Re: Don't believe the offshore hype? (long)

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

"Richard G. Combs" <richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com> wrote in message
news:231723 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
<snip>
>
> By the way, the loss of manufacturing jobs is not unique to us, and they
> aren't going to China. In fact, I recently saw some interesting statistics
> on econopundit.com: During the past decade (or something like that), China
> lost more manufacturing jobs than the US. We (and the Chinese) "lose"
> manufacturing jobs by learning to make the same goods more efficiently.
That
> frees up resources to produce new goods and services.
>
I just want to point out how statistics can mislead, how information can be
taken at face value and why information and data needs to be put in context.
Did that report say that China lost "more" manufacturing jobs as in raw
numbers more? Because there are about 4 times as many people in China as in
the U.S. now. Losing, say, 1.2 million Chinese manufacturing jobs vs, say, 1
million U.S. manufacturing jobs means that China did indeed lose "more," yet
the percentage lost is much less.

What I don't know is which has a greater affect on the economy as a whole.
>From what you've said, I might infer that the greater raw numbers have a
greater effect because there are more people to pursue other, perhaps more
productive ends. OTOH, a larger percentage of the workforce is still
laboring in a presumably less efficient sector, and does that have an effect
as well?

But here's a question: Isn't offshoring not necessarily more efficient, just
theoretically cheaper? Aren't many non-U.S. (typically third-world, but not
always) manufacturing facilities simply taking advantage of huge stockpiles
of cheap, cheap manual labor? Instead of finding manufacturing efficiencies,
the number of people laboring hasn't changed, just their location and cost.

-- 
--
Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net      www.writeforyou.com

"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. The day
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break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! This day, we fight!"
                    - Aragorn

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                    - Gandalf



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