“Made in China” (Because We Won’t)
January 26th, 2012 - 8:17 am
Trifecta: Red China is beating us on manufacturing not because of cheap labor — but because they’re out-hustling and out-performing us.
And that’s according to the New York freaking Times.
Here’s another article on the same subject from the NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=3&hp
we did have dormitories. Lowell Mills.
we do have dormitories: offshore oil rigs.
we ought to have had dormitories: silicon valley internet boom.
we still have dorms: experimental drug testing facilities.
I read the referenced article in the NYT and have seen the discussion at PJTV and elsewhere. For some reason the story of Apple, the iPhone and the Chinese factory reminds me of the Trans-Continental Railroad. In the late 19th century Chinese immigrant labor played a huge role in getting the tracks laid and operating. Their contribution to that effort cannot be overstated as other ethnic groups complained bitterly about how the “chinks” were making them look bad, resulting in deliberate sanctions against them (which were readily brushed aside as a mere inconvenience). That same task productivity of Chinese workers then is true today. Hence an enterprising company like Apple, generating an entirely new marketplace and industry, relies on a level of worker productivity and task focus that is most prevalent in that community. And there is even an echo of the same resentment targeted against them by those other national and ethnic communities they have left in the dust.