"Ed Huntress" wrote in message .net...
"Excitable Boy" wrote in message
om...


However, your statistics aren't showing us which money went where, Ed.

Nor do they show where the money is going in China. What's the multiple
these days between a teenage girl who glues the soles onto Nikes in some
rural ******** of a factory, and an engineer in a coastal city?


Don't know anyone in a Nike factory ... but I do know some girls in
a sweater factory. They get about 1,000 a month plus food and board.
Not too great but they can live on that and go home at Spring Festival
and buy presents and stuff. Not expensive ones, but still ...
Engineers
in coastal cities about 4,000 clear but have to pay for their own
house.
Lunch is still free but not dinner. Four to one sounds about right.

Now, if you'd chosen to compare with the few bigshots instead of an
engineer, then the ratio is akin to what you'd see in the US. However,
there aren't that many bigshots and even then, their bigshottiness
isn't
usually THAT much.

What *really* stands out tho is that even if you only earn a pittance
in China, there is a place for you to live. You aren't dirt. None of
the hot singsongs will want to marry with you, but other people don't
treat you like scum becasue you work with your hands and you CAN live
okay on what you make. To return to the stats which you used
originally,
*much* of the balance of payments money that comes to China goes into
public works. The zoomy maglevs in Beijing and Shanghai came from the
money from exports. The subway systems likewise. The new buildings all
over Shanghai. The *dropping* rental and home prices all over China.
Etc etc etc. What you're saying is that the rate of growth for the US
is so much higher, but you can't tell me WHERE the money is going. I
can say that the money in China in general is going to make the
average
person's life better. I never saw Bill Gates' increasing bank account
as making my life better when I lived in California. In fact, if
anything,
the big-ass computer boom in the Bay Area made my life demonstrably
WORSE. Same with garlicDood, same with SC Mike. Same with you, in
fact.


Are you making *more* money now than you did in 1985 ?

The first half, or the second half? g I think that was the year that
LeBlond Makino decided they wanted a local agency, and my income went from
decent six-figures to about 1/3 of that. The month of May, I think...


Well, there ya go. Snacked on by your own statistics. Sure, "per
capita"
the US is growing wondrously, the envy of the world, blabla. But what
does that really mean to the average American ? It's not impossible
that
this 'growth' into the hands of a few actually *damages* the income
and lifestyle of the majority - or if not the majority, the
manufacturing
community for sure. If not, then you'd probably be happily ensconced
in
a corner office in _Machining's_ Manhattan building, eating escargot
and
drinking rare vintages of French wine over two hour lunches.