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Low cost labor delays advancements in automation.

The iPhone could have been made in the west, but for many years it would have cost a lot more. It’s hard to imagine, but half a million people working in a single factory can accomplish amazing things. With America’s aging population, this is very difficult to accomplish here, And robotics are still many decades away from replacing reconfigurable human labor at low cost.

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Interesting train of thought.

Do you think that we in the west are then more closely responsible for the repression of people in China than what we admit to ourselves? We want cheap things? Oh, this country can offer low cost labor... It's like blood diamonds (probably worse in terms of scale), but less controversial for some reason.

It’s easy to ignore what’s impossible to morally justify.

Have any economists done the study? It would be interesting to see. Maybe a PhD or two in this area.

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