"Brian Henderson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 04:33:06 GMT, "
" wrote:

I too have been to China to visit manufacturing facilities. The workers
I have talked to are earning 30 cents an hour. Even if our minimum wage
was only $3.00 an hour, they would still be earning only %10 of an
American wage earner of minimum wage. So I don't know if the minimum
wage is the ONLY reason. Maybe the lack of an OSHA counterpart, and
healthcare are contributing.

The cost of living is much, much lower in China. It just doesn't cost
nearly as much to live there as it does here, that's why they can
afford to live on a much lower wage.

Maybe instead of complaining about how little they get paid there, we
should be more worried about why it costs so much to live here?

The Red Chinese are LOSING manufacturing jobs. They LOST 15,000 last year.
In fact, almost EVERYONE worldwide is losing manufacturing jobs. As Robert
Reich has pointed out, computerization, and robotization are the culprits.

Consider something.

If a highly robotized factory can produce a widget for a total cost of $100,
then it doesn't matter what, a low-tech factory making widgets, too, maybe
employing a hundred people CANNOT charge more than a $100. So the total
labor costs are effectively capped. The ONLY way to increase an
individual's wage, is at the expense of some other worker. Thus, a worker
may be making two dollars a day, but they'll probably be making $2 a day
twenty years from now.

IF the robotized factory, through some type of innovation, reduces the cost
of widgets to $75 each, the low-tech factory again, either reduces cost or
closes it doors. It's MUCH harder, using Taylorization techniques, to
institute innovations. (Taylor was an "effiency expert", that advanced the
idea of lots of people doing one small part, each, of a given manufacturing
process. Thus, on the early mass produced cars, there was one guy to screw
on the left side of a bumper and one guy to screw on the right side of the
bumper. They didn't have to do much, but they didn't have long to do it
either.

Dr. Walter Shewhart developed a set of statisical formulas that measured
efficiency of entire systems. Thus, incremental increases in efficiency
could be demostrated mathematically. Dr. Edward Deming "marketed" those
ideas. And in 1953, he began marketing those ideas in post-war Japan. In
the 50's and 60's, "made in Japan" mean "cheap" and shoddy. But by the
mid-1980's the Japanese car manufacturer's could challenge the Big Three US
manufacturers on their own turf. With vehicles that were demonstrably
superior in design and manufacture. The SPC (statistical process control)
movement was re-introduced into America...and it was a painful process.

I would argue, by the early 90's the US manufacturers were making
significant strides, and I seriously doubt there is significant differences
in the overall quality of almost any vehicles manufactured worldwide, today.
This of course, does include specific innovations introduced by different
car makers, from time to time. (BTW, I just got an eMail from someone.
They said the Ford Escort was the largest selling vehicle worldwide, for
several years. I have no idea if that is true.) It, also, does not
preclude a particular manufacturer producing a stinker, from time to time.

James...