Little boy, lose the attitude. Companies like NOKIA, have actually sent out investigators to see how the factories were run in China of the goods that they had contracted to have produced there. It's not happy land, it's much closer to a sweatshop than a good working environment. Most of these factories fail China's own labor laws, which are already a joke. The wages are slave wages, because whatever is paid is an illusion where the workers are forced to spend most of it at the company store at absurd rip-off prices. It's a modern day sweatshop, maybe you should lose the image of some burly guy whipping workers. When you dig into the details, it's just like the factories of the industrial revolution.
1) This is the NOKIA factory in china: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/9/19/lifefocus/6881737&sec=lifefocus 2) Most of the onsite food/service shops offer subsidized prices to its workers not the other way around. 3) During the industrial revolution, conditions in factories were inhuman with no safety or child labor laws, serious injuries and deaths were common, including that of many children. They were often beaten and not paid by the managers, many worked in the mines. No insurance or any safety measures were offered. Any history book will state as much, did you not finish highschool? The only similarity between china and the working conditions during the industrial revolution is the migration of the labor force from rural area to the cities. 4) Calling me names will not change the fact you are full of shit, and just another clueless idiot talking out of your ass. Wasted enough time on you, done.
Lets see first hand how many people here have actually been to China. The media and news articles do not always get things accurate or they embellish the stories to make it more interesting. I have been there several times. I had a software development team in Chengdu. We paid them a fraction (25%) of what a SD would make in the US, London or Sydney. This was a good wage compared to other jobs. We also paid for English classes as well. When chatting with the team I got the impression that their life style was still lower middle class and their wifes worked as well. Food was cheap as long as you didn't eat at the western fast food places etc... Real estate is very expense. They paid alot of their wage for a small apartment. Many of these middle class families could only afford to have a child if they had a parent that lived with them or close by to help raise them becaus ethey both had to work. When I was there I thought I could buy stuff cheaper then in the west. I was completely wrong. I could not believe it but most things were similiar in price (at least the stuff I was interested in finding). I couldn't find a toy which spoke chinese ... they all spoke English. I did go to some small markets with one of the guys from the office but I only found shit there which I cannot believe anyone would buy. I bought a traditional Chinese outfit for the kids but this wasn't even that cheap. I am going to the gym now and will add more later ...
*shrugs* there are still a lot of poor people in rural china, but China has succeeded in lifting 400 million out of poverty in the last 20 years. The poverty rate in China has plummeted from 85% to 15%, with the biggest part of that drop coming in the past 15 years, when China opened up to Western investment and its coastal regions boomed. In fact, in absolute terms, China accounts for nearly all the world's reduction in poverty. working 12-16 hours a day in a monotonous job sure sucks but it beats dying from starvation, scrambling for a few grains of rice. I saw a BBC documentary following the path of one of these migrant workers as he worked in a factory and made his way home to the villages to visit his parents. He bought his aged parents a fan and over dinner they exclaimed that, "life is good now, we can even afford meat every meal!" and they talked about how they can save money so they can send their children to good schools,etc. The labourer said that he worked hard now so that his son could go to school and not do this kind of menial job in the future. So, everyone's expectation is different. One man's meat is another man's poison.
I agree with you. Manufacturing cost is the name of the game in China and other Asian countries and not the retail price. I think the OP got confused with that.
I once read a statistic (no source) during industrial revolution in the west quality of life improved 50% a generation, in China these last 20 years lifestyle has improved 1000% a generation. If it's true or not I don't know.
You have to understand that rural China used to be self-sustainable. It no longer is and has not been for 2-3 decades. Why is that? Do you think there would be plentiful dirt cheap labor if rural China was self sustainable? Think about that for a while. Global trends do not just happen on their own.