When a "free, capitalist" society can't produce anything and relies on communist China to produce all your goods...
You know you fucked up BIG TIME
Discussion
It was deliberate
There is only capitalism. Except on a global scale some corporations are called "countries"
Don‘t forget hongkong which is their „free market“ but in general i agree on that.
Good business ideas are good business ideas. Whether they are implemented by the state or a private entity.
That said, the free market usually gets it right more often.
Or at least, gets purged by the system when they get it wrong.
It just boils down to labor cost. Its hard to compete against the slave labor market in China. Given a choice, I always buy products not made in China for this reason.
Five years ago while in Singapore, I ran into the CEO of a plastic manufacturing company. He said, his company wouldn't be competitive if they didn't use China's slave labor. At that time, $1,200/year was consider upper middle class in China.
$1200 was average salary in my country - Czech Republic - in 2016. Today official average salary in Czech Republic is $1850.
Which is way less than half of monthly average salary in China. ($4214)
I don't doubt the numbers are bullshit to large extent. But it doesn't seem like slave labor to me. At least from this pure, cold, number perspective.
But of course as my total tax burden is over 60% I could easily argue I'm over 60% slave...
Just saying...
"can't"? Or "doesn't"?
We’re living in the moment where communists understand capitalism better than capitalists itself.