Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Maybe we need to be more like China

For months, even years, Republicans have talked as if solving our economic problems simply means reducing taxes, regulations and the debt, thus developing an atmosphere in which “job creators” can do their thing. Democrats have favored improving infrastructure and raising some taxes to reduce the debt, to the same manufacturing and jobs end.

Unfortunately, no one I know of has set forth a serious answer to our problems, which stem from outsourcing manufacturing. Until I read about Apple’s experience with the manufacture of iPhones, I did not understand either.

The difference is $65 per phone between manufacturing here and in China. But the issue is more complicated than that. The Chinese have thousands of semiskilled workers living in dormitories, where they can be called to work 12 hours at $17 a day, any hour, any day. They also have engineers who can solve technical problems more quickly than ours because they are on the spot. And they have a chain of suppliers equally well-equipped.

All these factors explain why Apple and other manufacturers have gone to China and elsewhere. Reducing corporate taxes and regulations, or capital gains and other forms of taxes, is not going to bring Apple or other industries home.

What is the answer to our problems? The Chinese government invested in some manufacturing companies that might prove out even when it was not clear what their prospects were. And they trained workers. We must do both.

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