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March 5th 04, 05:34 PM

(N2EY) wrote in message . com...
"Bill Sohl" wrote in message news:cCl1c.31439$hm4.7910

In the long run, those currently
cheap off shore labor markets will self adjust upwards.

Maybe. And if so, might they not find themselves in the same boat?

It's already happened.

Among others big-name Jap manufacturers like Sony, Honda, Toshiba,
etc. have been shoveling jobs into southeast Asia at a huge rate for
years and now they're moving into China at an astonishing rate too.
The Japanese unemployment rates are much worse than ours as a result.
It's even more of a kick in the butt for them because it's happening
in a society in which full employement has historically been a major
component of their culture.

Fifteen years ago moving manufacturing to Singapore was the hot
ticket. So everybody did. The singaporean economy skyrocketed, their
per capita wealth became the global model. Now the hot ticket is
getting the hell outta Singapore because manufacturing there costs too
much.

I don't know of any country that grew prosperous on a service economy
alone.

That's because there is no such thing as a "service economy", the term
and the concept are oxymorons. Economics 101: There are only three
ways a nation can generate wealth: (1) Dig valuable minerals out of
it's ground (2) Grow, catch or raise crops and critters (3) Enhance
the value of the outputs from (1) and (2) via manufacturing. Anything
else is just passing the same bucks around in circles until they peter
out. As exemplified by our balance of trade deficit.

73 de Jim, N2EY

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