China jobs

It could be a good thing but it also seems as if you are putting the people of China down as inferior to us. We, the USA, may be creative but they too should be given some credit for all of the work they have done for us. Look at the items at Wal-Mart for instance. Almost everything in that store was made by the Chinese but they have to have some kind of creativity to come up with the ideas as far as how to make the things they export. Basically you're saying that we should have all the creative projects and that they should have the "easy" work.

A Few Issues

Two things that should be taken into consideration are; one, that China is known somewhat for poor product quality and issues with tainted products, and also the 'One Child Policy' and the effects it will have. 

Within the past year we have seen poisoned dog food, lead tainted toys, tainted Colgate, and most recently in China a large portion of dairy products have been found that contain a toxic chemical which is killing fairly large groups of children. If people in China cannot even trust some of the goods produced there, how can we?

Even with today's resources it is difficult to predict what the effects of the 'One Child Policy' will have on Chinese economy. It is however, clear that there will be a HUGE drop in the total population, for every two people only one is being reproduced. Therefore by 2030 will China be able to keep all these jobs if they don't have the man-power? Where will they go then?

Don't get me wrong, I love China. I spent the summer before senior year in Beijing and it was the best time of my life. Even today I talk almost weekly with my friends in China and I plan on working there after college, and I find the language and culture fascinating. Still I cannot let some of these issues not be brought up and thought about. 

As they say, here goes nothin'...

Obviously, we all agree that any shift in the dominant production location from China to the US would be a gradual change spanning decades. After all, everything from toy cars to laptop computers is stamped with the phrase "Made in China".
If the US has any chance of regaining outsourced jobs and becoming the production mecca of the world, it needs to get a move on. With rising fuel prices (which in this case, are beneficial, believe it or not), and the falling cost of the dollar, the US definitely has the oppurtunity to take back what it has lost to China with respect to mass-produced goods, as well as bring more European business in. The question now is whether or not it posesses the incentive and resources necessary to rise to the occasion.
The article states that the significant rise in China's productivity levels, both current and future, is due in large part to the fact that Chinese manufacturers are investing into more efficient facilities. As was stated before, while the US's productivity did increase, our average was completely blown out of the water by that of China.
So if the US is planning on bringing jobs back from China, or is hoping to develop new technologies on a large scale, it's got some major brainstorming and hard work ahead.

Indeed Mary Alice I agree with most everything you said. In response to Nathan's concerns, i feel sure that the United States Military has the resources we would need should a military conflict arise with China. We have certainly struck a decent balance as a nation with exports and imports. Don't forget that all the experts are saying that during the last few terrible months, one of the only sectors of the U.S. economy keeping us above water was the export market. Trying to bring back many of the jobs we have given to various locations would not only put us behind pace, as Mary Alice said, it would also disturb the export business that we have gained by putting jobs somewhere besides our own mainland. For example, if an auto company opens a plant in Beijing that creates 5,000 jobs for Beijing locals, they will be more inclined to import products from the U.S. since we are providing something useful to them. Should we decide to suddenly pull those jobs back and shut down that plant, would the Chinese people be near as willing to import goods from us and give the U.S. any money? I sure don't think so.

Ok so as I was reading everyone's post, I can see the reasoning behind those who think leaving things the way they are is right and those against it. I, however, think we should just leave things as they are. As of this moment, we are receiving the goods we need and still balancing our money. It would cost of millions of dollars to build manufacturing companies in the United States. It would cost more to do that than paying the increasing prices with China right now. However, I am not saying that in the future if prices continue to increase we should not consider other alternatives. Furthermore, the article tells us that bulk goods made in China such as clothing, toys, and small appliances could not come back to the United States anyways because they require abundant cheap labor. In my opinion that just reinforces the idea that the United States should not try and bring jobs back from China. Also, this would put the United States playing "catch up." All these other countries such as China are familiar with the manufacturing process, have willing workers, and already have the buildings to produce mass amounts of goods, whereas the United States would be starting from scratch. When we begin to change things, we are not always sure of the outcome, therefore, risking a lot of time and money. So until things begin to become financially unstable, I am for leaving the jobs in China.

Some downsides of so much outsourcing to China

While I can definitely see some good benefits of outsourcing to China (and India etc.) a few things in particular are still troublesome to me. 

While, I'm not trying to be paranoid, if theoretically, we were to have some armed conflict with Mainland China, how would we produce the necessary materials here for the military if all of our goods are being made over there? I think you can draw some parallels to the Civil War when all of the manufacturing industries were located in the North which left the South extremely vulnerable and without means to supply itself. There will always be some goods that will be outsourced but I think we should keep this in mind when deciding whether or not to ship the manufacturing of certain products overseas. 

Another point I think that we should consider is if we are sending all of these 'assembly line', 'blue collar' jobs  to China, and we are becoming a more service oriented and specialized society, we are trapping the foreign workers in a factory setting and not letting them develop new ideas and create new technology, etc. This might be kind of a 'naive' idea, but I feel like it would be selfish and harmful to advances in all sectors of the economy if we don't have people from different cultures and schools of thought pursuing their interests. We could be, in a sense, creating a strictly unskilled work environment in a whole country, and I just don't think that would be a positive thing.

Really, I'm not sure how relative these points are, but it's what came to mind after reading the article and everyone else's posts.

Bringing them Back

I believe that Lee and Melanie both have good points, however, even though the majority of major manufacturers in the U.S. have already begun outsourcing almost all of their production to China, I do not see these jobs going anywhere else anytime soon. Granted that shipping costs continue to rise, it will still be cheaper to stay in an area where manufacturing has been established for several years. In the article we read about productivity growth in the U.S. has risen almost five percent in the last decade. That's great for the companies and manufacturers that are still in the U.S. Unfortunately for us, our Chinese competitors' growth in productivity has shot up some nineteen percent in the same amount of time. So, despite the outrageous shipping costs, the Chinese are producing the same goods they have already been producing for the past few years, now only more efficiently. If these major manufacturing contracts go anywhere outside of China I believe it will be another smaller asian country with cheaper wages and benefits than that of China. A major move back to the U.S. would involve too much risk and too much money.

I agree that to a certain extent the outsourcing of the manual and "mundane" jobs could be a benefit to America, but you have to consider that there are many people in America who are only equipped with the skills to do those boring and mundane jobs. While the college educated population could definitely become the workers who gain from new, specialized jobs developed due to outsourcing, the blue collar worker with no skills save for their one trade would be left out without any real possibility of re-learning their skill set.

Not only that, we also have to consider what sending the majority of the lower level jobs of a company does to the company as a whole. While it may be cheaper for them to send the manufacturing or quality control segments of their company overseas, the result more often than not is a decrease in product regulation, which sometimes leads to worsened product quality. Sure, the occasions in which this causes actual losses for a company are very limited but when something does go wrong and the problem is located halfway across the globe, it makes it much harder to diagnose and fix.

Also, consider what effect this outsourcing could have on consumer satisfaction. Could a corporation that manufactures a good get to a point where so much of their operation is done overseas that they can not get a realistic view of what they need to do to satisfy their domestic consumers? i don't know the answer I just thought i would pose the question.

USA gettin jobs back from China

So... i was thinkin earlier as i was doin some kind of manual mundane labor..... maybe it's not so bad that the chinese have the dull jobs that require little creativity. The way I see it the US could prosper from this. Think of it like this: we've always been a nation known for its creativity and constant innovation. With all the jobs that use very little creativity in another country, this country could prosper and develop new jobs just for specially trained people. It could be a good thing.