More here
http://qz.com/803626/ivanka-trumps-...oving-from-made-in-china-to-made-in-ethiopia/
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Ivanka Trumps shoe collection may be moving from China to.... Ethiopia
- Thread starter Oersted
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More here
http://qz.com/803626/ivanka-trumps-...oving-from-made-in-china-to-made-in-ethiopia/
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CarpeDeezNutz
Member
So labor is cheaper there than China? Wow.
China's middle class is rising.
Pellegri Testament
Member
#MakeEthiopiaGreatAgain
Yekshemesh
Member
This is a job Americans can do. Put your money where your mouth is Trump. Bring these jobs back to America.
*Waiting for our resident Trump supporters to show up in this thread like they did the Apple thread.
*Waiting for our resident Trump supporters to show up in this thread like they did the Apple thread.
Chinese wages are rising too high. Think of Japan and SK. There are fewer and fewer people willing to do that almost slave labor for low wages. What does it say about Ethiopia that Chinese want to move manufacturing there to save money? They're going to work them to the bone and no one will complain because they will pay off Ethiopian governmwnt and authorities to turn a blind eye.
Living the Dream
Member
Galactic Specter
Member
Everything was made in Ethiopia
obijkenobi
Member
I know which company should be the first to get the 45% tariff slapped on it!
#MAGA
#MAGA
evil solrac v3.0
Member
these are all things that just can't be done in the USA anymore. people wouldn't put up with having to live in dorms to work a minimum wage job.
yep.
LUFTRAUSER
Banned
Yeah. And after them it will just be robots.
Polioliolio
Member
How.. how can information, so blatantly contradictory, not affect the mainstream culture and opinion of the man in the slightest?
HELLOOOOoo!??
HELLOOOOoo!??
So you acknowledge that these sorts of jobs do actually help countries develop, but you're against these factories opening in Ethiopia?
"But at least they're making money"
It is true though. People take these jobs because they are better than the alternatives available to them. And they help countries develop and get better jobs, which is why they're moving from China to Ethiopia in the first place.
I do think there is a moral imperative for rich countries to help poor countries develop, and we should be doing what we can to "speed up" this phase of industrial development that makes people uncomfortable. Investments in education and infrastructure and such could do a lot to increase the "earning power" of a country. But denying countries this path towards a better future is not the morally superior position.
People complain about jobs being outsourced to cheaper countries, but we have every other advantage. Better infrastructure, better education, better healthcare and on and on. Dirt cheap labour is the only competitive edge many places have, and they need to use it to build up the things that might give them those other advantages and allow them to attract and create better jobs.
It also allows China to receive preferential treatment when it comes to natural resource extraction.
LyleLanley
Banned
This isn't really that new. Many footwear companies are looking into moving production to Ethiopia but we're a long way away from it having a significant portion of the business.
uncredited male
Member
It is all coming back around.
ghostofsparta
Member
Lol. Trump is going to play his voter like a fucking fiddle
Autumn Wind
Member
If New Balance can make sneakers/shoes in the USA, so can Ivanka Trump.
Yeah, because its pretty evil shit. Just because you can't replicate those conditions in the USA, doesn't mean those conditions are inevitable elsewhere. You can legislate to stop western countries exploiting third-world labour and legislate (eg. tariffs) to force more production in desired locations (ie. back in America). Theres just no political will on both sides of politics.
darkistheway
Member
I am of two minds about this. On one hand bringing the industrial revolution to Africa will probably be of long-term benefit for Africans (I'm probably being too optimistic) but other hand, consumer capitalism has exploited enough cheap labor and it is time for it to die off ( but I don't think North America is ready stop shopping at Walmart).
I can't even begin to articulate my discomfort about how all this fits with the history of Africa.
I can't even begin to articulate my discomfort about how all this fits with the history of Africa.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
What I don't get is how this all ends. We either run out of poor people to exploit in factory labour, or these people are doomed to eternal servitude because there's no one else willing to work for even less?
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
A giant, white foot stepping on countless black lives. Whoever is writing this whole disgusting clusterfuck needs to learn some subtlety.
darkistheway
Member
By the time Africa is done, Americans will have been ground down enough that $2/hour will seem like mana from heaven?
History is a cycle.
Trump's in it for the long-term. Eventually, Ethiopia will outsource the labor to the US!
The cheap Chinese good phenomenon is gone.
It always works like that. If you move a lot of jobs somewhere, the wages raise too much. It is happening to both India and China. This will eventually mean moving back to local production in the US and Europe but a lot more automated because at that point it would be distance, not labor that would be the cost.
-Plasma Reus-
Service guarantees member status
Yep. Africa is the next cheap labour continent.
SolidusDave
Member
I watched a documentary piece recently about exactly this shoe company in Ethiopia. They already started production there and while the boss claimed that one Ethiopian worker is only about 70% as productive as their Chinese counterpart, they cost faaaaar less.
They make the workers do a little military routine each morning lol
Muppet of a Man
Member
Nice. Exploit more people. Further destroy the environment. Sounds about right for a con man's agenda.
Why are people surprised? China is not doing anything new. They basically follow the same footstep of Japan/South Korea/Taiwan. Produce cheap stuff, make money, move wages up, copy, innovate, then finally create its own brand/technology. They are now just in the transition phase from export economy to consuming market with the rise of middle class. China won't be able to keep the same economy engine in next 10 years, wages is rising too high and there are so many other cheaper alternatives.
Although, the same result can't be expected for every country exporting cheap stuff and labour. You need proper planning and governing to make it happen and doesn't fall in the middle of the way due to being unable to adapt and create your own technology.
BTW the challenge now is no longer about moving the production to cheaper country, but to compete with autonomous system which now occupy more and more factory. Generate the job using cheap labour might no longer be the thing in next decades, Asian countries might be the last place that can do that before the robot coming in and mostly replace human labour. African countries will find it a lot harder and will need a lot more thought if they want to push up the economy.
Although, the same result can't be expected for every country exporting cheap stuff and labour. You need proper planning and governing to make it happen and doesn't fall in the middle of the way due to being unable to adapt and create your own technology.
BTW the challenge now is no longer about moving the production to cheaper country, but to compete with autonomous system which now occupy more and more factory. Generate the job using cheap labour might no longer be the thing in next decades, Asian countries might be the last place that can do that before the robot coming in and mostly replace human labour. African countries will find it a lot harder and will need a lot more thought if they want to push up the economy.
it'll be more like "the poor African workers making Chinese phones" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...t-60-billion-in-africa-heres-what-that-means/
nephilimdj
Member
Hard to compete with people being paid 150 USD a month, those horrid non skilled wages in Africa
Pizza con salsiccia
Banned
Trump's daughter said she'd bring jobs back to 'murica?
Yekshemesh
Member
Who ran on a platform of bringing manufacturing jobs back to America? Hilarious you hold such a low standerd for the Trump brand than other brands. Donald Trump's family businesses isn't held to these standards? Why can't American companies be contracted to make these shoes?
Most of his supporters can barely scratch together empathy and understanding for their fellow countryman you want them to see someone from another country half way across the world as a person?!
That's asking quite a bit.
D
Deleted member 10571
Unconfirmed Member
Also, no one did put these numbers into insanely exaggerated, pandering and easy to share meme posts in time. Now it's too late, all Facebook timelines are already decided.
Ragnar Blackmane
Member
I wonder where the world's major production lines will move to when the Ethiopian middle class rises too fast in 20 or 30 years. Somalia?
Pizza con salsiccia
Banned
One way or the other, I really don't give a shit. I'm not American, I got no plans to move to the US. I was just pointing out that she was not the one who said she'd bring jobs back to the US.
Yeah, this usually makes Ethiopians happy. Ethiopia has for the last decade or so been heavily invested in by China. It's obviously a complicated relationship, where China is doing what it can to maintain its manufacturing business by taking advantage of cheap labour, and also using the natural resources there.
On the other hand, GDP in Ethiopia has skyrocketed in the last 10-15 years, and unemployment has increasingly declined. Additionally, many of the benefits to infrastructure have been monumentally life changing. When my family went to visit recently, one of my uncle's went on and on about all the new roads and highways, and how it cut down travel time across the country significantly. They talked about the improvements in things like hospitals and the building of supermarkets in the major cities (there was -one- supermarket in Addis when I visited 15 years ago). The growing opportunity for new exports - like the very first vinyard and wine export.
Basically... It's easy to say that this is foreign investors abusing African labour, but it doesn't reflect the complicated and frankly mutually beneficial relationship this has on a developing nation.
On the other hand, GDP in Ethiopia has skyrocketed in the last 10-15 years, and unemployment has increasingly declined. Additionally, many of the benefits to infrastructure have been monumentally life changing. When my family went to visit recently, one of my uncle's went on and on about all the new roads and highways, and how it cut down travel time across the country significantly. They talked about the improvements in things like hospitals and the building of supermarkets in the major cities (there was -one- supermarket in Addis when I visited 15 years ago). The growing opportunity for new exports - like the very first vinyard and wine export.
Basically... It's easy to say that this is foreign investors abusing African labour, but it doesn't reflect the complicated and frankly mutually beneficial relationship this has on a developing nation.
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