a job, our standard of living goes up, for those of us who do not, or who lose their job to a producer in China, you get a stagering level of poverty.
There is no way to stop this, it is a world economy. We can not expect to sell our goods worldwide and keep everyone out of our markets.
This would be a case of "I want my cake and eat it too". Will not work!
My aunt makes widgets. She contracts a factory in China to make them and wholesales them across the U.S. and various stores large and small.
What am I missing here? There is a reason why she has them made in china. The tax and labor costs are what makes it worthwhile.
Blame the consumer who wants everything cheaper and cheaper.
If you look back to the end of ww2, we had the entire world market to sell our goods to.
Times change, we must compete on the world stage.
Helping people can get expensive.
Not helping can be a lot more expensive!Just look around at the amount of unrest in the world today.
