General > General Technical Chat
How can governments ensure all companies get equal access to China?
nctnico:
--- Quote from: Simon on April 26, 2020, 04:37:45 pm ---Indeed, what do we do in the UK except run warehouses to shift shit and call centers to sell shit? we don't create wealth, we just move around the wealth created by others, my own employer buys in things we used to make ourselves but due to a rush to the bottom we cannot compete with china or even another EU country
--- End quote ---
You are not seeing the big picture here. Most of the profit is made in selling things, not manufacturing them. Just take an example:
material & production cost of a device: $5
Manufacturer markup: 10%: profit is 50cent per piece.
Wholesale importers buys the device for $5.5 and sells it with a 20% markup for $6.60 : profit: $1.10
Shop sells it with a 75% markup for $11.55 : profit: $4.95
Now the shop doesn't end up keeping the entire profit. Some goes to the landlord and the employees but it is clear that most of the profit ends up in the local economy and someone working for a shop adds much more value to the economy compared to someone working in a factory.
Simon:
--- Quote from: nctnico on April 26, 2020, 05:05:42 pm ---
--- Quote from: Simon on April 26, 2020, 04:37:45 pm ---Indeed, what do we do in the UK except run warehouses to shift shit and call centers to sell shit? we don't create wealth, we just move around the wealth created by others, my own employer buys in things we used to make ourselves but due to a rush to the bottom we cannot compete with china or even another EU country
--- End quote ---
You are not seeing the big picture here. Most of the profit is made in selling things, not manufacturing them. Just take an example:
material & production cost of a device: $5
Manufacturer markup: 10%: profit is 50cent per piece.
Wholesale importers buys the device for $5.5 and sells it with a 20% markup for $6.60 : profit: $1.10
Shop sells it with a 75% markup for $11.55 : profit: $4.95
Now the shop doesn't end up keeping the entire profit. Some goes to the landlord and the employees but it is clear that most of the profit ends up in the local economy and someone working for a shop adds much more value to the economy compared to someone working in a factory.
--- End quote ---
I do see the bigger picture. Retail and warehousing are poorly paid and as you don't need qualifications to do these jobs there is no incentive to offer or require better education. People in the UK have to claim benefits in order to pay their rents even when they are working..... And yet all these people do is push stuff around in circles. Yes a lot of the money is made in the retail side, and look at how that works. If you really want to look at the bigger picture you get into the politics of taxation, wages and tax avoidance whilst the money is slowly leached away to the manufacture of these goods that have to be purchased over and over again while the retailers bosses leave the country and don't pay tax.
If you decide you want more money for you unskilled job you don't get more money. If you were a skilled worker making the thing you would have more bargaining power for better wages. One of my bigger concerns in the lack of skilled jobs is the loss of social filtering, and the lack of need for any education that makes you a better person all round.
coppice:
--- Quote from: nctnico on April 26, 2020, 05:05:42 pm ---
--- Quote from: Simon on April 26, 2020, 04:37:45 pm ---Indeed, what do we do in the UK except run warehouses to shift shit and call centers to sell shit? we don't create wealth, we just move around the wealth created by others, my own employer buys in things we used to make ourselves but due to a rush to the bottom we cannot compete with china or even another EU country
--- End quote ---
You are not seeing the big picture here. Most of the profit is made in selling things, not manufacturing them. Just take an example:
material & production cost of a device: $5
Manufacturer markup: 10%: profit is 50cent per piece.
Wholesale importers buys the device for $5.5 and sells it with a 20% markup for $6.60 : profit: $1.10
Shop sells it with a 75% markup for $11.55 : profit: $4.95
Now the shop doesn't end up keeping the entire profit. Some goes to the landlord and the employees but it is clear that most of the profit ends up in the local economy and someone working for a shop adds much more value to the economy compared to someone working in a factory.
--- End quote ---
The people making stuff may be getting a raw deal, but if your local economy is creating nothing to send to the manufacturers as payment, eventually they stop sending you more goods.
floobydust:
I don't agree with your view, because MBA "profit" does not equal economic prosperity. On a macro-scale, manufacturing creates more jobs, more skilled workers,
than just warehouses selling imported shit. china does manufacturing, Walmart does reselling.
nctnico:
--- Quote from: floobydust on April 26, 2020, 06:02:50 pm ---I don't agree with your view, because MBA "profit" does not equal economic prosperity. On a macro-scale, manufacturing creates more jobs, more skilled workers,
than just warehouses selling imported shit. china does manufacturing, Walmart does reselling.
--- End quote ---
And what use is there for skilled workers in an automated factory? No matter how you look at it: most of the profit is made at the sales side. The place for skilled workers is at the sales side working in R&D; not on the factory floor.
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