That is true and yet I don't think that a shirt for example with the YSL label 'Made in China' has the same 'effect ' when compared to a label saying..... 'Made in France' ... if you happen to care about it because it is after all linked to certain status .....
it is all about economics ... unfortunately ... in order to be able to stay competitive in the huge mass market ...
Open Forum
Free speechHow can independent craft people survive when one lives in the UK or the US, and the labor in China, such as dress making, sample making, cost so much less? If you are a sample maker, and you are working with a small fashion company, they have asked around for different quotes and they insist that you lower yours other wise they will outsource to Asia-because your price is not competitive enough-but how can they use this as a reason since the cost of living is completely on a different level in the west, no one can survive if they lower their price so they could compete with China or Vietnam when it comes to sample making. Sometimes I find the employer side to be unreasonable to ask independent contractors living in the west to make their prices comparable with those in China or Vietnam.
In reply to Galileo's Universe:
Really? Do you think people don't care if it's a known English label, that people wouldn't appreciate it more if they are all made in England?
In reply to KaWai:
... what I'm saying is ... YSL + France, being the particular example I have used to illustrate the value of a label ..... both names are intensely linked !!! ... that works also for a very well established English or Italian label whenever the case.... or brand ! ...
You can still have articles and items labelled, "Made in France" or "Made in UK" but who do you think made the articles/items in France or UK? The production sector could always hire workers from developing or third world countries.
The other day the report on the US job market was that the number of job lost was at a new high, while the stock market went up. The disconnection between the profit margin and the lost of the number of jobs in the developed nations will get bigger and bigger, if all the manufacturing jobs have gone off shores. There's no responsibility from the CEOs to provide jobs that are locally based to help foster the growth of the headquarter cities. The Dow Jones reflects the reality of the wealthy has no need to care for the disappearing jobs that are home base as long as they keep cutting cost and they keep getting more profits. This is a very scary and unhealthy cycle. The only way to balance that is to have lots of small businesses, and encourage new industries and innovation to grow, because those are the ones that can create locally based jobs. Even though sadly as long as the new businesses find a way to mass produce, they will out source the production to developing nations. A sad but true situation.
But then governments should be willing to help ! ... sadly that's not always the case even if they pretend to give the illusion to wanting to do so... the market rules no matter what !... and globalisation is a great blessing in disguise for the big concerns whose aim is to monopolise on whatever and wherever possible ..... they don't care about having any sort of business ethics ... they don't care about cultural and social issues ... they don't care about the environment ... they don't care about humans ... they only care about the number of zeros that can be added to their already huge and 'good' fortunes ....but then again that is part of our human nature when it comes to one of the seven deadly sins called GREED ... a true paradox in a way because we as consumers keep feeding their greed .... for more and more ! .....
In reply to Galileo's Universe:
California as well as in Europe, they are busy developing alternative fuel, and materials for rooftops for solar panels, the job market for that sector is looking up, but in the same time, I had read in China(in a good way, good for the environment), there are manufactures that are making alternative materials for rooftops, in a much lower cost, they are not able to mass produce yet because the infrastructure of the cities have not been set up properly to encourage such use, but the technology is there, so, for environmental issues, there are lots of possibility to grow new jobs, because solar or alternative power could translate into all different kinds of utilities at home, from television sets, computers, to refrigerator, air conditioners, all would have to convert to using alternative power. The government has to set up attractive incentive to encourage companies to set up more operations locally, the current trend of off shoring is only developing disharmony in society, the local people have no benefits from the success of the big corperations, when all the jobs are moved offshore, and the only jobs left are the service industry jobs. If the companies set up operation locally, they expect the workers to pay in competitive wages as in Asia, which is impossible and unfair according to the cost of living. The workers in developed cities according to the evolution of the global economy get paid less, while of cost of living rises, from gas to utilities to rent. Free market can exist only if the government provide a safety net for their people, the pure capitalism is bad for any society, it has proven. Right now the US is one country if you live here, feels the most pure in capitalism, I think, when the government isn't willing to provide universal health care, and Bush only wants to give tax breaks to the wealthiest, and only give middle to low income a tax rebate of no more than $600 per person-a short sighted and uncreative way to try to solve the problem, of course that's not his agenda since he is leaving office in a few months, now it's the time for his administration to do as much damage and squeeze as much money out as possible, they don't have to be responsible for it, as we speak. The argument was always the big companies create jobs, that used to be the case, but not anymore, they don't create jobs locally, they only create jobs overseas, they create very few jobs locally, only the answering of phones and the initial designing, selling and executive jobs.
In reply to KaWai:
That's the trend all over in Europe.... and there is nothing we can do about about it !... everything is being 'privatized ' and more often than not to the detriment of ordinary consumers and employees, that is the wickedness of it .... Before they manage to have an X company ... totally in their hands then the say that 'they will not fire people ', they just say that they will only ' reorganize' the enterprise or the public service in question .... the usual CLICHE ! . But in fact what they create in the process is a lot of missery and poverty along the way ... and on top of that then they take ' their' business whenever possible to another part of the world where they can exploit people with much lower standards of living... they call that 'progress' and caring for the poor in 3rd world countries of course .... in the end we are all just becoming their powerless slaves, because ' MONEY' is their total and sacred credo , and they are absolutely devoted to it no matter who or what they destroy in the process... ! But sometimes I wonder how long can that trend go on before people start what I would call .... a new ' French Revolution' .... against the corporate tyrants of this world ! .... as we know empires and tyrants come and go ... so how long before people say .... enough is enough !!! ... after all their corporations can't keep growing unless they decide to search for new 'MARKETS' on the moon ... the most likely choice because it will save them FUEL ! than lets say planet Mars !! .... it is all about 'efficiency' of course !!! .... and ironically enough the truth is not far from it ..... a trip to the moon to do your shopping spree is actually in the making.... but of course the shops have yet to be built ... but in the mean time you can dream of it ! ..... courtesy of those who really care that you are able to dream and dream .....:):)