"Steve" wrote in message
g.com...
On 2011-02-17 17:55:41 -0500, busbus said:

What is happening now? The money is pouring out of this country. How
does China pay for its high speed rail? By the money you and I pay
for all the freaking goods they produce and sell in places like Wal-
Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy and all those other stores. Because we, as
consumers, have demanded "the Chine Price" for so freaking long that
we have almost pushed manufacturing and other businesses that used to
bring money into this country out to places like China (especially
China).

We could have "the China price" for US-made goods, except that business
has forgotten its intitial impetus.

From time to time I hear someone say this. It is total BS.
I've been in manufacturing for 25 years. Working for businesses with
employee counts from 2 to thousands. Never a union shop though. I have
worked it from the shop floor to the engineering department. I think I'm
qualified to say what it would take to compete with China. If everyone in a
manufacturing facility were to work for free, the Chinese would still under
cut our prices. Operating costs alone, without adding in labor, is higher in
the US than the entire process, including labor, is in China.
BTW, anytime someone brings up the subject of manufacturing, people always
point to the auto or aircraft industries. Fact is, 90% of all manufacturing
done in the US is done in shops with 25 or less employees. No mufti million
dollar CEOs in these places. I have worked for shops where I made more than
the owner and I'm damn sure a long way from being rich.