World factory China

[edwin]

Hi all,
My spoken english teacher who come from the Australia said:Western countries like Australia take advantage of China to produce products cheaply (cheaper wages, and manufacturing costs etc. in China), which contributes to the pollution, low wages and poor living standards for Chinese workers. I'm not exaggerating if I say that 85% of everything we buy in our stores is made in China!

So what's the percentage of "made in china" in your country?Do you think it is possible to change the current bad status?

That the majority of chinese people are living in very poor conditions(poor housing conditions,poor working conditions,poor wages conditions etc) and also caused environmental abuse.But seems we have to work for the low wage and play the role as a worker in this world factory.

嗚呼，哀哉..it sounds like i always complain about my GREAT country.

Edwin
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[Jamie (K)]

I can't estimate how much in US stores is made in China, but in many of them it could be up to 85%. However, since there have been many famous cases of China exporting dangerous and even fatal products to North and South America (for example poisonous toothpaste that killed people in Central America, dog food that murdered people's dogs, toys containing dangerous chemicals or parts that are small enough for little children to choke on), some companies have found that they can attract more customers by advertising that none of their products come from China.

You teacher needs an education in economics. Wages in China are low, but increased business and economic activity have contributed to an INCREASE in wages, so it helps improve people's condition. Just think how much worse things were before the world sent so much manufacturing business to China!

Besides, when countries start exporting so much, it brings more pressure on them to become good world citizens. Eventually China will start cleaning up its pollution and make other improvements. They're early in the cycle right now.

Here is a good article on how "low-wage" jobs from abroad help the people in various countries:

Third World Sweatshops: Why Cambodian Workers Bribe for 'Sweatshop' Jobs
by Thomas Sowell
http://capmag.com/article.asp?id=3487

[Boke]

I think the words "take advantage of China" is wrong, I think Jamie K said it well, its economics and it usually helps both countries, because of the "taking advantage of China" China has been able to greatly increase its economy and peoples standard of living.

But personally I believe that China is headed for a rude awakening for a long list of reasons, political instability that will follow a growing middleclass and the first true recession of economic downward trend, terrible reputation of Chinese products, complete lack of concern for the local environment, the generation of "little emperors" coming of age and most importantly Demographics, the great equalizer, China's prefference for boys and its one child policy will bite itself in the ass in the next 10-15 years. I would add a couple of more but you get the picture. Note, many of these can be changed but the general impression that GREAT China will take of as an economic superpower is wrong, I would argue the opposite
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[Jamie (K)]

[edwin]

[underdog]

there's an example of this world factory china effect.

in canada, lots of small fishes are unwanted by canadians. some smart business men buy all the unwanted fishes and ship them to china where they process and pack them into fish cans. and then they ship them back to canada, and to elsewhere all over the world.

of course these business men make big money. but it causes problems:
1. more shipping means more energy consumption.
2. job opportunities lose to china.

indeed, there are a lot of similar examples in many other countries. and those countries are now becoming aware of the problems (mostly economy wise).
so, will they let their business opportunities slipped away that easily any more?
i think not!

then this is gonna create a protential problem for china.
because the fast-growing china is depending on the manufacturing jobs greatly. if china lose those jobs, she will be affected greatly.
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[Torsten]

[Jamie (K)]

Here's a good article on the whole thing:
http://townhall.com/Columnists/JohnStossel/2008/01/30/whos_afraid_of_prosperity

[BelajarEnglish]

Hai Edwin, refer back to your first post, up to some point of view I agree with what teacher said. However, he forgot about some fact. The china has earned their major income form exporting the “cheap stuffs”. In addition, if you could have the comparison of the poverty data of china between and after the export booming. Perhaps it will be obvious that it bring the better live for china citizens.

In Indonesia, there are a lot of china products; however it is not as much as 85% of the product. In most of the case, the reason is Indonesia also produce cheap products.
In addition, just little complain here, most of the china products are not long lasting. Perhaps it cause by the low quality check in Indonesia “ Import gates”.

Anyway, I pretty agree with Torsten that other western countries produce a lot of intangible product.

Herry

[NinaZara]

Actually, there are a lot of Chinese goods in 100 yen shops in Japan. A lot of foreigners like this shop. I never had 'problem' using any of the stuffs I bought there. They are cheap so I don't expect them to last forever. If they fail me I just throw them away!
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[edwin]

[edwin]

[cooliegirly]

It's not that the world wants to take advantage of the cheap labors in China. It's our government is doing whatever they can to keep the exchange rate low (this is different than our real wage) so our products end up being the cheapest in the global market. They are doing it to boast our GDP figures so that the western media, particularly US media, would give us a few positive coverage in addition to the "crisis" "disaster" "human rights issues" they traditionally value (or are taught to value in journalism classes)　when reporting on foreign countries. Ｉｔ also helps control unemployment rate considering how overpopulated this country is. If our exports are cut in half now, think about how many people will go unemployed the next day and what kind of economic res session we will have to deal with for the next decade?

Low wage is mostly due to the set exchange rate. Though unskilled workers get paid a lot less in terms of say US dollars than unskilled workers in say the US, the cost of living in China is a lot lower than the cost of living in the US as well. You should really look at what percentage of the average worker's wage is spent on food/bills/rent before you call it a "poor wage".

Last but not least, the real wage is determined by the demand and supply. The reason wage is low is because of the population. There are simply not enough job supplies than demands. Simply raising the real wage will cut down supplies and make more people lose their jobs. Same as stop exporting.

[edwin]

[Torsten]

The question is how long has China been "the world's factory"? I remember a few years ago the vast majority of electronic devices used to be made in Taiwan. Now it seems that the Taiwanese companies have moved their manufacturing to mainland China. Who knows, maybe those factories will soon be moved to other Asian or even African countries.
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