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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 | 24 comments | 09 Apr 25 12:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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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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stronglikedan ◴[09 Apr 25 18:47 UTC] No.43635923[source]▶
> Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes.

The vast majority of us were over that decades ago. Please catch up for the sake of all humanity.

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1. Symbiote ◴[09 Apr 25 20:42 UTC] No.43637718[source]▶
Yesterday your vice president referred to the Chinese as "peasants".
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2. greenchair ◴[09 Apr 25 21:27 UTC] No.43638196[source]▶
all part of the negotiations :)
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3. IncreasePosts ◴[09 Apr 25 22:13 UTC] No.43638615[source]▶
Something like 35% of China's population works in the agriculture sector, many of whom are poor with little or no land holdings living in small villages. Is there a word for that kind of person?
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4. blargey ◴[09 Apr 25 23:05 UTC] No.43638950[source]▶
That number has been falling since 2012 and was around 22% as of 2023 (ignoring the hand-wavy conflation of the entire agriculture sector and stereotypical rural farmers)

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/employment-in-agriculture...

You could just as easily massage statistics to call the US a nation of gig workers or something, but neither is productive or informative.

5. bbreier ◴[10 Apr 25 03:59 UTC] No.43640497[source]▶
Peasant has a more specific meaning than this. More importantly, it has been used as a pejorative for a very long time now and that is clearly the intent the vice president had in mind.
replies(1): >>43647850 #
6. electrondood ◴[10 Apr 25 04:16 UTC] No.43640574[source]▶
Fair, but he's not exactly a shining beacon of the best we have to offer.
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7. spaceman_2020 ◴[10 Apr 25 05:02 UTC] No.43640780[source]▶
Would you call a midwest farmer in the US a “peasant” or just a farmer?

Let’s not pretend that peasants and farmers represent the same thing

replies(1): >>43647615 #
8. spaceman_2020 ◴[10 Apr 25 05:03 UTC] No.43640782[source]▶
Half your voting population deemed him to be fit enough to represent them
replies(1): >>43642330 #
9. prmoustache ◴[10 Apr 25 06:38 UTC] No.43641275[source]▶
I think the current US government is missing the negotiation part of the word negotiation.
10. literalAardvark ◴[10 Apr 25 09:16 UTC] No.43642175[source]▶
Unfortunately in a democracy the best we have to offer isn't what we actually offer.
11. refurb ◴[10 Apr 25 09:24 UTC] No.43642222[source]▶
No, he said “"We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants make”

He did not refer to all Chinese as peasants. China would like you think that though.

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12. apwell23 ◴[10 Apr 25 09:46 UTC] No.43642330{3}[source]▶
yea all voting population voted. ironic comment talking about intelligence.
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13. eagleislandsong ◴[10 Apr 25 09:53 UTC] No.43642353[source]▶
While it is true that Vance did not literally refer to all Chinese people as peasants, I do worry that such rhetoric will stoke the flames of racially motivated anti-Asian/anti-Chinese attacks.

I don't want to discuss whether he is genuinely racist; I think that's besides the point. Words can have a lot of impact, especially when uttered by a public figure in such a powerful position. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the Vice President of the United States to carefully weigh the consequences of his words before speaking.

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14. giantrobot ◴[10 Apr 25 11:34 UTC] No.43642828{3}[source]▶
> I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the Vice President of the United States to carefully weigh the consequences of his words before speaking.

He did carefully weigh the consequences of his words. He deliberately chose the most inflammatory and insulting of possible words. Knowingly and intentionally.

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15. mindslight ◴[10 Apr 25 13:27 UTC] No.43643570[source]▶
So then the actual bona fide peasants are the ones owning the T-bills? I thought holding USD reserves was national policy, with strict currency controls and whatnot. So my basic reading of that quote puts it closer to a dog whistle blanket characterization, and your promotion of the equivocation is quite disingenuous.
16. unethical_ban ◴[10 Apr 25 13:33 UTC] No.43643606[source]▶
It was an unnecessary slight by the vice president of the United States. Vance is a provocateur, and I'm not sure he's an intelligent one.
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17. vixen99 ◴[10 Apr 25 13:58 UTC] No.43643840{3}[source]▶
Definition: Peasant: 1. A member of the class constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in agriculture. 2. A country person; a rustic. 3. An uncouth, crude, or ill-bred person; a boor.

You unsurprisingly choose the third option. Uncouth, crude and or ill-bred people are probably not especially productive in their working life.

We do know that in China, rural people flock to the cities (where they have diminished welfare provisions and 'rural' status, do the work and are then expected to return to their homes in the country.

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18. unethical_ban ◴[10 Apr 25 16:55 UTC] No.43645833{4}[source]▶
Vance does not get the benefit of the doubt.
19. 9rx ◴[10 Apr 25 20:11 UTC] No.43647615{3}[source]▶
> Would you call a midwest farmer in the US a “peasant” or just a farmer?

All peasants are farmers, but not all farmers are poor.

So, no, not as a group. Midwest farmers, on balance, are going to be some of the richest people you can find in the country (mostly because of their land wealth, which Chinese farmers don't have). There are likely to be individual farmers in the midwest who you would call peasants, though.

Chinese farmers, on the other hand, are likely to be very poor. Some individual farmers in China are rich, but as far as the group goes... It is not as bad as it once was, but as that group they still lag well behind the typical urban dweller. As that group they are peasants.

20. ◴[10 Apr 25 20:42 UTC] No.43647850{3}[source]▶
21. ◴[10 Apr 25 20:49 UTC] No.43647904{4}[source]▶
22. ◴[10 Apr 25 21:03 UTC] No.43647999{3}[source]▶
23. spaceman_2020 ◴[10 Apr 25 21:12 UTC] No.43648048{4}[source]▶
the non voters didn't think he was bad enough of a representative to vote against him then. Equally complicit
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24. apwell23 ◴[11 Apr 25 04:14 UTC] No.43650459{5}[source]▶
oh you are a mind reader now ? great