Trade war: Hasbro is shifting manufacturing to Vietnam and India, drawing down production in China

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/25/india-thanks-trump.html

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[Ratel]

I kind of like the idea of GI Joe being made in Vietnam.

[Avery_Thorn]

So, what you’re saying is Trump’s great plan to employ American workers at sweatshop wages making cheap plastic dodads despite every economic indicator and businessman saying that it was a fool’s errand (which makes him certainly qualified to do it) has failed?

Shocking.

[ugh]

“spreading our footprint and adding new geographies for production.”

That’s not an explanation for the decision, that’s just a description of what they’re doing. It’s tautological: “we’re moving production because we want production to be somewhere else.”

[Gutierrez]

@doctorow

“spreading our footprint and adding new geographies for production.”

@doctorow

a process that has been underway for a decade as Chinese labor costs have risen.

As cheap labor gets harder to exploit inexpensive goods follow that labor. Where those jobs settle drives up wages and promotes a standard of living above the exploitable level and new nations are “colonized” with those industries.

Could a sustained policy of shifting trade war be a way of unintentionally improving standards of living across developing nations? Though sadly by neocolonially grinding human beings into toys.

Would that mean you would have to exhaust all exploitable labor before onshoring becomes practical again?

[Pensketch]

@doctorow

… the impact seems to be primarily about moving jobs from China to other low-waged countries …

So eventually as the rest of the world passes us, jobs will return to the US. Great news!

[Mister44]

Yes… YES! The Boba Fetts must flow!!

@Ratel

I kind of like the idea of GI Joe being made in Vietnam.

I don’t think the are actively making GI Joes at this time

[HMSGoose]

@doctorow

Notably, despite Trump’s insistence that trade war would shift jobs from China to America, the impact seems to be primarily about moving jobs from China to other low-waged countries

The Guardian had a headline of “Trade war hurting China more than the US” which is what counts as “winning” to this fucking nihilist regime.

@Gutierrez

Could a sustained policy of shifting trade war be a way of unintentionally improving standards of living across developing nations?

Neoliberals make this explicit argument all the time, that the only true and proper way to lift poor countries up is to rapaciously exploit their labor. If you try to limit imports from countries based on labor conditions and/or environmental concerns it’s YOU who hates the poor and wants them to suffer perpetually.

[DeclanMcManus]

A few Cubans get exiled to Miami by Communits popular movements and become Republican, and we blockade Cuba for 50+ years.

China’s Communist government is actually taking organs from political prisoners and religious minorities and American Corporations fall over themselves to exploit labor working under totalitarian conditions to shave a few bucks off of cheap flat-pack furniture that doesn’t last more than a year. .

Republicans, man.

[Mister44]

o_0 Well it wasn’t a blockade - the only blockade was from the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was an embargo, set up by JFK, who never thought it would last this long.

Better relations, ironically started by Nixon, with China is overall a good thing. They certainly have a ton of things the government does that we should be critical of. But ending trade relations would make matter worse, not better. China as individuals have way more upward mobility and freedoms than they have had in decades.

@HMSGoose

Neoliberals make this explicit argument all the time, that the only true and proper way to lift poor countries up is to rapaciously exploit their labor. If you try to limit imports from countries based on labor conditions and/or environmental concerns it’s YOU who hates the poor and wants them to suffer perpetually.

I’m not saying there isn’t some truth to this statement, but there is also some truth to this statement. External investment is a proven way to jump start economies, and you can see success stories from across the world. Where there was practically no industry to speak of, there are hustling and bustling cities, mortality rates drop, the percentage of people in abject poverty has dropped, GDP has risen.

I’m not saying the system is anywhere near perfect, but we are living with more people in good shape now than in any other time in human history.

[philbin1]

There is a certain macabre symmetry to this, yes.

[philbin1]

Capitalism, man, our version or theirs.

[HMSGoose]

@Mister44

I’m not saying there isn’t some truth to this statement, but there is also some truth to this statement.

I don’t disagree, but it can be rated as a “kernel” at best for the mountain of unspoken asterisks it conceals. The false dichotomy between “you can either take the first step of slavery or have nothing” is steeped in colonialist historicity of how nations develop economically. We could absolutely demand, or at least sponsor better worker treatment at the expense of our own import prices. We could also select manufacturing countries based on development need rather that lowest bidder [in terms of labor, human and environmental rights]

[DeclanMcManus]

1. Blockade, embargo, potato, potato

2. The idea that there are “more happy people now than there have ever been” ignores the fact that almost all human history has been a squalid charnel-house of violence and terror, and I think we can shoot for 'a little bit better than the Spanish Inquisition" as our social goal.

[Mister44]

@DeclanMcManus

Blockade, embargo, potato, potato

Dude - there is a HUGE difference. A Blockade keeps EVERYTHING from going in or out. Embargo means that one nation won’t trade with another. Everyone else is free to trade with them if they want. It has been a popular tourist spot for some Europeans, for example.

@DeclanMcManus

The idea that there are “more happy people now than there have ever been” ignores the fact that almost all human history has been a squalid charnel-house of violence and terror, and I think we can shoot for 'a little bit better than the Spanish Inquisition" as our social goal.

It doesn’t ignore the fact. It just recognizes progress has been made since the days of widespread “charnel-house of violence and terror”. Nor does it mean the work is done, and certainly one should shoot for something better than “a little bit better than the Spanish Inquisition”.

[JonS]

@HMSGoose

Neoliberals make this explicit argument all the time, that the only true and proper way to lift poor countries up is to rapaciously exploit their labor. If you try to limit imports from countries based on labor conditions and/or environmental concerns it’s YOU who hates the poor and wants them to suffer perpetually.

Wasn’t that basically the thesis of The Lexus and the Olive Tree?

[RioRico]

The ultimate low-cost labor dump is a slave state. Alas, North Koreans are mostly too underfed for factory work. Why don’t manufacturers build production lines in US prisons? They’re cheap.