D Murphy wrote:

There is also the cost of shipping vs. the savings from low labor costs.
Oil might be cheap at the moment, but that is temporary at best. When the
US economy recovers so will the rest of the world's and the increased
demand will drive prices right back up again making shipping a more
costly proposition. As the economies of the BRIC nations expand, people
there will be less willing to work hard for low wages, no benefits, and
little social security.

Just look at Japan's history post WWII.


When people bitch about China and I tell them that the best thing that can happen to us is
if they start noticing all that shiney stuff they are making for the western world and
demand that they be able to have it too. The race to the bottom will be halted by a
decent race to the top on China's part for their people.


Wes

On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:37:10 -0500, the infamous Wes
scrawled the following:

D Murphy wrote:

There is also the cost of shipping vs. the savings from low labor costs.
Oil might be cheap at the moment, but that is temporary at best. When the
US economy recovers so will the rest of the world's and the increased
demand will drive prices right back up again making shipping a more
costly proposition. As the economies of the BRIC nations expand, people
there will be less willing to work hard for low wages, no benefits, and
little social security.

Just look at Japan's history post WWII.


When people bitch about China and I tell them that the best thing that can happen to us is
if they start noticing all that shiney stuff they are making for the western world and
demand that they be able to have it too. The race to the bottom will be halted by a
decent race to the top on China's part for their people.

That's happening now both in China and India, and most other
rapidly-evolving countries. Note the shortages of steel, gasoline, and
other items. As the Third World turns Western, air/water/noise
pollutions skyrocket, waste quintuples, and all sorts of other
niceties happen. sigh

--
Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other
men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.
--Jesse Lee Bennett

Larry Jaques wrote:

When people bitch about China and I tell them that the best thing that can happen to us is
if they start noticing all that shiney stuff they are making for the western world and
demand that they be able to have it too. The race to the bottom will be halted by a
decent race to the top on China's part for their people.

That's happening now both in China and India, and most other
rapidly-evolving countries. Note the shortages of steel, gasoline, and
other items. As the Third World turns Western, air/water/noise
pollutions skyrocket, waste quintuples, and all sorts of other
niceties happen. sigh

Yup it is. Here we are sitting on geothermal, coal, shale, wind, tidal, nuclear (if we
were serious) and hydro.

There are more riches in our garbage dumps from past time than some of those countries
could mine from their own lands.

Oh mining, I think we left a bit of most important things still in the ground.

We are a rich country now, even in our current state of decline.

Wes