|
In Reply to: how about the IMF posted by Acheick on January 31, 2004 at 13:03:30:
The difficulty in finding American made products goes to my point about the vanishing middle class. For every product we can't find, who knows how many good paying middle class jobs are gone?
I was reading in the Auto Club magazine last month about how difficult it is to figure out if the car your are driving is in fact American made. It turns out that Fords and Chevys are no longer assembled in the US, but Toyotas are.
They are quick to point out that the profits from Toyotas go to Japan, while Ford and Chevrolet profits come here, but to who? a handfull of millionaires?
Here's an interesting website with some facts and references:
http://home.alltel.net/bsundquist1/gcib.html
Interesting statistics:
Developing World as a Whole
Median per-capita income is under $2/day (under $730/ year) (Ref.11, 25 and 26 of Ref.00S1).
Latin America - Mexico
Minimum wage is $0.50/ hour. In one US auto plant in Mexico, the workers went on strike. The Mexican police shot several and put the strikers back to work-and cut their wages 45%.
Workers in the Tijuana maquiladoras are paid about $0.50/ hour - less than before NAFTA passed (Sierra, July/ August, 1997).
Mexican auto industry wages and benefits average $4.00/ hour, vs. $30/ hour in the US (92L1).
Average wages in Mexico's export-oriented maquiladoras sector are $1.73/ hour, vs. $2.17/ hour in the Mexican economy as a whole (92L1).
Real wages in Mexico were less in 1999 than in 1980, despite NAFTA and some 4000 maquiladoras plants employing over one million workers (99C1).
Labor productivity in Mexico's export industries is typically 80-100% of US levels, while wages are 10-15% of US levels. The Mexican government used armed forces to intimidate workers and establishes business associations to fix wage rates, which are kept low to attract foreign capital. NAFTA provides more incentives for US businesses to train Mexican workers than American workers (Jeff Faux, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 9/8/93).
Despite seemingly low wages and wretched conditions, Mexico is losing garment assembly jobs to Central America, call centers to Argentina, data processing to India, and electronics manufacture to China (03M1). Mexico has nearly lost the battle on low-skilled, labor-intensive industries according to Merrill Lynch's Latin American specialist Robert Berges. Two of Mexico's original advantages - low labor costs and cheap currency - are gone according to the head of General Electric Corp's Mexico operations (03M1).
Asia - China
The average factory wage in China is about $0.40/ hour (02I1).
Two thirds of China's people live on less than $1/ day (02I1).
Market rate for unskilled labor: $0.60/ hour (02W1) (The article notes that China's supply of unskilled labor is essentially infinite.)
Skilled workers in China earn $100-$150/ month for 50-65 hours/ week. Unskilled workers get $50-70/ month (presumably for same hours) (Joseph Periera, Wall St. Journal, 5/28/93).
Fed by over-investment, China has built up a glut of manufacturing capacity so huge that China could produce nearly twice what it does. China sold $150 billion of goods abroad in 1996, almost as much as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia combined. Chinese unemployment is rising (Joseph Kahn, Wall St. Journal, 7/14/97).
The average income for a rural resident (population: 700 million) in China is $286/year (03W1).
The income of China's farmers in 2002 was 2470 yuan (US$298). Average income of urban residents: 7500+ yuan (US$906) (03U1).
