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They used to work for less money (it's catching up to the point where including government shenanigans you're practically better off staying local unless it's a necessity for entering the Chinese market), which is a large part of it. Most people can also attest that Chinese frequently cut corners so you may find you're getting what you pay for.
There are other issues like taxes and stocks being different and the fact that the American company might actually just be contracting a Chinese factory to do the work, ship it over and go through a QC/Assembly process on the machine that add to cost as well.
I'd agree that we've lost the ability to competitively produce a lot of manufactured goods locally, especially low-end goods that require a fair amount of manhours to complete, but that's also largely because you have workers competing against wage rates in places like Southeast Asia. Hard to stay competitive, profitable and pay a wage that's going to attract anybody decent against that.
[–]eqi397[S]0 points
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question is: why are people in Asia able to live on $1-$2/hr? because food/rent/everything else is 10 times cheaper? why is everything more expensive in US? greed! govt taxes to pay for never ending wars
Aside from different economies, labor supply and government policy the petrodollar also plays a significant role in why things are cheaper vis a vis living in the states.
Purchasing power for the average person isn't all that different with the more developed countries, I feel, which is an observation that doesn't get bogged down with misconceptions about forex rates.
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[–] no_step_on_snek ago
They used to work for less money (it's catching up to the point where including government shenanigans you're practically better off staying local unless it's a necessity for entering the Chinese market), which is a large part of it. Most people can also attest that Chinese frequently cut corners so you may find you're getting what you pay for.
There are other issues like taxes and stocks being different and the fact that the American company might actually just be contracting a Chinese factory to do the work, ship it over and go through a QC/Assembly process on the machine that add to cost as well.
I'd agree that we've lost the ability to competitively produce a lot of manufactured goods locally, especially low-end goods that require a fair amount of manhours to complete, but that's also largely because you have workers competing against wage rates in places like Southeast Asia. Hard to stay competitive, profitable and pay a wage that's going to attract anybody decent against that.
[–] eqi397 [S] ago
question is: why are people in Asia able to live on $1-$2/hr? because food/rent/everything else is 10 times cheaper? why is everything more expensive in US? greed! govt taxes to pay for never ending wars
[–] no_step_on_snek ago
Aside from different economies, labor supply and government policy the petrodollar also plays a significant role in why things are cheaper vis a vis living in the states.
Purchasing power for the average person isn't all that different with the more developed countries, I feel, which is an observation that doesn't get bogged down with misconceptions about forex rates.