I know that over the last 30-40 years many factory jobs or union jobs in the US were lost to outsourcing, and I know that today many car companies and other manufacturers get cheaper labor by opening factories in other countries. My question is, why did this all happen in one giant wave around the same time? Did some kind of law/regulation change to make this more doable for companies? Or is it just because the world became more globalized in general?
In: Economics
China came online. They got over their bloody revolution and tried communism, keeping their borders shut. And then they finally started opening up to trade and found they had a TON of workers willing to go through some really brutal conditions for a buck.
“Around the same time”? “One giant wave”? You’re talking about a span of 40 years! “Computers” are only 60 years old. Personal computers only became ubiquitous 40 years ago. In the last 20 years we had 3 recessions.
>Did some kind of law/regulation change to make this more doable for companies?
I mean… kinda yeah. Mao finally kicked it, and Deng [reformed China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_economic_reform). It took a decade.
>Or is it just because the world became more globalized in general?
Yeah, that too. China trying to be capitalists wouldn’t have worked if global shipping wasn’t viable. Bunker fuel is a byproduct of oil production, and if you want X gallons of gasoline, you’ll have Y gallons of bunker fuel. This is STILL why shipping from China is so cheap.
And it wasn’t ALL China. When Korea and Japan rebuilt after the war, they were producing a lot of stuff that competed with local goods. …I dunno if factories relocated though.
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