Quote:
Originally Posted by crockett
The only way to compete with China on manufacturing on a large scale is to be able to compete with their cheap labor. You made a mistake in your post.. you have it reversed.
In the past the key advantage the US had was "WE" were more efficient than the 3rd world labor forces making higher labor cost more worthwhile. Now thanks to ease of transportation & a global economy, the third world (yes I look at China as 3rd world) has caught up to us because it's easy enough to take high tech & build high production manufacturing to their cheaper labor pool.
Out side of niche products that it simply isn't worthwhile to build overseas we can not compete due to their lower costs of labor.
We will never see iPhones or Levi's Jeans made in the US because as a society we have progressed passed a manufacturing based economy and the global market just wont let it happen unless the average American is making 10 times less than current poverty levels.
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Automation was the operative word. Factories that want to compete can. My company competes with China all the time. 10 years ago, they beat me 100% of the time. This year,they beat me less than 40% on the work we quoted. We ship product all over the world, including China. Our largest metals customer last year was the federal government of Vietnam.