That's the point though, I'm not saying that I want to raise wages in developing nations (that would kick up the cost of production for items and their eventual price worldwide). I'm talking about finding a way to make first-world goods, available for decent prices in second-world nations.
The knock-off companies already exploit this market with cheap imitations where they can, so there's obviously a market for it.
As a western consumer, it drives me crazy that there are products I want out there that I'm prevented from buying from trade cabals and exclusive deals (just look at the US cellphone market for an idea of how ridiculous this can get). Opening up markets to me, means finding ways to open up the market to consumers as well as suppliers. Raising wages decreases profits, but focussing only on the markets where there is maximum profit is a behaviour we could likely change. Look at the billions in financial aid going to developing nations that notoriously gets chewed up in administration and wasteful projects. How about using some of that to subsidize western goods to a price affordable in the economic scope of these nations. Nations develop faster from the people-up, not government-down. It's like I always say; build a man a fire, you keep him warm for the night; SET a man on fire, you keep him warm for the rest of his life :-P
Basically, free trade goes both ways. breaking down economic barriers for consumers to choose who they by from is a big one for me. When you have vast differentials in purchasing power because of the relative economies of nations is something we definately need to figure out how to buffer and adjust.
And you know what, for the companies that /have/ done something similar to this in various countries, they've found an immediate benefits. Cheap illegal knock-offs of their products start to dissappear, the population starts demanding the real thing, and the nation starts to transform from a source of cheap labor into something far more vital.. a new full-profit market.
South Korea and Vietnam have both been fairly good examples of this behaviour.
At this point, I'm kinda amused Ronin hasnt chipped in on this yet actually - I think he's just sitting back and seeing where we end up.
no subject
The knock-off companies already exploit this market with cheap imitations where they can, so there's obviously a market for it.
As a western consumer, it drives me crazy that there are products I want out there that I'm prevented from buying from trade cabals and exclusive deals (just look at the US cellphone market for an idea of how ridiculous this can get). Opening up markets to me, means finding ways to open up the market to consumers as well as suppliers. Raising wages decreases profits, but focussing only on the markets where there is maximum profit is a behaviour we could likely change. Look at the billions in financial aid going to developing nations that notoriously gets chewed up in administration and wasteful projects. How about using some of that to subsidize western goods to a price affordable in the economic scope of these nations. Nations develop faster from the people-up, not government-down. It's like I always say; build a man a fire, you keep him warm for the night; SET a man on fire, you keep him warm for the rest of his life :-P
Basically, free trade goes both ways. breaking down economic barriers for consumers to choose who they by from is a big one for me. When you have vast differentials in purchasing power because of the relative economies of nations is something we definately need to figure out how to buffer and adjust.
And you know what, for the companies that /have/ done something similar to this in various countries, they've found an immediate benefits. Cheap illegal knock-offs of their products start to dissappear, the population starts demanding the real thing, and the nation starts to transform from a source of cheap labor into something far more vital.. a new full-profit market.
South Korea and Vietnam have both been fairly good examples of this behaviour.
At this point, I'm kinda amused Ronin hasnt chipped in on this yet actually - I think he's just sitting back and seeing where we end up.