Federal Funding Cuts Could Hurt St. Louis' China Hub Project

• You should be careful to consider that there are more factors that move manufacturing to China than just labor. Their labor costs are certainly less, but that comes at a pretty big cost (i.e. shipping, quality, etc.). I'll trust that you will look into these ideas on your own, because surely you will want to seek a better truth, but labor costs have little to do with most of our manufacturing off-shoring. There are several studies that show that our labor force can compete in a lot of areas -- because our labor force is far more efficient than most places -- but the cost of doing business in the US has forced manufacturing elsewhere. Take these things into consideration: 1. Zero Environmental Regulation in China -- when they want a day without acid rain they try to "seed" the clouds (remember the Olympics?). They are atrocious about the environment... their hazardous waste just becomes a cheap filler material for their exports (remember the lead-paint on the toys?) 2. Less (or at least different) Government Bureaucracy- To open a plant here, you will need to do years of studies (environmental, labor, even traffic studies) to try to prove that a city/county should let you manufacture goods. All of this costs money, and even worse, time. In China you just need to pay off a fraud that holds a government position. This isn't difficult to do; their government is full of them (think Illinois/Chicago on steroids) 3. Zero workplace safety standards... just google it. I'm sure you can imagine it... but seriously, you should see the difference in accidents/injury/deaths... 4. TAXES!!!!!!!- This is SO important for you to realize!!!! Businesses are taxed more in the US than in anywhere else in the word... let alone China. Look it up for yourself... the American businesses pay between 35-42% of their income in taxes (depending on the state). China, in comparison, is only around 25%. So, at a minimum, doing business in China has a 10% financial advantage over the US. So what is my point? The higher manufacturing costs in the US has more-to-do with factors other-than wages. We can and should be able to compete in manufacturing... As for the Airport... I hope we do get the hub, but the last thing that we need to do is spend tons of money to get it here. Instead of us pandering to China, they should be pandering to us. We need to get our head out of our own asses and allow ourselves to compete...

• China is going to get their hub in midest whether people like Fwddodge like it or not. St. Louis can either step up and capitalize on this opportunity to enter the global economy or let it pass and continue to be left in the dust. Not to mention local products would be made and shipped to China as a result of this project. Even still, the simple fact is manufacturing in America is the way of the past. It's simply too cheap for companies to outsource manufacturing to Mexico, China, Africa, etc. Focusing on that is backwards thinking and will only continue to hurt St. Louis's attempts at economic revitalization. The city needs to be forward-thinking and willing to evolve... Not ass-backwards thinking and trying to recapture some past form of glory that simply does not exist anymore.

• I agree with this in spirit, but the fact is that we're never going to get those manufacturing jobs back because Americans think they deserve waay more money than they're worth. Instead of getting manufacturing jobs they'd rather just sit at home and collect welfare and unemployment.. Yes, China is dirty and evil as shit., but we have to do business with them if we want to keep our economy afloat. If not us, then some other city would gladly step in.

• good. the last thing st louis or any other major city should be doing is going into buisness directly with the chinese. instead of trying to make st louis a "hub" for cheap chinese junk to be shipped around the country they should be focusing on getting manufacturing jobs back here.

TotalComments: 4