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How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

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689 points taubek | 4 comments | 09 Apr 25 12:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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rayiner ◴[09 Apr 25 14:52 UTC] No.43632822[source]▶
Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries.

We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but four times bigger. Is that a world where “Designed by Apple in California, Made in China” still makes sense? What will be America’s competitive edge in that scenario?

What seems most likely to me in the future is that the US will find itself in the same position the UK is in now. Dominating finance and services won’t mean anything when both the IP and the physical products are being produced somewhere else.

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1. lanthissa ◴[09 Apr 25 20:08 UTC] No.43637236[source]▶
US wont end up in the situation that UK finds itself in because the land it occupies is some of the most productive land on earth and at a similar scale as china. The incredible wealth of america, is that its a land mass that in the old world would be supporting 500m-1.5b people, but is divided only amount 350m.

The city at the center of the Missouri and Mississippi if it were in europe would be a major civilization. In the US its saint louis. The US, CA, and AU have an option few countries do -- at any point they want nominal gdp growth all they have to do is open the door.

I agree with you though that china's incredibly impressive.

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2. literalAardvark ◴[10 Apr 25 09:17 UTC] No.43642187[source]▶
I'm not super knowledgeable about AU, but my gut impression is that it doesn't have much in the way of natural advantages.

Yes, it's lowpop, but that's about it.

Somewhat similar for CA, but CA is a lot better off than AU.

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3. avar ◴[10 Apr 25 23:32 UTC] No.43648923[source]▶
Out of those three, Australia's economy is proportionally the most reliant on natural resources. Its mining sector alone is a bit over 10% of overall GDP.
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4. literalAardvark ◴[13 Apr 25 08:53 UTC] No.43671207{3}[source]▶
Yeah but those don't exactly sustain a large, high HDI population.

They bring money and wreck the environment, which gets less pushback in Australia because very few live in the mining areas.