It's an error to assume that there are absolutely no COVID tests made in the US simply because the small handful you received wasn't.
For instance, the popular over-the-counter at-home test manufactured by Abbott is made in the US, except for swabs (mix of Thailand and US) due to supply/demand issues.
https://www.globalpointofcare.abbott/en/product-details/bina...
If the only way US test production can compete is via predatory price gouging, that’s hardly a sign of health.
†: The criterion was performance vs. PCR test, even though PCR and antigen tests measure different things, so that the vendors who slipped through the regulation were those who best gamed the test studies, while various other vendors with tests that perform nearly identically in practice failed FDA study criterion. The FDA refused to accept a performance comparison of new antigen tests vs. already approved antigen tests.
It's an error to imply they were making this assumption in the first place. I, too, am baffled that two years into a pandemic, any tests are coming from China. Didn't the whole thing _start_ there?
Global supply chain issues have clearly stuck around, and we're relying on another country on another continent to provide something that would classify as an emergency good. You tell me how that makes sense.
The downvotes are cute, this is a very legitimate concern though. There's nothing wrong with wondering why China releasing a virus is just an "oopsie."
It's a tall order to fix 40 to 50 years of global offshoring in a 10 months. If COVID has taught me anything, I believe we are more likely to just grit our teeth and put up with the costs than actually try and fix the issue in the future. Americans will never buy (or could possibly afford) domestically manufactured goods. There is already fervor at increased food prices due to the labor price increases all across the food chain; you want to do the same to cups and plates? It would never be politically successful.
>The downvotes are cute, this is a very legitimate concern though. There's nothing wrong with wondering why China releasing a virus is just an "oopsie."
Because it's not a productive conversation. 1) Whether it's an "oopsie" or not, Americans were still unprepared. 2) If it's not an oopsie, what are you going to do? Invade China on a hunch? 3) Given the history of respiratory diseases in China (e.g. SARS), and the growth of China in the global economy, isn't it more likely that is SARS 2 ever occurred it would be global in nature? This isn't the first time China has had to deal with a respiratory virus.
That's... not what I asked for. We're talking respiratory cloth masks here, not the global economy.
Our discussion will be more productive if you don't put words in my mouth.
You're really trying to ignore the obvious red flags. Respiratory masks for US consumption being made in China is not a result of globalization. It's just corporate greed hiding behind virtue signals.
Where do you expect these masks to be made? In people's backyards? When you are talking about suppling millions of masks, you are talking about the global economy. The tooling that is used to quickly ramp production to that scale is because you can take already existing systems that are used to develop clothing and other apparel and rapidly convert them to making masks. If you don't have that, then where do you expect it to come from? If you don't already have people working in factory, making clothes, where will you find the people to start making masks? Then lets say you do find these people, on very short notice. You are now paying them american labor prices; will your potential customers just choose to source from overseas anyways?
I'm not putting words in your mouth; maybe you aren't fully aware the effort it would take to ship millions of anything on such a short timescale without having the existing infrastructure to do it; especially if that infrastructure hasn't existed for a very long time. You are putting forth a very difficult problem very matter of factly.
Trade agreements most likely.
I would not be surprised if that sort of preferential treatment would count as a subsidy and be actionable under NAFTA (whatever it's called now).
I would also add, as other people have mentioned, that domestic manufacturing requirements are at best over priced jobs programs through the back door.
Perhaps more importantly, it provides a national strategic interest that is not easily captured through economic analysis. When times are good and international trade happens smoothly this is not important, but when the international market breaks down for some reason, having domestic production gives our government more options in how to respond.
We saw this with covid, when every nation was scrambling critical resources to deal with the public health emergency. We see this now with Russia, who is regretting how dependent they on foreign trade; and in Europe who are regretting how dependent they are on Russian energy.
Yes, I know if you write software for a medical device, the FDA will have to approve it.
Slave labor cannot compete with free labor, that's why it disappeared well over a century ago.
> stolen and unlicensed manufacturing tech
I bet you're right the US would be far more innovative and efficient if patents were done away with entirely.
Or just charge a fee of $1,000,000 to register a patent. That'll end all the stupid frivolous patents and the patent troll industry.
A shame, really. Your account is on the CCP apologia watchlists now.
Wrong.
> What he is saying is that slave labor always loses out to free labor.
No, he literally wrote that "it disappeared well over a century ago". This is plain false, but telling this lie plays into the hand of governments like UAE and PRC that use slaves, but would like to forget the world that they do.
But I meant slavery disappearing in a different sense. It is still used to oppress people, but it is not economically competitive.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3167588/c...
Also, Chinese restrictions on companies restrictions on foreign companies pale in comparison to the freedom they enjoy in the US.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/12/28/bbchina-unveils...
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/28/enticing-china-market-tricki...
Google, Facebook and Twitter are all banned in mainland China.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/12/chinese-app-that-let-users-a...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma...
Meanwhile, TikTok and the likes are freely allowed to shape our minds.
Blocking foreign companies is a form of massive subsidy.
Off the top of my head:
1. what if US manufacturers can't supply them in sufficient quantity
2. what if US manufacturers' delivery dates are too far in the future
3. what if US manufacturers' product does not meet standard
4. what exactly is a US manufacturer anyway, in a world with a global supply chain and complex ownership structures?
5. what if there's only one US manufacturer, and so can charge monopoly prices?
Regulations and labor protection is good for workers, but it will increase cost and if those manufacturers have choice they will source their suppliers elsewhere.
Other comments also mentioned, that made in US isn't really a hallmark of quality across the board, if the consumers are expected to pay 2x-3x more, then it better has something extraordinary to offer, I don't think mask had that much differentiation
If you can make something in the US for $5 and sell it for $300 you make $295 profit.
If you can make it in China and ship it to the US for $4 you make $296 profit.
Therefore its better to make it in China. They disregard literally every other benefit.
Most products on a market have slim margins and here such production costs make a huge difference in profit if the buyer is not willing to pay much more for products (partially) produced in the home country.
I think it is pretty self explanatory.
(I'm not advocating for these restrictions.)
Um
> The United States is the world's third largest manufacturer (after the People's Republic of China and the European Union) with a record high real output in Q1 2018 of $2.00 trillion (i.e., adjusted for inflation in 2009 Dollars) well above the 2007 peak before the Great Recession of $1.95 trillion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_St....
It seems to me that historically the real controls on our business models were social, not regulatory. And with ethics and conscience removed, we've become a society being slowly devoured by a close relative of paper-clip optimizer AIs, running on distributed and fungible human wetware.
Functionally the EU operates with zero internal customs etc, free movement of people etc. It also represents a population group of a similar size to the US and China.
In the same way, breaking down manufacturing in the US by state, and comparing each state to China is not helpful, so dealing with each European country invidually in the comparison would not be helpful.
Plus from a motivational point of view adding in Mexico and Canada does nothing for those keen to improve the state of US manufacturing. Inside Europe there would be similar reports comparing the individual countries - and I suspect at the US state level there might be studies as well.
With the free movement of people though internal competition is less beneficial. (although geographic spread is still desirable.)
Many are nearly so. Giving people a thin veneer of token but not real freedom and token but not fair salary or decent working conditions doesn't absolve you of abuse.
Raise people in an environment where people learn that how they are being treated is right and make everyone fear dissent and you just won't hear about many peoples feelings from the other side of the world.
Obfuscation is the name of the game in the 21st century, make absolute things grey areas, and add layers of abstraction to the extent that you can't really tell what's being done or whose fault it is so that the same kinds of exploitation can keep going on and it's not so easy to be opposed to it because finding the target is just hard.
> Many are nearly so. Giving people a thin veneer of token but not real freedom and token but not fair salary or decent working conditions doesn't absolve you of abuse.
“Real freedom”? “Fair salary”? “Decent working conditions”? What makes you think Chinese people can’t make their own choices? They’ve been leaving the countryside nonstop for 70 years. The pay for unskilled labor has been going up pretty much nonstop since Deng opened up. China has a lot bad about it but I doubt you would be pretending Thai people are unthinking automatons and they’re about as rich as Chinese.
> Raise people in an environment where people learn that how they are being treated is right and make everyone fear dissent and you just won't hear about many peoples feelings from the other side of the world.
Indeed. You could make children sit down, shut up and do as they’re told all day five days a week if you just told people it was normal. You could invade and bomb other countries with impunity. You could support other countries in intervening in civil wars to keep them going without end. Good thing we’re free. Good thing we right thinking people would never do anything like that.
It is not that different when the time you pee is measured and factored in pay
Why can't the US government mandate hospitals need to purchase a percentage of their supplies from US manufacturers in order to receive medicaid/Medicare. It can be 10, 20%, low enough to keep costs down by importing the bulk from China, but high enough to maintain a base that can be ramped up.