Out of China
July 31st, 2008 at 02:04pm Annette LaCross
And speaking of China, I find that country’s development fascinating. As it turns out, once a blueprint for a consumer culture (the U.S.) exists, it won’t take China nearly as long as it took this country to develop. In fact, wages have been rising there so steadily that companies are already looking for cheaper elsewhere, in Cambodia and Vietnam. And if the U.S. economy gets too much weaker, we’ll probably pass China, as they move from a largely agrarian society to a consumer-based one and the U.S. stumbles along. These days, U.S. consumers just don’t have the buying power to maintain a consumer-based economy. It’s ironic, to say the least.
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1. Bob Trojan | July 31st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Speaking about China, some thoughts that speak out to me. China, like Japan 40-50 years ago, was built on the knowledge of the U.S. We developed the technology, quality systems (remember Deming?), management techniques. China is also learning from the Europeans. I remember being told during one of my visits “if we don’t get it from the U.S. we’ll get it from Europe”
Secondly, China has a much more dictatorial form of government. I think they still refer to it as Communism. How do you think that would play here? Boy, the civil rights folks would have a field day. How about the one boy per family? Or controlling reporters use of the internet during the Olympics?
Thirdly, China is a strong central government who does all the big planning and pushes money where they want to develop. The U.S. has a market economy, much different than China. Gee, maybe we should try that too?
Fourthly, when you have all these people coming off the farms looking to get rich, you’ll have a lot of motivation to get there quickly. I’m afraid our culture has become too permissive, too enabling and yes, too wealthy. Last I checked, we are still the wealthiest nation on the world (per capita income).
Fifthly, why do so many people from the world want to live here in the U.S.? Is it because we are wealthy? Is it because our forms of government and economy is more appealing? Is it because we do have safety nets, such as unemployment benefits, social security, and a host of other enabling benefits that countries like China simply do not have. I guess I’d work extra hard too if my bread and butter came from the sweat of my brows…only.
Remember 40-50 years ago when Japan was the big threat. Guess what, we survived that one and we’ll survive the “China threat” too.
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