Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Is This Crisis Quietly Creating A New Economic Superpower" video.
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Greed is one part of it but it's not so much the greed from corporations but greed from consumers, consumers want good on the cheap, China and others can deliver that whereas we in the west can't, good luck changing that mind set on the average western person and even if that mind set was changed, it would just make us poorer at a time we can't afford because hard times are around the corner.
It gets even worse, as a consumer when buying products, if one company is offering a phone at $300 and the other is charging $800 for the same kind of phone, which would you buy? that puts a lot of pressure on companies to go to cheap labour countries because us consumers demand it and we end up punishing companies that have a higher price tag and that is where the real problem is, without a shift on the mind set of people, companies have little incentive to not keep doing what they are doing and we in the west can't do all the labour back home because there isn't enough people for one and the cost of everything we buy would shoot up, in other words, our standard of living would nose dive, good luck explaining that to voters lol.
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@johncmiles1 The truth is, free trade works, it reduces cost, red tape and lowers the price that consumers pay for us, removing barriers is always a good thing if done right, the problem ism too much of that wealth is ending up in too few hands and that is what needs to change.
The US was most powerful in the 60's because there were no rivals, Europe was still rebuilding and paying off it's dents, China was nowhere to be seen, The Soviet Union paid a high price in the second world war and the US benefited the most as being the manufactural of a lot of products mainly thanks to the war effort, but that was never going to last as the others catch up.
Also we should remember, because Americans produce 90% of it's goods back then doesn't mean Americans couldn't of been better off if they outsourced to cheaper labour because standards of living likely would have been higher than they were.
I think you are being a bit short-sighted, short of the US becoming like North Korea where no trade and people go in or out, that virus was always going to happen, goods being made in the US wasn't going to change that unless you shut down your entire country and don't let anyone in, that would be a disaster for the tourist industry in the US.
I do agree with you on the vulnerable part, it was crazy for the US to put themselves in a position where so many vital goods are in the hands of others but we know why the US did it, because it's cheaper, but as for none vital goods, that's always going to be global because there are too many advantages to that system and unless Americans are willing to take massive pay cuts, that isn't going to change but there is another option, automation, robotics and A.I. but that won't help the job market out, in fact it would more or less kill it once it's advanced enough and the reason that will take over is for the same reason we outsource now, cheap labour, well you can't get much cheaper than automation and giving the boot to workers.
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We should remember that as wages go up, that makes China even more of a power because of the consumer bases and there is little to nothing others can do to try and avoid that because almost every country and corporation will want in on that consumer base, that alone will likely give China a lot of power, not that different then how it give the US power because it's got a bigger consumer base than European countries, China is playing by the same book but it's consumer base is 4 times bigger, that is hard for any country and corporation to not be in and any that are not in are likely at a massive disadvantage compared to others that are in and what makes it all worse is that labour is still cheap enough in the country.
We should also remember that China for the last 5 or 10 years have been trying to push from a manufacturing base to a consumer base economy because they can see wages are rising, hence why China is outsourcing to India and African countries for cheap labour.
I don't give the west much hope unless the EU and US stops fighting each other because at the moment, the west is being divided at a time when power is shifting from west to east and we are not just talking China here, we are talking all of Asia as well.
As for India, they do have the tapping of being a major power but they are a long way from that at the moment and that will likely take decades which I doubt China is worried about because they are already trying to source out for cheaper labour than what is in China already, in the decades to come, I expect more of that.
As for the west, companies have very little incentive to bring jobs back home because consumers demand goods on the cheap, cheaper labour countries can deliver that, we in the west can't and it's made all the worse because of the hard times we are going to get the next few years is likely going to push us to buy products from cheaper labour countries and the kicker in all that is this, if one western company does it's labour in the west and it's products cost a lot more, consumers will punish that company whiles rewarding the company that is using cheap labour and that is where the real problem is, westerners are addicted to cheap goods, good luck changing that mind set any time soon, especially with hard times on the horizon.
At the end of the day, the only real thing that matters is the consumer base economy with rising wages, put them two together with a massive population and no country or corporation can afford to not be in that market as it would put them at a massive disadvantage compared to rivals that are in that market and you can bet there will be many takers on that one from all over the world.
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