• sparseMatrix@lemmy.ml
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    3 years ago

    When I was a child, a lot of things now made primarily in China and Taiwan were made in the United States or Japan. Things of particularly good quality and of advanced technology came from the US; cheap trinkets came from Japan, and China was literally starving. When we wouldn’t finish our meals as children, our mothers would literally tell us 'there is a starving child somewhere in China right now who would love to have (insert child-hated food here).

    China does so well because in the 70s and 80s the large corporations shipped manufacturing jobs and technologies to Japan and China. China literally does so well because Americans who needed things made got too greedy. Since then much of the skilled working class in America has disappeared, because if there are not jobs for you then what good is training and education? Until Americans stop subsidizing Asia without consumer-driven outsourced manufacturing, China will continue to do well. After that? Chinese policy will really matter to the Chinese, who still have not developed the means to feed their vast populations.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
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      3 years ago

      Large corporations shipped manufacturing to plenty of countries, yet they clearly haven’t developed the same way China has. For a direct comparison, just look at China and India. Both started roughly in the same place in the 50s. Clearly, the system does matter quite a bit.