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1971genocide

This is bad new for everyone. China's economy is a the only thing that is driving global demand - at least for the last few years after the financial crisis.

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No it isn't, most of the developed world doesn't export much to China. The only countries likely to suffer are natural resource exporters.

And autocompanies, they've been making bank from the rising middle class.

American automakers have made good money in that market and many other companies have had exclusive special edition for Chinese market.

The one company that couldn't make bank is Tesla, I have no idea why probably market team not being able to adapt to the culture over there.

And they've already taken a decent hit. Look at the AUD.

From what I've read on Reddit (so take it with a grain of salt), a lot of companies have recently been switching from having their goods manufactured in China to in the U.S. Due to falling oil prices it doesn't work out much more expensive, and the benefits from not having to wait 6+ weeks for a shipment that may or may not be correct out weight the price difference.

The big difference in cost between US manufacturing and China manufacturing is labor, and then probably government subsidies. Low oil prices favor China.

Increasing labor costs in China and the strengthening of the Yuan (not the recent move, the 10 year trend) are probably the primary things driving manufacturing back to the US.

With fracking, the US has lower energy costs than China: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-25/china-vs-dot...

Right, my argument is that energy is not the most important difference. It may well be that the recent energy price moves are the thing that finally tipped the scales, but better wages in China as the economy there has expanded (along with soft wage growth in the US) have had a much bigger impact when you look at the last couple of decades.

Apart from naive tribalism, is there any reason people so interested in "driving manufacturing back to the US"? Isn't it better to let it happen in whatever country buyers prefer to buy from? Maybe America doesn't need to make so many low-tech products anymore. Maybe it can cope with ongoing unemployment better than China can.

> Apart from naive tribalism, is there any reason people so interested in "driving manufacturing back to the US"?

Stimulating local economy?

that is interesting only if you are US resident, which many of us are not :)

What does "Made in China" vs. "Made in the USA" say to you?

Well, the people interested in "driving manufacturing back to the US" are mostly US residents.

The US has regulations. China does too but they enforce them...selectively.

More local manufacturing means more local jobs.

Supply chain contagion. David Korowicz.

http://www.feasta.org/2012/06/17/trade-off-financial-system-...

This reminds me of the book by Kevin Carson titled New Homebrew Industrial Revolution. He outlines in the beginning of the book how modern economics depends on mass consumption due to our mass production systems. But if mass consumption can't be subsidized by cheaper interest rates or cheaper energy costs (as stated in the summary) then we're boned.

Carson gives the alternative as a local industrial base that fits itself to local consumption similar to how flour mills operate. No need to force New York to consume as much as San Francisco.

Yes. The most business-friendly labor laws in the developed world. Employment-at-will is only practised in the US and a handful of third world countries.

Environmentaly speaking, i suppose US factories deal with wastes much better than china. From a worker legislation pov, i also suppose that US doesn't employ children.

Some small part have but it's a minority. Manufacturing has been moving out of China for the past 10 years at an increasingly rapid pace. It's going to ASEAN nations who together have been working hard at becoming the next "factory of the world". Far more factories have moved from China to Vietnam than China to the US. If China has gotten to expensive for you than the US is as well too.

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