We westerners have grown fat and lazy, we charge huge amounts of money to our employers (and I don't mean just salaries; pensions, insurance, maternity leave, health and safety etc etc), and want to work ever reduced hours per week. Did you know that in the EU it is ILLEGAL to work more than 48 hours per week? Even if you want to? We want holidays, we want rights, we want our backsides wiped. No wonder the jobs are going to China; they'll do the same for a bowl of rice or a smack on the head. Who cares that the quality is not up to standard? They just replace quality with quantity. It's cheaper and therefore equals bigger profits.
Well the fact is that the good ol' US of A HAS gotten fat and lazy. THAT is a result of a capitalist based society.
It's also quite a knee slapper that we are fat and lazy because of capitalism. Fat lazy people don't want to make a buck, they want the government to take a buck from someone else and give it to them. Maybe we are fat and lazy because the government has for the last 50 years taught us that everything we could ever want was a "right" to be paid for by other taxpayers. The saddest part is that the only solution I'm hearing is for everyone EXCEPT the government to do with less and be forced to run their businesses however the government dictates.
You know, this is kinda funny. You mean, the recipe is to become "mean and lean, and non-capitalist"? Well, lots of people of North Korea and Cuba are lean and hard-working, but I doubt You would like to employ such system of governing. And sorry, but thinking along the way of "we must protect our industry, jobs, whatever, because they are ours" even if they are not economical leads to socialism and then communism. And those ideas are compromised - and it's not my fancy, it's a historical fact. And, after all, it was good, 'ole US of A that practically invented and introduced the globalization. Well, there you go, those are the consequences.
My opinion is that you are wrong by saying "let's do something so THEY (i.e. government) keep our factories ours". The only thing THEY can do is to subsidize it, which is simply stealing from other taxpayers to promote the ones who cannot supply a competitive product. This is a pure bred communism, not capitalism.
BUT, as somebody rightly said, you can ask employees, would they agree to work for less (money, privileges, etc) to keep their work. Some maybe would say yes, but others would simply move to find another job. And (by a big shortcut) this is how US of A got populated. By influx of people looking for better salary for their work.
So, it will come a time when poeple in China will get enough money to move the production to... my bet goes to Africa (because by that time Indonesia, Malaysia, and other indo-asiatic countries will be rich). We'll see....
BTW. now is too late to protest. We all are buying Chinese production. There was a movie about California, that people had woken up, and all Mexicans were gone. California collapsed in that movie. Of course it was a comedy, but interesting take nevertheless.
And I have rally fresh experiences. In 90's Poland was a cheap country to locate production. Barely 15yrs later it isn't. But I can tell you that this is simply stimulating, and good for society - methinks...
Good luck in keeping your jobs in USA! On 1.Sept my employer just opened new plant in China.. it's a fact...
