From: vagans@eanna.net   
      
   On 25 Nov 2003 alienthe@hotmail.com wrote:   
      
      
      
   > Secondly you have the problems of lead time: Far East is popular   
   > for assembly work, yet components are still made in the West.   
   > This means a change in the product means 2-3 weeks transport   
   > overhead to reach your factory in China plus a similar time to   
   > see the product appear on the shelves in the West. These 4-6   
   > weeks cost a lot in a world where the lifetime of a product   
   > series is about 6 months.   
      
   This is true. But there is another issue. In the old capitalist model   
   basic commodities were bought (or stolen) from the 3rd world, and   
   shipped to the west where they were turned into manufactured commodities   
   by industrial processes. A portion of the manufactures were sold in the   
   3rd world. So, for example, Ford would sell a portion of its US based   
   production to China. Today, Ford builds a factory in China for selling   
   cars in China. US (and European) auto workers are eliminated from the   
   equation. With the growth of consumer credit in Asia, this process   
   should grow. No need to ship product back to the west for sale here. The   
   Asian market has more profit potential than the west anymore.   
      
   > This is a well known issue to anyone who has had anything to do   
   > with production but nearly unknown with the kind of management   
   > that, true to fashion, "abstract themselves above implementation   
   > issues". It seems very few production oriented or skilled leaders   
   > are left in the West. A few exist and it is this kind that makes   
   > it still possible to produce PCs in Germany, with profit.   
      
   Do they make PCs or just assemble them?   
      
   GM, for example, does not make profits selling cars. It makes profits   
   financing the purchase of their cars (credit). It might even be cheaper   
   to manufacture the cars in China and ship them here for sale at a   
   profit. Considering soybeans are the USs number one export (along with   
   forest, agricultural, and mining products), we might see a complete   
   reversal of the old capitalist model, turing the west into the new 3rd   
   world exporting natural commodities in exchange for the manufactures of   
   Asia.   
      
      
      
      
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