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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 | 2 comments | 09 Apr 25 12:58 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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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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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Symbiote ◴[09 Apr 25 20:42 UTC] No.43637718[source]▶
Yesterday your vice president referred to the Chinese as "peasants".
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IncreasePosts ◴[09 Apr 25 22:13 UTC] No.43638615{3}[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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1. spaceman_2020 ◴[10 Apr 25 05:02 UTC] No.43640780{4}[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

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2. 9rx ◴[10 Apr 25 20:11 UTC] No.43647615[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.