I congratulate our new Chinese overlords

[Bereta_Eder]

on a as much unrelated note, how many times has the mermaid been decapitated and more importantly, why??

[BlackCat]

List of countries by GDP (2012):

USA: $16,244,600
People's Republic of China: $8,358,400

Back on topic

Yeah, only half, but what was it twenty years ago ? Start getting worried HC

[Spaced Cowboy]

As someone that has been to China over the last 6 years on many occasions. Be worried.

You really have no idea until you have been there. Masses of cheap, mostly competent labor and a rising middle class. Plus lots of really rich people.

I also think their government is far more efficient at growth and control than the US.

The pollution is nasty though.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Taiwan should be worried... this doesn't really affect America.

[Felch]

I remember when Japan was supposed to take the world over. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

[Dinner]

This is what happens when we give corps the ability to go after $0.54 per hour workers with no benefits or any other costs. BTW that is the actual hourly wage for an industrial worker in China so remember that when you read "wages in China are going up fast!" We're still just talking pennies and, no, you can't compete against that.

[Felch]

Vietnam can!

[DaShi]

In twenty years, America can!

[OneFootInTheGrave]

In twenty years, America can!

That's the spirit!

[Aeson]

I knew someday that all those sleepless hours (it was afternoon that day, and I missed my nap) of teaching myself a handful Chinese phrases would come in handy :ni hao ma:

[Kidlicious]

This doesn't mean much. China's economy can't keep growing like this but the growth certainly has been incredible.

[Dinner]

Sure, it can. They're still just making a tiny percentage of what western, Japanese, or even Korean people are making so there is a ton of upside still possible. They've only just begun to modernize the inland areas.

[The Mad Monk]

This is what happens when we give corps the ability to go after $0.54 per hour workers with no benefits or any other costs. BTW that is the actual hourly wage for an industrial worker in China so remember that when you read "wages in China are going up fast!" We're still just talking pennies and, no, you can't compete against that.

Rising middle class, lots of rich people.

[pchang]

Actually, you can

This is what happens when we give corps the ability to go after $0.54 per hour workers with no benefits or any other costs. BTW that is the actual hourly wage for an industrial worker in China so remember that when you read "wages in China are going up fast!" We're still just talking pennies and, no, you can't compete against that.

Automation, cheaper energy costs, and much lower transportation costs (if the market is local) is resulting in some manufacturing moving back to the US. However, because of the automation bit, this is not translating to many jobs.

[Geronimo]

Sure, it can. They're still just making a tiny percentage of what western, Japanese, or even Korean people are making so there is a ton of upside still possible. They've only just begun to modernize the inland areas.

I think "tiny percentage" is far too strong to apply to China as a whole especially on the average even if you use nominal instead of PPP comparisons. It is definitely less and less easy to expand the Chinese economy by modernizing rural china as the percentage of chinese living in undeveloped third world ****hole communities has dropped considerably.