The USA outsourcing manufacturing to China killed three
birds with one stone - taking advantage of cheap labor, enjoying cheap
products made in China and also exporting its number one pollutant
status to China. China then became the biggest polluter in the world as a
result.
For decades, there were no big deals about cheap Chinese
labor, cheap Chinese products and pollution stigma raised against
China. Everything works according to plan. No accusation about China
stealing USA jobs. The USA enjoyed exchanging toilet papers for cheap
Chinese products and no longer need to produce anything.
When
relations soured over the last couple of years after the USA saw the
Chinese juggernaut moving ahead, it was all hands to the demonization
pump. Slave wages paid to Chinese workers, spying charges using Chinese
consumer products like washing machines and toasters and bashing China
over pollution issues became a hobby.
Perhaps it is good that
they are insourcing production and creating pollution issues at home. It
matters little for China having the advantage in competing on the
global market. Processing of raw materials creates massive pollution
issues that USA citizens will have to live with going forward. The USA
and the West has been reported to have very strict restrictions against
such industrial pollution, like refining rare earth. Radiation is one
such problem and toxic waste another. Such setups will face massive
blowbacks for sure.
Anonymous
2 comments:
When clowns are running the show, most of the policies are going to backfire. Clowns do not think forward, only intent on keeping the audience entertained. They care not about what happens next.
First of all, sourcing of raw materials will be one big problem for the USA trying to bring back manufacturing. China now controls most of the essential raw materials and even the refining logistics. The USA is trying to put the cart before the horse by frantically building up the factories from scratch and then trying to source for the raw materials to operate. It will not work!
Next, we have to look at the skilled manpower needs which is in short supply in the USA. Training engineers takes time, and time is not what factories can stay idle and wait. TSMC, in setting up semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona had to recruit skilled engineers and technicians from Taiwan to work in the USA. Here, TSMC encountered another big problem. The work attitudes of USA locals and imported Taiwan workers contrast like day and night. Taiwanese work long hours in Taiwan and brought with them the same work attitude to the USA, but USA workers are basically lazy bums unable to follow the TSMC work routine. Another rouse that escalated was the differential in wages paid to USA locals and Taiwanese workers.
With the wage differentials in mind alone, can products made in the USA be able to compete in the global market? With the lack of raw materials in mind, trying to source for cheap raw materials is out of the question and with more expensive inputs, can the USA hope to compete on the global market?
China works on a different trajectory. China thinks long term what it wants to do and plan its move. China trained all the engineers and stem graduates that it will need for its manufacturing hub agenda decades ago. In tandem China also sourced for all the raw materials and secured them under joint ventures will friendly countries like in Africa also decades ago. China did not do all this yesterday. China had all these planned decades ago. That is why China was able to dominate global manufacturing so fast while the USA was still asleep in the believe that their days of domination will never end.
Too little too late. Still wants to flog a dying horse. It is over for good.
Closing the stable doors when the horses have bolted is an exercise in futility. Living with the inevitable is better than fighting a losing battle. But the charade has to go on.
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