991–1000 of 1001 posts
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Agreed. Authoritarian is what westerners don't like. They see it as an evil. I see it as one side of a coin. The yin to a yang.
> Authoritarian is what westerners don't like. They see it as an evil. Sadly, the recent election shows otherwise for a lot of Americans.
Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries. We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but f…
I have been having similar discussions over the last week with people about synthesizers/pro audio gear (a topic I happen to be expert on), and the market dynamics are roughly the same. The goods themselves have a much smaller market and a much higher median cost than shoes, obviously. But components, assembly, and a significant amount of technical (PCB) design originates in China.
Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries. We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but f…
I worked in the retail; it is the shittiest job I ever had. I was given an abnormal schedule: two days closing, one day opening, one mid shift (and I should work either Saturday or Sunday). The churn is really high: people leave even if they find a better yet shitty job. Which jobs do you want to create in US? Retail jobs or manufacturing jobs?
Given the manufacturing is currently being done by people making much less than US minimum wage, I’d have to say retail! People forget why manufacturing was moved out of the US. Manufacturing jobs sucked major ass. Then they sucked less ass, when unions started gaining power. Then the companies saw their employees had prosperity, said “fuck you”, and left. We’ve crippled unions to such an absurd degree that the reali…
Each worker can negotiate easily on their own behalf or simply work elsewhere. Unions are unnecessary and always end up corrupt and wasteful.
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Given the manufacturing is currently being done by people making much less than US minimum wage, I’d have to say retail! People forget why manufacturing was moved out of the US. Manufacturing jobs sucked major ass. Then they sucked less ass, when unions started gaining power. Then the companies saw their employees had prosperity, said “fuck you”, and left. We’ve crippled unions to such an absurd degree that the reali…
Unions crippled themselves. Government employees unions destroyed the US government by getting the politicians in their pocket so much that no union member can be fired or held accountable in any way, and that led directly to Doge. Corporate unions were so abusive that companies were forced to move overseas, losing American jobs. Each worker can negotiate easily on their own behalf or simply work elsewhere. Unions ar…
This is a complete re-writing of history.
Unions were not "abusive". Typical union negotiations pushed for safe(r) working environments and reasonable wages.
Companies moved overseas not because they were abused (Jesus Christ). They moved because there's lots of parts of the world where you have access to psuedo-slave labor.
I don't want to be a slave. My fellow Americans don't want to be slaves, either.
> Each worker can negotiate easily on their own behalf or simply work elsewhere.
This is delusional.
Let me put this bluntly. If you're not even willingly to acknowledge the obvious asymmetry in leverage during labor negotiations, then your opinion on unions is worthless. You're not an honest party, or maybe you have trouble coming to terms with reality. Unfortunately, that means your opinion is better suited for the loony bin, and not any serious discussions.
As an aside, there are lots of great arguments to make against unions. Do that instead.
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Unions crippled themselves. Government employees unions destroyed the US government by getting the politicians in their pocket so much that no union member can be fired or held accountable in any way, and that led directly to Doge. Corporate unions were so abusive that companies were forced to move overseas, losing American jobs. Each worker can negotiate easily on their own behalf or simply work elsewhere. Unions ar…
> no union member can be fired or held accountable in any way, and that led directly to Doge. Corporate unions were so abusive that companies were forced to move overseas, losing American jobs. This is a complete re-writing of history. Unions were not "abusive". Typical union negotiations pushed for safe(r) working environments and reasonable wages. Companies moved overseas not because they were abused (Jesus Christ)…
I disagree with forcing employees to join a union who do not want to. I disagree with forcing a business to negotiate with a union that does not want to.
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I'm not super knowledgeable about AU, but my gut impression is that it doesn't have much in the way of natural advantages. Yes, it's lowpop, but that's about it. Somewhat similar for CA, but CA is a lot better off than AU.
Out of those three, Australia's economy is proportionally the most reliant on natural resources. Its mining sector alone is a bit over 10% of overall GDP.
They bring money and wreck the environment, which gets less pushback in Australia because very few live in the mining areas.
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It's almost like the Biden CHIPS act was designed to do that in a non-stupid way.
I mean I approved of the CHIPS act at the time, but did it result in anything? It was also limited to the semiconductor industry.
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What is "that" that "won't happen"? US, Canada, Europe are demographically cooked too, but they (partially) solve this problem with immigration, that is not an option for China and the rest of Asia.
You think there will be zero policy changes in China over the next 125 years?
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You completely disregarded the central thesis of the comment you responded to. The one child policy means there are no people to do the manufacturing in China in the future. The population pyramid is inverted. You can't do manufacturing without lots and lots of people. Or at least you'll get out competed by your neighbours who have lots of labor.
India's birth rate is also massively dropping. In a few decades, India will reach their peak population. China invested heavily in machinery and automation many decades ago. They'll be fairly fine. I visited India a few months ago. Loved it. But I saw construction being done with donkeys hauling dirt and people shoveling the loads onto the donkey's cart with tiny hand shovels. Scaling up from that to the degree of ma…
It also means they no longer do the cheap high volume manufacturing, which will go elsewhere where the cheap labor is.
This is how it goes. Manufacturing keeps migrating to cheap labor. China is running out of cheap labor and volume manufacturing will find it in East Asia and India and Africa instead, because these places will still have lots and lots of young people while those in China have aged out.