General > General Technical Chat
How can governments ensure all companies get equal access to China?
Simon:
--- Quote from: floobydust on April 18, 2020, 08:09:27 pm ---
--- Quote from: Simon on April 18, 2020, 07:43:22 pm ---basically if a country is way cheaper than you how do you discourage your citizens buying things made in the cheaper country?
--- End quote ---
The "race to the bottom" for product price and the "race to the top" for maximum profit is not working.
Intangible costs are not factored into products and manufacturing. This is the huge problem the world faces.
Devaluing your currency, providing subsidies, sacrificing the environment, worker's health and pension benefits, safety etc. - having a lower standard of living keeps labour costs lower.
Dumping products to kill off competition, espionage to kill off entire industries, theft of IP - it's business, it's war.
People will buy the lowest price, and the feedback loop whereby local businesses and industry and jobs die off as a consequence, is too long for governments to realize they should have acted.
--- End quote ---
The problem is that people will buy short term and cheap. This costs jobs in your local economy and means that your environmental regulations do not actually cover where much of the damage may be happening. Usually a government controls spending behavior by taxing imports. This makes the race to the bottom not a way to get sales because your sales are blocked by consumer behavior.
floobydust:
Lowest cost products flowing into a country, who would complain and stop that?
It's today's business model - import cheap stuff from a developing nation, markup the price and resell. This is what I see the majority of businesses doing.
Developing products, technology - no investor has patience for that, I want my cash profit now.
The CCP have a long-term plan for economic prosperity that is superior to anything in the West. Our governments are impotent at planning and executing anything long term for the economy.
Expecting the consumer to "vote with their dollar" and spend much more to buy local, seems to be only working at farmer's markets because the benefit is instant in flavour, freshness. It is not a corrective mechanism by any means.
Simon:
when all you do is import you have nothing to export. Again I am no financial whiz but surely you can't just keep handing your money over out of the country for tat that goes in the bin. unless there is a balance of import/export you just become a financial desert with no expertise and a workforce that is not capable of doing anything more than driving pallet trucks and using tills.
nctnico:
--- Quote from: Simon on April 18, 2020, 10:15:21 pm ---when all you do is import you have nothing to export. Again I am no financial whiz but surely you can't just keep handing your money over out of the country for tat that goes in the bin. unless there is a balance of import/export you just become a financial desert with no expertise and a workforce that is not capable of doing anything more than driving pallet trucks and using tills.
--- End quote ---
The US has been doing just that for decades. But still, why is anyone entertaining yet another one of treez's tantrums?
floobydust:
--- Quote from: Simon on April 18, 2020, 10:15:21 pm ---when all you do is import you have nothing to export. Again I am no financial whiz but surely you can't just keep handing your money over out of the country for tat that goes in the bin. unless there is a balance of import/export you just become a financial desert with no expertise and a workforce that is not capable of doing anything more than driving pallet trucks and using tills.
--- End quote ---
Yes it ultimately destroys the customer- the country importing piles of goods gets reduced to having nothing to generate revenue.
Canada and Australia have fallen to mostly whoring out our natural resources. That's our exports - coal, crude oil, natural gas, wheat and grain, iron and copper ores etc. So some money will always be coming in, but our industries are in large decay.
--- Quote from: nctnico on April 18, 2020, 11:02:50 pm ---[...] But still, why is anyone entertaining yet another one of treez's tantrums?
--- End quote ---
The wonky thread is relevant because we all sit back and expect our quality of life to continue despite the obvious fire.
Engineering is higher up the food chain and without local design and manufacturing, there's not much to do.
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