Chris wrote:
Where to the rest of you sit with this question?

I think it's clear that there are two issues here. We all want to
get
the lowest price & the highest quality. There's nothing wrong with
that. If the tools coming out of China were built to a high standard
it may be the end of the debate, but maybe not. The problem for me
is
the loss of American jobs, I'm not talking flag waving & beating
your
chest, I'm talking bread & butter, these people. our fellow
countrymen & women need jobs that pay decently. If manufacturing was
being moved because American companies can't make ends meet that's
one thing, but we are talking about maximizing profits, maybe even
obscene profiteering by companies that want to claim they are
American but really don't give a damn about it. If China ever
becomes
to expensive, they will find another workforce to use in Asia or
Cuba.

Actually not--if China becomes too expensive for US businesses to make
money using Chinese labor then it will be too expensive for Chinese
businesses to make money using Chinese labor as well, and they'll be
competing for that same workforce. But when that happens they'll be
providing goods and services for a population larger than that of the
US, Japan, and the EU combined, so they're going to use it up pretty
fast. And there aren't that many untapped labor markets in Asia
anyway--South Korea is competing directly in the US market (LG,
Samsung, Hyudai, etc), Maylaysia is contracting all sorts of high tech
manufacturing (IBM used to make a lot of stuff there), I'm
occasionally seeing "made in Thailand" labels, what does that leave
really, other than North Korea, which isn't going to be a labor
provider until somebody (probably China) gets annoyed enough to
bitch-slap its leaders into at least the 14th Century.

South America and Africa have some potential, but nobody in his right
mind is going to trust either of them to provide manufactured goods
that are needed on a reliable schedule until they get stable
governments established.

As for Cuba, Cuba has a workforce smaller than the population of many
American cities--while I don't have any problem with doing business
with Cuba and think that current policies toward it are lunacy, even
at full employment it's not going to be making much inroads into the
worldwide demand for goods and services. Still, would be nice to be
able to get a Cuban cigar without having to ride to Quebec.
--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)