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Comment by josefresco | Hacker News Reader

Inviting Chinese companies to the US to employ Mexicans at Chinese rates is the way to 'save America'?

I just defined the problem I didn't put forth a solution. But your indignation shows exactly why the problem is so significant.

Having said that I'm not saying it isn't the way to save America either. The problem right now is while Chinese adults are making low wages they're managing to put away enough money to send their kids to University. Which in turn is causing Universities to spring up in China. If those graduates stay in China they'll innovate there and almost inevitably steal some of the high level work done by Americans (such as technology design and engineering). Then we start to lose those jobs and the wealth starts flowing into Asia.

So the question is: Isn't it better for the U.S. to have the Mexican adult pay for his child to go to a U.S. University and innovate here?

I think its worth being aware that you are talking about Chinese adults working for low wages and _pulling_ _themselves_ _and_ _their_ _families_ _out_ _of_ _extreme_ _poverty_. And that is a good thing.

I'm not saying it's not a good thing. But it's an equally good thing if a Mexican family pulls_themselves_and_their_families_out_of_extreme_poverty. If you thought through my point rather than just emoting you would have realized that.

It's an equally good thing if a Mexican family escapes from extreme poverty, but there are far fewer Mexicans actually living in extreme poverty.

1-2% of Mexico lives on $1.25/day (PPP adjusted) compared to 16% of China. For $2/day, the numbers are 9% and 36%. 15% of Mexico and 45% of China lacks improved sanitation, 6% vs 11% for improved water supply.

All data taken from this crappy web form: http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do

Probably not, but you have to accept the fact you can't go back to the time when American manufactured goods could compete in price with their Chinese counterparts while employing a similarly sized workforce.

And I wouldn't blame your past few federal governments either. This is a problem that has been steadily developing for more than half a century.

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