The End of Cheap Chinese Labor

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ธ.ค. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 3.1K

  • @PolyMatter
    @PolyMatter  ปีที่แล้ว +1576

    If you're someone who usually skips sponsor reads at the end of the video, (no worries) but I encourage you to listen to this one, in which I give a little bit of background for why we created Nebula and why it's not just another streaming service. No pressure to sign up, but it might still be interesting to hear about. -Evan

    • @heidirabenau511
      @heidirabenau511 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Will there be more episodes of China Actually?

    • @ieaatclams
      @ieaatclams ปีที่แล้ว +66

      No thanks

    • @KJ4EZJ
      @KJ4EZJ ปีที่แล้ว +116

      I already have Nebula but, respectfully, you should consider putting in some conclusion to your videos. Both on Nebula and with SponsorBlock, they just abruptly end and it is awkward. It feels like something is missing every time. I love your channel and always click on new videos, so I hope you take it as constructive feedback and you grow even faster. Thank you!

    • @tjakkobosma5872
      @tjakkobosma5872 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      @PolyMatter -Evan is kinda corporate, I would drop it

    • @hongchenfei
      @hongchenfei ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I am a Chinese college student studying in Macau (this is why I can log in to youtube). My impression of Made in China is that almost all the things with visible trademarks around me are made in China, and the really high-end European, American, Japanese, Korean and Taiwan products The product label cannot be seen, because China is responsible for the assembly and integration solution provider, but China is overcoming this phenomenon and manufacturing real high-end products by itself.
      About housing prices: Regarding China's housing prices, my understanding is: China is a land-oriented economic development model, buying a house = buying national bonds = the country's future prospects. When the country's prospects are all the way up, the house will become more and more valuable, and the repayment of the loan will become less and less, but this will only make the college students/graduate students who graduate later and work more and more painful.
      Regarding education: It is worth mentioning that the college entrance examination is extremely unfair. China can be roughly understood as having three types of universities: A CLASS, B CLASS, and C LASS. In 2022, high school students in Beijing have a 46% chance of being admitted to A CLASS universities, while high school students in my hometown of Jiangxi Province have a 41% chance of being admitted to A, B, and C universities in 2022. Beijingers get into better universities just because they are Beijingers and their test papers are easier.
      Supplement: Part of the content is contrary to the content in the video. More and more students can't accept to engage in physical work after studying in college, so more and more people hope to continue to graduate school, to avoid entering the workplace or hope to get a better job, so China's Postgraduate examinations are also gradually creating new records for the number of students. And the graduates/postgraduates contributed a lot to the unemployment rate after the lockdown. On the one hand, the society scoffs at those who graduated from technical secondary schools/college/vocational high schools, and the wages of those engaged in manual work are not optimistic, and they are very tiring.
      About childbirth: I asked several female friends around me, including girlfriends, that they all resisted childbirth. The reasons include the great pain it brings, the huge damage to the appearance after childbirth, and the hard work of raising children. and time for yourself.

  • @williamthebonquerer9181
    @williamthebonquerer9181 ปีที่แล้ว +5245

    I think it's important for people to know that the vast majority of child Labourers work in agriculture not in sweatshops. The same was true in the Victorian era but child labor in factories were more visible to the urban middle class so it has more cultural impact

    • @Snp2024
      @Snp2024 ปีที่แล้ว +170

      Is child helping on family farm count as child labour? Or only counts if he/she working on others place?

    • @williamthebonquerer9181
      @williamthebonquerer9181 ปีที่แล้ว +508

      ​@@Snp2024 Thankfully something which is considered a crime against humanity has got legal definitions, a kid driving a tractor in Ohio is different from Uzbekistan child cotton pickers

    • @VoidEternal
      @VoidEternal ปีที่แล้ว +60

      @@Snp2024 Think meat processing plants.

    • @ellenripley4837
      @ellenripley4837 ปีที่แล้ว +37

      This is probably true in some countries but child labor in African countries is a bit different.

    • @hedgeearthridge6807
      @hedgeearthridge6807 ปีที่แล้ว +125

      My great-grandfather who grew up in Florida in the 1950's didn't learn how to read because he worked on farms instead. Especially in the Orange Groves. He was tough as nails though, kept working in his garden into his 70's

  • @michaelturner4457
    @michaelturner4457 ปีที่แล้ว +3194

    1960s..."The end of cheap Japanese labor"
    1980s..."The end of cheap Korean labor"
    2010s..."The end of cheap Chinese labor"

    • @anonymousinfinido2540
      @anonymousinfinido2540 ปีที่แล้ว +660

      Next Indian labour?

    • @sakshamagrawal6984
      @sakshamagrawal6984 ปีที่แล้ว +419

      Followed by Nigeria

    • @dhirajgawande007
      @dhirajgawande007 ปีที่แล้ว +211

      @@sakshamagrawal6984 followed by Pakistan

    • @Polska_Edits
      @Polska_Edits ปีที่แล้ว +27

      ​@@dhirajgawande007 what's next?

    • @NewPaulActs17
      @NewPaulActs17 ปีที่แล้ว +219

      @@sakshamagrawal6984 india and nigeria are yet decades away.

  • @AJ-mz6lk
    @AJ-mz6lk ปีที่แล้ว +675

    As a Chinese, I found your content very accurate. A major issue in China is the “state religion of education” forces a lot of parents to train their only child to do well in exams and they are not trained in any other aspects in life. Eventually a large group of graduate students will not have the skill nor the resilience to work as a skilled labor in factories. Factories have to pay way more for the same skill 20 years ago, and this is only getting worse.

    • @4bidden204
      @4bidden204 ปีที่แล้ว +58

      是的,回想起来我第一次坐高铁都不知道应该是如何一个流程,中国的教育更多的是考试而非教育如何学习、思考和生活

    • @leoli8819
      @leoli8819 ปีที่แล้ว +133

      Tell me a country where graduate students have the skills or the resilience to work as a skilled labor in factories

    • @kelvinc.7531
      @kelvinc.7531 ปีที่แล้ว +77

      When graduate students need to work as factory workers, the country's economy is already dead.

    • @ChucksSEADnDEAD
      @ChucksSEADnDEAD ปีที่แล้ว +36

      ​@@leoli8819 Not the point. A high pressure, high stress environment where one mostly learns how to take tests is terrible at producing well rounded individuals. When you hire a new graduate, the intent is that the previous generation will pass down the knowledge before they hit retirement age and it gets lost. The social skills, the ability to think outside the box, etc are just as valuable as tests, but kids don't "cram" for that.

    • @potdevodka
      @potdevodka ปีที่แล้ว +12

      I think the main objective of this type of education is not to teach them but rather act as a filter to select the best students, due to the disparity between large population and the available resources.

  • @kimothefungenuis
    @kimothefungenuis ปีที่แล้ว +5158

    Cheap labour is usually a transitional period, not a permanent one.

    • @arevolvingdoor3836
      @arevolvingdoor3836 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I think a part of the idea, 15-20 years ago, might have been that if China could make its citizens stop having children, it might be able to encourage them to have more. But thats just my thought, I have no evidence to back it up.

    • @onesmallstepatthetime6914
      @onesmallstepatthetime6914 ปีที่แล้ว +175

      Coughs in Bengali*

    • @p00bix
      @p00bix ปีที่แล้ว +272

      @@onesmallstepatthetime6914 *Bengali and they're industrializing more quickly than basically any other country in human history. They still have most likely a decade or two before sweatshops can be entirely phased out, but they're practically the poster child for cheap labor's transitoriness.

    • @andrewalltheway
      @andrewalltheway ปีที่แล้ว +79

      ​@@p00bix Bangladeshi* Bengali includes indian people too.

    • @p00bix
      @p00bix ปีที่แล้ว +40

      @@andrewalltheway I know. I'm referring to the Bengali language. There is no 'Bangladeshi' language

  • @aliuddinsiddiqui07
    @aliuddinsiddiqui07 ปีที่แล้ว +2956

    Children, also known as free labour in agricultural societies ☠️

    • @TheHipClip
      @TheHipClip ปีที่แล้ว

      I mean go to any farm now and you'll see the whole family working. It's just the reality of life that farmwork is labor intensive and wages go up, no one wants to do back breaking labor on a below subsistence wage. It's no wonder farmers get so many subsidies, otherwise no one in the West would be profitable

    • @bababababababa6124
      @bababababababa6124 ปีที่แล้ว +156

      PolyMatter has jokes 💀

    • @hongchenfei
      @hongchenfei ปีที่แล้ว +160

      I am a Chinese college student studying in Macau (this is why I can log in to youtube). My impression of Made in China is that almost all the things with visible trademarks around me are made in China, and the really high-end European, American, Japanese, Korean and Taiwan products The product label cannot be seen, because China is responsible for the assembly and integration solution provider, but China is overcoming this phenomenon and manufacturing real high-end products by itself.
      About housing prices: Regarding China's housing prices, my understanding is: China is a land-oriented economic development model, buying a house = buying national bonds = the country's future prospects. When the country's prospects are all the way up, the house will become more and more valuable, and the repayment of the loan will become less and less, but this will only make the college students/graduate students who graduate later and work more and more painful.
      Regarding education: It is worth mentioning that the college entrance examination is extremely unfair. China can be roughly understood as having three types of universities: A CLASS, B CLASS, and C LASS. In 2022, high school students in Beijing have a 46% chance of being admitted to A CLASS universities, while high school students in my hometown of Jiangxi Province have a 41% chance of being admitted to A, B, and C universities in 2022. Beijingers get into better universities just because they are Beijingers and their test papers are easier.
      Supplement: Part of the content is contrary to the content in the video. More and more students can't accept to engage in physical work after studying in college, so more and more people hope to continue to graduate school, to avoid entering the workplace or hope to get a better job, so China's Postgraduate examinations are also gradually creating new records for the number of students. And the graduates/postgraduates contributed a lot to the unemployment rate after the lockdown. On the one hand, the society scoffs at those who graduated from technical secondary schools/college/vocational high schools, and the wages of those engaged in manual work are not optimistic, and they are very tiring.
      About childbirth: I asked several female friends around me, including girlfriends, that they all resisted childbirth. The reasons include the great pain it brings, the huge damage to the appearance after childbirth, and the hard work of raising children. and time for yourself.

    • @gabomarquez2720
      @gabomarquez2720 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      ​@@hongchenfei 1987

    • @carlrodalegrado4104
      @carlrodalegrado4104 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      i mean he is not wrong most of us would be farmers if the industrial revolution did not happen

  • @magma2680
    @magma2680 ปีที่แล้ว +332

    The end of these videos never fail to make me frustrated and saying "that's it? He was still making a point..."

    • @yucateco14
      @yucateco14 ปีที่แล้ว

      It can't be true, China has clean Air, they do NOT pollute the whole planet burning Coal and they don't pillage all ocean sealife at all

    • @ernstschmidt4725
      @ernstschmidt4725 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      get nubula lol

    • @tomlxyz
      @tomlxyz ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Ikr

    • @tomlxyz
      @tomlxyz ปีที่แล้ว +36

      ​@@ernstschmidt4725 no

    • @cldeltanion9187
      @cldeltanion9187 ปีที่แล้ว +52

      i thought the same thing. he needs to actually END the video, and then transition into an ad. it was very disappointing.

  • @NiklasAndersson7
    @NiklasAndersson7 ปีที่แล้ว +473

    Nice video. 20 years late though. I have worked for a multinational company in India. When an entire planet wants to hire labor in Bangalore 'because it's cheap' - that sudden, abnormal demand does something to prices and price structures. We don't live in a vacuum. Same thing has happened in China. It was long ago it was advantageous to hire in those countries.

    • @OkarinHououinKyouma
      @OkarinHououinKyouma ปีที่แล้ว

      Indian labor is unskilled, unproductive, and it might be rude to say, but they are "rowdy"... I heard about the vandalism in Foxconn factory by Indian workers. No wonder companies prefer countries like Vietnam where people are obedient.

    • @Voice_of_p
      @Voice_of_p ปีที่แล้ว +3

      i had no idea😅.

    • @iXpertMan
      @iXpertMan ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Do you have a prediction on our expensive future? As I foresee the job market shrink and prices on goods rise with loss of cheap Chinese labour. Any recommendations for avg ppl? :)

    • @Cheesecake99YearsAgo
      @Cheesecake99YearsAgo ปีที่แล้ว +11

      ​@@iXpertMan China is already using AI on the backend
      Just imagine them operating 247 with AI with all the cheap 5G technologies and industry 4.0 implemented throughout China
      Can the other cheap labours countries compete ?

    • @aliabdallah102
      @aliabdallah102 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Cheesecake99YearsAgo yes. Easily, because China is crumbling. The rot is beginning to surface.

  • @ryerye9019
    @ryerye9019 ปีที่แล้ว +140

    I've lived in China and some of these countries for several years. In many ways labor cannot be fully commodified, so comparing the price of "unskilled" labor across countries isn't an apple to apple comparison. What is priced into the labor are many of the factors mentioned in the video: infrastructure, supply chains, security, quality control, education, market access, and what I call the Henry Ford effect. When your employees are paid enough, they become your customers driving growth and generating what Robert Reich calls a virtuous economic cycle. So cheap labor is good for a export economy, but not a consumer based economy. Some of these countries had many years and a head start on China, so there is another prerequisite factor put under the nebulous category of "political will". China planned and engineered their economic rise, while too many developing countries fight the inevitable or follow wherever the wind blows them.

    • @luka3174
      @luka3174 ปีที่แล้ว

      China will too have that wind. Unless they introduce protectionary policies, they may lose their manufacturing to India and other poorer countries. I'm not saying it's all bad, the average joe is much better off and a middle class now exists. Just don't expect that current account surplus to continue, because historically it hasn't.
      Just like how the English usurped the Spanish with the cheap labour, and the Americas replacing the English.

    • @viviben8197
      @viviben8197 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      The labours being paid much higher is true, but they are not willing to consume is another matter.

    • @xuanchen3434
      @xuanchen3434 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      ⁠@@DeadManWalking-ym1oohigh unemployment rate doesn’t mean it’ll stay forever. Young people are realizing the difficulty and turning to labor jobs. New economic circulations are under forming. Unlike most other countries, China has enough control to let people not starve even without economic circulation and eventually get over the transition period.

    • @petergreen5337
      @petergreen5337 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Well said and well OBSERVED

    • @NazriB
      @NazriB ปีที่แล้ว

      Lies again? Champions League Cheap Athletes

  • @Trgn
    @Trgn ปีที่แล้ว +478

    Main reasons why big manufacturing companies picked China is not because of cheap labor that can be get anywhere in the world, but because the sheer scale and efficiency of their manufacturing, infrastructure. For eg Iphones most the parts are also sourced from China. If any change to design Apple can just make a phone call to China. China spent decades investing in infrastructure making their logistics one of the best in the world. And competitive standard public education making all sort of transferable skills labour pool available for such industries. No where in the world you can have orders delivered to your contries as fast, as on spec, on demand, competitive shipping and pricing as China.

    • @Fauzanarief-n7i
      @Fauzanarief-n7i ปีที่แล้ว +66

      Not to mention about OEM manufacturing, western brand now is just ordering a order production on china OEM company and slap their logo on top of it.

    • @siarnaqfrost4968
      @siarnaqfrost4968 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      My cousin who is a seafarer said that Chinese ports are mostly automated it barely have a dozen people in there when their cargo ships docked. It is insane. It is no longer cheap labour anymore but the lack of it and the speed they are modernizing their logistics and manufacturing capabilities.

    • @MrNajibrazak
      @MrNajibrazak ปีที่แล้ว +11

      @@siarnaqfrost4968 which rendered many jobless when jobs were already hard to come by even before pre pandemic era.

    • @jieyan7952
      @jieyan7952 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@siarnaqfrost4968 欢迎来中国旅行

    • @Cheesecake99YearsAgo
      @Cheesecake99YearsAgo ปีที่แล้ว +23

      ​@@MrNajibrazak their automated solutions are used for the Chinese society
      And as for joblessness in most other countries is because of the lack of alternate skills.
      Just look at how much the government is investing or subsidising the education sector and you will know

  • @RSfiregod
    @RSfiregod ปีที่แล้ว +601

    Coincidently last night on our news there was a topic about this. Turns out it is currently 18% cheaper to manufacturer in our own country (Belgium) than to let it be made in China. Its early days, but more and more company's will shift once they calculate their costs again.
    This video talks abouth south american countries, but Belgium is compared to that way more expensive in hourly wages..

    • @nzs316
      @nzs316 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      I so look forward to the day that the powers that be conclude that we have to bring back manufacturing home. Every dollar you sent to China helps build another aircraft carrier or military aircraft.

    • @RoboRoby321
      @RoboRoby321 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@nzs316 and you're giving them your product for free because they will copy it and resell it for cheaper

    • @shotelco
      @shotelco ปีที่แล้ว +128

      ​@@nzs316 Says the guy who types his comment on a _Chinese_ manufactured keyboard, looking at a _Chinese_ manufactured monitor, his had on a _Chinese_ manufactured mouse, with a _Chinese_ manufactured iPhone in his pocket.

    • @nzs316
      @nzs316 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      @@shotelco And your peripherals are not!

    • @jonthornburg3723
      @jonthornburg3723 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@shotelco and? he said he looks forward to the day, not that it is here. also fuck do and the ccp

  • @Mekchanoid
    @Mekchanoid ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Fascinating. And so many aspects of this story deserve a closer look!

  • @Dominus_Potatus
    @Dominus_Potatus ปีที่แล้ว +64

    And imagine thay adults, in Asia culture, mostly take care their parents.
    So, suddenly you have hamburger generation where you take care the old and young at the same time.

    • @Buorgenhaeren
      @Buorgenhaeren ปีที่แล้ว

      That's better than letting your parents rot in a nursing home

    • @cheng-s8r
      @cheng-s8r ปีที่แล้ว

      额,你可能对东亚社会存在误解,东亚社会的储蓄率超级高,如果他有两个家庭等着他去继承财产,基本等于这个人什么工作都不用干就有超级多的钱和房子

    • @Dominus_Potatus
      @Dominus_Potatus ปีที่แล้ว

      @@cheng-s8r Understandable albeit you assume both parents are rich.
      Btw, I am using google translate, so we might have mis communication.

    • @cheng-s8r
      @cheng-s8r ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Dominus_Potatus 如果你查询中国过去几十年出生人数,而不是宣传中国崩溃的反华宣传,在新型冠状病毒爆发之前,中国每年出生人口在两千万左右,也就是说中国人口总和生育率在过去几十年都在1.8以上,每一个家庭生育1.8个孩子,中国的一个孩子政策除了极个别地区,只在汉族的中国共产党身上强制执行(少数民族有豁免政策),中共官员想要晋升需要响应国家政策,也就是说只能有一个孩子,在少数民族不执行,这些官员在城市都有自己的房子,也就是说都有几十万美元的资产。所以说大部分只有一个孩子的家庭都比较富裕,比较贫穷的家庭和地区大部分都有两个孩子和以上,中国出生人口大幅度下降是在全面放开生育政策之后。你可以查找数据。

  • @poiuytrewqqwertyufy
    @poiuytrewqqwertyufy ปีที่แล้ว +83

    “In the city children turn from valuable assets into expensive liabilities”...
    > Peter Zeihan has entered the chat.

    • @BlueBeeMCMLXI
      @BlueBeeMCMLXI ปีที่แล้ว

      This is moron-think. No children, no nation.

    • @ChucksSEADnDEAD
      @ChucksSEADnDEAD ปีที่แล้ว +6

      ​@Jack Smith you need a source for the sky being blue? Look out the window.

    • @ChucksSEADnDEAD
      @ChucksSEADnDEAD ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @Jack Smith Is that supposed to be English?

    • @ChucksSEADnDEAD
      @ChucksSEADnDEAD ปีที่แล้ว

      @Jack Smith What does this have to do with Zeihan? You're trying to claim that actually children in cities are working and in the countryside they're going to school.

  • @MBT06
    @MBT06 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    For the graph at 5:40, I think its a good idea to add population into the industrialization graph for better understanding.

  • @fugslayernominee1397
    @fugslayernominee1397 ปีที่แล้ว +1529

    You shouldn't have left out the part about stability and economic policies of nations, there are multiple reasons for why companies do not prefer a lot of African or Latin American countries despite the low costs of labor there. Mexico for example has a massive problem with gangs, drug cartels, corruption, etc.

    • @SaxonFaust
      @SaxonFaust ปีที่แล้ว +147

      Mexico is close to the US so goods transportation is also low cost

    • @namenameson9065
      @namenameson9065 ปีที่แล้ว +140

      China supports those Mexican cartels. Decoupling from China would reduce a lot of the world's stability issues.

    • @Homer-OJ-Simpson
      @Homer-OJ-Simpson ปีที่แล้ว +92

      And China has the CCP that closed down the country for 3 years. Mexicos problems is less cartels and more incompetent policies but yet they are seeing a huge growth in manufacturing. They are next door to US (biggest market in the world) and have free trade within North America. They are in great position to take many of those jobs from China and already are doing so. In fact, many Chinese firms are opening up shop in Mexico joining American, Japanese and Korean companies that seem to dominate many parts of Mexico.

    • @leihtory7423
      @leihtory7423 ปีที่แล้ว

      also consistency. you only have to bribe the ccp.
      in any other country you have to bribe multiple politicians, that may or may not be in office next year.
      imagine having to bribe another politician.

    • @realname4401
      @realname4401 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@namenameson9065 How lol? China bad

  • @kairon156
    @kairon156 ปีที่แล้ว +29

    play lists and knowing which episodes are Nebula exclusive would make it so much more appealing.

    • @froggieboy8
      @froggieboy8 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I agree, Nebula is a little light on features. I am subscribed to it to support the creators, but it can be hard to use and I wish they would work it out..

    • @kairon156
      @kairon156 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@froggieboy8 I had to unsubscribe due to wanting to save up Money for a laptop and VR.
      But I'll be sure to rejoin Nebula next year after I have a new laptop. I do like supporting non TH-cam groups.

    • @mystic701
      @mystic701 ปีที่แล้ว

  • @TheHipClip
    @TheHipClip ปีที่แล้ว +736

    I remember the string of FoxConn suicides because of the horrible working conditions caused by Apple's greed for the cheapest labor.

    • @TriNguyen-he7xk
      @TriNguyen-he7xk ปีที่แล้ว

      apple hires the cheapest source. FoxConn treats their workers like shit. FoxConn has more influence over FoxConn's employees than apple who is merely a customer even if the largest

    • @AvocadoOverlord777
      @AvocadoOverlord777 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I haven't heard of this, what happened?

    • @RT-qd8yl
      @RT-qd8yl ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Have you seen the pictures?

    • @Dear_Mr._Isaiah_Deringer
      @Dear_Mr._Isaiah_Deringer ปีที่แล้ว +81

      The nets solved it.

    • @SlartiMarvinbartfast
      @SlartiMarvinbartfast ปีที่แล้ว

      @fdbj8795 I wouldn't belive anything that Apple says, unless it was something along the lines of "we only care about your money".

  • @dubliners0999
    @dubliners0999 ปีที่แล้ว +130

    When I worked at a large community college system in a large metropolis in the Pacific Northwest, 90% of our student population was Asian. Many of my students shared that if there was more than one child in the family, only the oldest boy was sent to college. All other family members were made to work and invest in that boy-child's education and success. Many of my students struggled with higher education. Some of that was a big cultural shift. In their home country, all family members "contributed" to a child's education (i.e., tutored them and in some cases, did their homework for them). In the U.S., however, having a family member write something for that college student was considered academic misconduct. This was shocking to many of my Chinese students who could not grasp that in America, achieving success on one's one was the drill--not "collecting" from all family members to succeed in one's class in an American college. Also, many of my Asian students were very quiet and passive. They had been taught in their home country to memorize facts and give them back in standardized tests. Critical thinking or thinking on one's own was not valued (so they told me). It was exhausting to try and get them to share their ideas as they did not see the value in that; instead, they wanted me to give them "the right answer" so that they could memorize this. Of course, this doesn't work when teaching writing composition. Unfortunately, many of my students ended up in a long succession of remedial or developmental courses before they could go on to transfer-level courses; and as most know, the longer the sequence, the bigger the drop out ratio. It was very sad and I ultimately took a job in the Midwest where I felt I could be of more. My best wishes to anyone who is seeking to better themselves through education. As first-generation college graduates, me and my sisters would tell you that it is the way up and out of poverty.

    • @BlueBeeMCMLXI
      @BlueBeeMCMLXI ปีที่แล้ว +3

      It may not be, it will depend on what field you study. The skills of a human being need to be varied and life-improving, more than narrow-focused. Although specialists will make more money, over the longer term.

    • @cbcluckyii4042
      @cbcluckyii4042 ปีที่แล้ว

      Hmm I don't buy it because most most Asian kids born in the 70s or later, with exception of Japanese cannot rely on the parents to do their homework for them and get a passing grade. If you're talking about elementary school, yes. Idk where you got that from, someone was probably telling you that because you appear to be gullible. Asking your parents to do your homework, get two slaps across the face.

    • @xuanchen3434
      @xuanchen3434 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Man, that’s true for 1990s. Now it’s 2023. Things are completely different. Living in US literally makes people forget how fast things can develop.

    • @alexsmith-ob3lu
      @alexsmith-ob3lu ปีที่แล้ว

      I’ve worked as a technical instructor for a technical community college in the New England states and I can also relate to what you mentioned.
      International students from China are either exceptional, or mediocre students who are trying to get by, or they’re from wealthy families and just here to party. Typically, the smarter, more motivated ones go on to state/private colleges for degrees in medicine or engineering. Those in community college are just trying to pass so they can transfer over state/private college programs or are there to not really learn anything but to waste time.

  • @xiqian440
    @xiqian440 ปีที่แล้ว +198

    Fun fact: 10:13 you're talking about flights between Shanghai and SF, but the footage you used is "China Airline", which is the airline of Taiwan...I don't think they operate direct flights between US and Mainland China😂. Anyway this is a great video.

    • @hen8622
      @hen8622 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      was looking for this comment.

    • @lotrlmao1648
      @lotrlmao1648 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      为什么这些外国人每当谈到华人政治问题时都这么不专业

    • @filiprohn1643
      @filiprohn1643 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      ​@@lotrlmao1648 We're hardly professional about our own political issues, so nothing new under the sun 😅

    • @kvlin94
      @kvlin94 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      was about to address this as well haha

    • @dNv4sKGtxGW3un5WpgpGj5
      @dNv4sKGtxGW3un5WpgpGj5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Same thoughts lol

  • @API-Beast
    @API-Beast ปีที่แล้ว +332

    I would love to see a video from you on western demographics. Yeah I know you mostly focus on Asian countries but it would be good to understand one's own situation from a demographic perspective.

    • @kev792
      @kev792 ปีที่แล้ว

      For the west, Europe is semi fucked. They have demographic issues but they can support it a little with immigration. USA and Canada are pretty good for now. They are the most immigrant friendly places in the west and have really good numbers. I think the US is around 1.7 for fertility rates, which is one of the highest in the west. East Asia is super fucked. They have some of the worst demographics and don’t really like immigrants. Unless people switch to a different economic way or new technologies come out, they’re screwed.

    • @christianweibrecht6555
      @christianweibrecht6555 ปีที่แล้ว +73

      we are also reproducing below the replacement rate but supplement that through immigration

    • @chinguunerdenebadrakh7022
      @chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 ปีที่แล้ว +69

      The demographic issue with China compared to West isn't birthrates slowing down. That's a natural societal progression. The difference with the West is the sheer speed. They went through in like 40 years what the West did in 200 something years. This allowed many Western countries to gradually get used to slowly aging population with a shrinking workforce.

    • @illiiilli24601
      @illiiilli24601 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      @@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 and Japan is a good analogue and way to predict what will happen to China because it's right in between the west and China in terms of speed

    • @orkkojit
      @orkkojit ปีที่แล้ว +74

      ​@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 The reason why the West could afford 200 years while China only 40 ? Because of colonialism. The import based economies of the colonies served as a cushion for the industries of the West, captive markets that could only trade with their colonizers, discriminatory trade agreements which saw zero tax being levied on imports from the colonizer nation in the colony, but the colonizer would impose high duties on finished goods exports from its colonies except raw materials. This allowed them the luxury of a slow transition. Taiwan, South Korea, China etc are the first countries that have developed through market economics, not through gunboat economics. Their challenges and solutions will provide a pathway for other third world nations, especially those in Africa, a route to follow.

  • @akbaer60
    @akbaer60 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    11:52 "If China had a state religion, it would be education" nice

  • @HaleyYe-e7m
    @HaleyYe-e7m ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I'm Chinese, another interesting phenomenon I found is that everything has become so expensive over the past decade as well as wage rised but seems that China never reports high inflation rate, and the currency Yuan has really increased value since 2007

  • @AmoghA
    @AmoghA ปีที่แล้ว +193

    7:23
    "Economically speaking, kids are pretty useless."
    -PolyMatter, 2023.

    • @daivdsmith3746
      @daivdsmith3746 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      Economically speaking kids are worse than useless. They are expensive but worth it

    • @BigBoss-ps6vk
      @BigBoss-ps6vk ปีที่แล้ว +12

      What really? epstein and biden loved them 😢

    • @eazy-e5162
      @eazy-e5162 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@BigBoss-ps6vk😮

    • @amruzaky4939
      @amruzaky4939 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      ​@@BigBoss-ps6vk 😭😭😭

    • @bassyey
      @bassyey ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ​@@BigBoss-ps6vk Westerns love kids though, all of you.

  • @deathdrone6988
    @deathdrone6988 ปีที่แล้ว +88

    What makes Chinese labour so enticing is not really the labour itself anymore, it is the unique factors china has; like the sheer amount of trained labour (eg more engineers graduate each year than the US has in total), industries made to support that labour (very good vertical and horizontal intigration), and at least until recently a fairly stable country (mexican labour is cheaper if you can keep them from being extorted by the cartels, corruption,etc).

    • @MrNajibrazak
      @MrNajibrazak ปีที่แล้ว +18

      & lack of employee protection laws that does ultimately contributes to the rising cost of wages etc when lives are cheap in China.
      in China, for every labourer which perishes at work, another 100 are queuing up to take their places despite the lacking of proper laws to protect workers though a communist nation.
      laws exists primarily for the interest of the party, not the people.

    • @MyMovie5858
      @MyMovie5858 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      What makes China unique is that you have a massive cheap labor pool and the 2nd largest economy with strong buying power all in one place.

    • @Homer-OJ-Simpson
      @Homer-OJ-Simpson ปีที่แล้ว

      @fastrally workers in the US have far more safety regulations that protect them compared to China.

    • @berdwatcher5125
      @berdwatcher5125 ปีที่แล้ว

      @fastrally how does the us or korea have bad working laws?

    • @ChucksSEADnDEAD
      @ChucksSEADnDEAD ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@fastrally just superior enough to the point companies moved to China precisely to avoid them

  • @mamborambo
    @mamborambo ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Love your charts and how you explain the population dividend. Please do more in-depth economic topics, everyone needs to understand.

  • @Yadobler
    @Yadobler ปีที่แล้ว +87

    You had a good pt on vocstional sch stigma. In asia, it's either graduate degree or dropout. Unlike the west, vocational and trade sch are considered disgraceful, or sub standard. Hence the low pay and high disparity in education level

    • @ayoCC
      @ayoCC ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Totally agree - getting an apprenticeship can lead to a well paying job - or if not, a secure job.
      If you're willing to move for the apprenticeship it could be six figures a year.
      The work you do part time (which counts toward the apprenticeship) is paid, and the part time vocational school is also compensated in most countries.

    • @Nothing2150
      @Nothing2150 ปีที่แล้ว +33

      I think the west also stigmatized trades. Anyone with good grades would get weird looks from family and friends if they decided to be a plumber rather than go to university.
      Even if the plumber would probably get paid more haha

    • @Yadobler
      @Yadobler ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Nothing2150 in Asia it's weird because we all study so hard, day and night, that we are in a "too educated" situation - we literally have no trade skills, and can only do academics. Unless one enrolls in trade school, which the family will never sponsor lest they see you as a "failed graduate / dropout", there is no one to do trade except the "grew up in the streets" folks.
      It is very dichotomous. Graduates do the managerial and academic-heavy technical jobs. The rest are highschool-ish level folks who learnt the trade by hand from some mentor.
      So there's this weird gap that is supposed to be well skilled trade jobs that are too "tacit" for the booksmart graduates to learn, while too "technical" for the folks who learn the trade from scratch without formal training.
      It's all or nothing. If you're studying, you better graduate or give up and start working. It really underestimates the value of trade work that many many folks miss out on, just because they couldn't Memorise their 成语 proverbs and a2+b2=c2s. Who knows how skillful they'd be in carpentry or machining but are left to tie bamboo scaffolding and lay brick after brick to nurture their oldass parents

    • @L-K-K
      @L-K-K ปีที่แล้ว +12

      It's a problem in some Western countries as well. US still expect college degree as default. UK too over-emphasise uni degree. You'd have to look towards the likes of Germany for examples where vocational training is on equal footing with college/uni degrees.

    • @jonathanpfeffer3716
      @jonathanpfeffer3716 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@Nothing2150 In the past, but that’s really starting to change nowadays. I’m a university student and I hear people all the time talk about how viable of a career path trades are if you are smart about it.

  • @emanuelfigueroa5657
    @emanuelfigueroa5657 ปีที่แล้ว +41

    To be fair, Cheap labor isn't the only factor.
    Infraestrucutre in China is massive, with huge ports, rail network, cargo areas, paved roads.
    Electric energy is cheap in China, compared to US, India, or even Latin American countries. Industrial equipment consumes more energy than homes and street lighting.
    Taxes, income tax for companies is low in China compared to Europe, India, especially compared with Latin America or Africa which usually are fiscal hells.
    Brains, China does have the biggest pool of engineers, designers, professionals, etc... Than whole Latin America or Africa ... combined. They are also cheaper than European or American professionals.

    • @fabricliver
      @fabricliver ปีที่แล้ว

      If you don't you have to invest money researching and you count on stealing other nations' technologies, you have huge surpluses

    • @cel5365
      @cel5365 ปีที่แล้ว

      Plus a lot of things are subsidizing in china

    • @royk7712
      @royk7712 ปีที่แล้ว

      Don't forget the automation. China automation on port is astonishing. Barely dozen of people and can unload massive ship

  • @Tathagatchat
    @Tathagatchat ปีที่แล้ว +86

    China has automated quite a bit, making its labor expensive, but keeping products relatively cheap.

    • @Tathagatchat
      @Tathagatchat ปีที่แล้ว

      @DeadManWalking-ym1oo many companies have done that, but even then, building in China might be cheaper thanks to Govt policies, land, cost of setting up, and operating (and maintenance of machinery). Plus, they might often hold patents for the automation as well.

    • @Tathagatchat
      @Tathagatchat ปีที่แล้ว

      @DeadManWalking-ym1oo all true. But most businesses accept the risk of dealing with China (I know many individuals who do as well when they order on Alibaba from Europe or India). Regarding transport costs, apparently they are very low if the goods are being imported by a company on a large scale (often negligible compared to actual product price) thanks to logistics network today. Note that most decisions are made by businessmen not govt. To make organisations take actions, govt needs to give incentives.

  • @momo_san1980
    @momo_san1980 ปีที่แล้ว +98

    A lot of these companies moved to South East Asia as they want to stay close to the China market.
    And do people still think Chinese factories still need a ton of people on the assembly line? I visited a factory in China that made plastic containers for fruits in supermarkets. They were able to reduce their labours by 2/3 through automation.

    • @Sky_Blaze
      @Sky_Blaze ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Sshhhh..this why most people soon won't have jobs here in the US... cause companys are reducing labour's yet charging more at the same time. This world is broken and a joke.

    • @NFFFFFFFF
      @NFFFFFFFF ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@Sky_Blaze funny how we might become the part of the statistics in this video, 😔 man life is hard.

    • @Sky_Blaze
      @Sky_Blaze ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@NFFFFFFFF life's a joke

    • @bassyey
      @bassyey ปีที่แล้ว

      But Americans want actual slaves making their products.

    • @baha3alshamari152
      @baha3alshamari152 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@Sky_Blaze
      It's called technology advancement
      If your skills are outdated and not needed anymore then learn something else

  • @seamusbyrne8721
    @seamusbyrne8721 ปีที่แล้ว +59

    One of the best channels on the site!

  • @bjoe631
    @bjoe631 ปีที่แล้ว +167

    That awkward moment when you are watching this on an apple device

    • @Florencecoxx
      @Florencecoxx ปีที่แล้ว

      @@bjoe631 I keep wondering how people earn money in financial markets, i tried trading bitcoin on my own made a huge loss and now I'm scared of investing more

    • @bjoe631
      @bjoe631 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Florencecoxx That won't bother you if you trade with a professional like *Mr Gary Mason Brooks* my coach, you may have come across him on interviews relating to bitcoin and stocks. He trades, manage trading account and offer mentorship program for clients who wish to become professional investors.

    • @Florencecoxx
      @Florencecoxx ปีที่แล้ว

      @@bjoe631 You allow people to trade for you? that's interesting, I would love to learn, hope it’s safe?

    • @zombie15ish
      @zombie15ish ปีที่แล้ว

      @Queen OF Love This is the Fourth time I'm seeing someone talking about Mr Gary as there are lot of testimonies about him, do you know him ? if yes , did you invest with him.?

    • @bjoe631
      @bjoe631 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Florencecoxx It's 100% safe and legal, He’s an expert trader on stocks and bitcoin. I basically do nothing but collect profits, he was able to get me in early on most of these stocks and I exited just at the right time, his analysis was really on point..

  • @TiVS.ThisisVerySerious
    @TiVS.ThisisVerySerious ปีที่แล้ว +78

    Companies should buy less avocado toast and lattes to cut costs instead!

    • @EroticOnion23
      @EroticOnion23 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Delete the "equity departments" too 😎

    • @robstar1a
      @robstar1a ปีที่แล้ว +5

      And take shorter showers to save water.

    • @ceoatcrystalsoft4942
      @ceoatcrystalsoft4942 ปีที่แล้ว

      Companies don't buy either

    • @GenericUrbanism
      @GenericUrbanism ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@ceoatcrystalsoft4942 that’s the joke

  • @naohdeng838
    @naohdeng838 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    As a Chinese person. I have to say your video is amazing.

    • @noob.168
      @noob.168 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yet he thinks China Airlines is China's...Unless he thinks Taiwan is part of PRC...

    • @naohdeng838
      @naohdeng838 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@noob.168 Taiwan ‘s official name is Republic of China. Red China is People republic of China. Taiwan is part of China but not PRC. The TH-camr probably thinks the China airlines is from PRC. It is actually from ROC.

    • @kimp9023
      @kimp9023 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@naohdeng838 PRC is the China, ROC is forced to kept "China" in its name because PRC kept on threatening invading the island if they change their name to republic of Taiwan. as you a Chinese person you should know this already. As a Chinese person myself, I would recommend get away from China as soon as possible, the country as a whole maybe strong with 1.3 billion people, but if you are young and without a wealthy family or high ranking CCP connection, your future is fucked

  • @ystconnection
    @ystconnection ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I love that this is Peter Zeihan’s presentation on China, but with better editing and music.
    Seriously though great video!

  • @Anolaana
    @Anolaana ปีที่แล้ว +38

    10:10 ironically those "China Airlines" planes are probably going to Taiwan; the PRC's airline is actually called Air China.

    • @stalker5299
      @stalker5299 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      was looking for a comment pointing this out lol

    • @TechieWidget
      @TechieWidget ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Yeah, that’s because Taiwan’s official name is Republic of China.

    • @Game_Hero
      @Game_Hero ปีที่แล้ว

      @@TechieWidget Still not the "People"'s Republic of China

    • @willyang4487
      @willyang4487 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Biggest mistake of this video.😅

  • @davidjma7226
    @davidjma7226 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    My consulting firm is very busy dealing with large Chinese manufacturers seeking to offshore their factories to the GCC. It's not just labour costs, it's removal of state subsidies, new tarrifs and proximity to market!

    • @dumdumbrown4225
      @dumdumbrown4225 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      What’s the GCC, mate?

    • @davidjma7226
      @davidjma7226 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@dumdumbrown4225 Gulf Cooperation Council countries: KSA, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE.

  • @IdealisticDog
    @IdealisticDog ปีที่แล้ว +6

    These graphics are wonderful. Excellent ways to present data

  • @sampotter4455
    @sampotter4455 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Great video. Your graphics are amazing!

  • @hongchenfei
    @hongchenfei ปีที่แล้ว +24

    I am a Chinese college student studying in Macau (this is why I can log in to youtube). My impression of Made in China is that almost all the things with visible trademarks around me are made in China, and the really high-end European, American, Japanese, Korean Taiwan products The product label cannot be seen, because China is responsible for the assembly and integration solution provider, but China is overcoming this phenomenon and manufacturing real high-end products by itself.
    About housing prices: Regarding China's housing prices, my understanding is: China is a land-oriented economic development model, buying a house = buying national bonds = the country's future prospects. When the country's prospects are all the way up, the house will become more and more valuable, and the repayment of the loan will become less and less, but this will only make the college students/graduate students who graduate later and work more and more painful.
    Regarding education: It is worth mentioning that the college entrance examination is extremely unfair. China can be roughly understood as having three types of universities: A CLASS, B CLASS, and C LASS. In 2022, high school students in Beijing have a 46% chance of being admitted to A CLASS universities, while high school students in my hometown of Jiangxi Province have a 41% chance of being admitted to A, B, and C universities in 2022. Beijingers get into better universities just because they are Beijingers and their test papers are easier.
    Supplement: Part of the content is contrary to the content in the video. More and more students can't accept to engage in physical work after studying in college, so more and more people hope to continue to graduate school, to avoid entering the workplace or hope to get a better job, so China's Postgraduate examinations are also gradually creating new records for the number of students. And the graduates/postgraduates contributed a lot to the unemployment rate after the lockdown. On the one hand, the society scoffs at those who graduated from technical secondary schools/college/vocational high schools, and the wages of those engaged in manual work are not optimistic, and they are very tiring.
    About childbirth: I asked several female friends around me, including girlfriends, that they all resisted childbirth. The reasons include the great pain it brings, the huge damage to the appearance after childbirth, and the hard work of raising children. and time for yourself.

    • @nsng1298
      @nsng1298 ปีที่แล้ว

      You can use vpn in China to access, YT, FB, Google, etc. When I travelled to China, I have 2 options. The first is to use vpn with a Chinese sim card. The second is to enable roaming since my telco is based in Singapore. I have also used a sim card from a Hong Kong based telco. I just enabled roaming when I am in China.

    • @hongchenfei
      @hongchenfei ปีที่แล้ว

      @@nsng1298 It is very expensive to use a Hong Kong calling card to open roaming costs. I use a Chinese VPN, 2usd can buy 130g of VPN traffic. I used 40g for forty days.

    • @kendrick5994
      @kendrick5994 ปีที่แล้ว

      我用的 75一年 速度挺好的

    • @hongchenfei
      @hongchenfei ปีที่แล้ว

      @@kendrick5994 你这个更是重量级,不过我一年有八个月时间在澳门,不需要一整年的,12块130g的vpn简直爽歪歪

    • @willyang4487
      @willyang4487 ปีที่แล้ว

      那兄弟你还打算回中国大陆发展吗说实话?😂

  • @googiegress
    @googiegress ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I'm having trouble identifying when the Lewis Turning Point occurred in the US, because all the search results are about the China topic, or are about other Lewises. Can anyone direct me to a source that has this info? Thanks!

  • @ayenul
    @ayenul ปีที่แล้ว +15

    “You may be wondering, why Nebula? The answer is simple.”
    *thumbnail on-screen reads “MONEY”*
    Yup, sounds right

  • @sivx17
    @sivx17 ปีที่แล้ว +32

    Well in the past few months i been seeing more and more stuffs made in Vietnam, Mexico or even some South American countries compared to the usual made in China. I guess its true that China is getting more expensive for manufacturing and kinda lost their price edge.

    • @haochengzhai7156
      @haochengzhai7156 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yes, because there are no young people working in these factories in China. But the quality of other countries is worse than China. Do you agree?

    • @yuanruichen2564
      @yuanruichen2564 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      stuff made in vietnam kind of sucks

    • @dailyrant4068
      @dailyrant4068 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@yuanruichen2564 It's a matter of time. Anyone who makes fun of a specific country's bad products clearly doesn't understand that it takes time.
      Japan had inferior products before too. In US, people had always made fun of American made cars but for some reason can't seem to understand every country's cars went through those stereotypes. It was the Japanese, then it was the Koreans, and now it's the Chinese. Next is probably India.

    • @yuanruichen2564
      @yuanruichen2564 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@dailyrant4068 Now chinese products are sold in the us two times more expensive than sold in China

    • @SpringIsBACK
      @SpringIsBACK ปีที่แล้ว

      @@dailyrant4068 The problem I as a parts "sourcer" (well, maybe I was a "parts sorcerer" too, but that was a different part of my old job!) had was that only a very few Chinese supply chains did not by the time one got to maybe the 3rd or 4th production run, end up somewhere along the line somebody decided to slip in a little short cut -- forcing us as the US based assemblers to have to do crazy amounts of incoming QC, sometimes discovering bizzarro problems in performance that could take weeks to figure out just exactly what had been changed and where. Then get somebody to take responsibility(!!!) all while OUR customer was screaming bloody murder about the delivery snag.
      Both through business and especially through my Mom (long story) I used to have many Chinese friends here in the US too -- mostly they were sweet, wonderful people, but I'll be damned if they didn't often have that same sort of devil-may-care "shortcut" mentality about more ordinary "life" sorts of things.
      I suppose AI robots won't think like that...
      But if AI takes over most work eventually, can humans manage to not go crazy?

  • @Annathroy
    @Annathroy ปีที่แล้ว +14

    Fun fact:
    In Croatia we have a historical figure that is named Stjepan Radić which is almost literally Steve Jobs

  • @sotroof
    @sotroof ปีที่แล้ว +59

    That China Airlines clip is actually the Taiwanese carrier

    • @graystoke8229
      @graystoke8229 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Unless it was a subtle jab that the ROC is the true China, as China Airlines is their commercial flag carrier. This sequence was talking about travel between China and San Francisco. Even though everyone knows it between San Francisco and mainland China (or West Taiwan for other folks).

    • @naohdeng838
      @naohdeng838 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      You need to know the official name of Taiwan is Republic of China. The world actually has two Chinas. ROC 🇹🇼and PRC🇨🇳.

    • @willyang4487
      @willyang4487 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@graystoke8229 your comment may anger many Taiwanese people 😂

  • @TriNguyen-he7xk
    @TriNguyen-he7xk ปีที่แล้ว +130

    polymatter going back to his roots with chinese videos

    • @havencat9337
      @havencat9337 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      a big hater, he cant do better

    • @AznVinc3nt
      @AznVinc3nt ปีที่แล้ว +22

      If only he wasn't so bias against China, these vids would actually be decent.

    • @ИмяФамилия-ф2д8ш
      @ИмяФамилия-ф2д8ш ปีที่แล้ว +3

      ​@@AznVinc3nt I haven't seen much of his content, can you give some examples?

    • @BigBoss-ps6vk
      @BigBoss-ps6vk ปีที่แล้ว +6

      ​@@ИмяФамилия-ф2д8ш almost every chinese related video is talking about negative or make it seems worse than it is. Almost outright lying at some point

    • @ArawnOfAnnwn
      @ArawnOfAnnwn ปีที่แล้ว

      @@BigBoss-ps6vk He's far more neutral than other China channels like Serpentza, China Insights, China Update or the mother of them all, China Uncensored. He's about as unbiased as you're likely to get from a westerner on China.

  • @razorjymm
    @razorjymm ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I would like an updated exploration on the places who avoided the middle income trap (beyond the 2012 date on the data shown in this video - great video, btw!

  • @flotsamike
    @flotsamike ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Not used to hearing anyting associated with apple being called cheap. It is astounding how much Apple was willing to mark up the price of their products now that I know how cheap their labor cost were.

  • @audreyandlinCompany
    @audreyandlinCompany ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Anyone have a timestamp for when he explains what happens when the "worker bees" begin to age, become diabled and retire? Any jobs for "aging population?"

  • @matchc0635
    @matchc0635 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    10:04 (btw someone should tell them China Airline is not actually from China because of a certain Geopolitic moment)

  • @SCTproductionsJ5
    @SCTproductionsJ5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    12:30 seems like that happened with CS students in the US. A select group of skilled coders with the rest left behind.

    • @nerd2544
      @nerd2544 ปีที่แล้ว

      are you referring to the recent layoffs or what? the US is amazing for tech compared to here in Asia because I see vids of how any random person can just get into tech by self-learning or whatever but here nobody will hire you without a university degree

    • @SCTproductionsJ5
      @SCTproductionsJ5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@nerd2544 No, they're just videos for the views. If you actually look at entry level job openings, there are *very* few compared to a few years ago, and even then it was very few compared to how colleges made it sound.

  • @alexl4710
    @alexl4710 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    Love all your China videos man, keep with it

    • @rcbrascan
      @rcbrascan ปีที่แล้ว +9

      PolyMatter has never been to China or a Sinologist so he doesn't have a complete understanding of why and how China does things and some of the issues presented in the video are viewed under western lenses which are flawed instead of applying Chinese ideology.

    • @soar3135
      @soar3135 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @RC Stat genuinely asking btw, dont wanna sound rude but im just curious. Such as what issues?

    • @FilipMacioszek
      @FilipMacioszek ปีที่แล้ว

      @@soar3135 topping the question.

    • @ash9280
      @ash9280 ปีที่แล้ว

      Most of his China's videos aren't that good. It is filled with the usual ''Chinawatcher'' tropes about why and how China can't do that because it isn't a liberal democracy. It is preaching to the choir. It is the usual no sense that the evil Chinese is always in a state of collapse.

    • @alexyou3233
      @alexyou3233 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@soar3135 Maybe constantly talking about some sort of demographic collapse when countries like japan, korea, italy have worse birth rates. I have never heard anyone make the bogus arguement that south korea will collapse in half a decade despite their birth rate being 0.7, almost half of china

  • @davidjma7226
    @davidjma7226 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I have a consulting biz in the GCC. We have loads of Chinese manufacturers seeking to relocate manufacturing here. It's not just labour cost - subsidies are being withdrawn and of course most Chinese companies export about 80% of their production. Add the decoupling of the US, Europe and China, tariffs etc and they no longer are profitable. I am happy, and very busy!

  • @BartlebyHiggensworth
    @BartlebyHiggensworth ปีที่แล้ว +21

    "In the end, children turn from valuable assets to expensive liabilities." Liabilities is a bit less colorful than the "talking furniture" and "conversation pieces", as used in (ahem) other videos.

  • @user-lt4iq5hd5n
    @user-lt4iq5hd5n ปีที่แล้ว +9

    "Only major Latin American economy more expensive is Chile" My Uruguayan heart hurts.

    • @unconventionalideas5683
      @unconventionalideas5683 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Never mind. Uruguay seems to be on a good path for the future. Part of the reason Chinese labor is so expensive is because of the real estate bubble.

    • @ulaalu4356
      @ulaalu4356 ปีที่แล้ว

      Igual solo serían a lo más 4 países en Latinoamérica : Chile, Uruguay, Panamá y Costa Rica ? .. En conclusión: Uruguay cada vez más cerca a los países europeos que latam : / ( saludos de 🇵🇪)

  • @Ms-Fortune
    @Ms-Fortune ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Dude, *WHERE* is the bonus episode you said is on Nebula? I’ve checked the Nebula Polymatter’s page (where you posted _this_ video), and I’ve checked your “China Actually” series-specific page too.
    I don’t see it anywhere.

  • @pn4960
    @pn4960 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I love how he makes weird parallels for the American audience like “Chinese Montana”. Or “documentaries Mall”

  • @phineas7423
    @phineas7423 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    Equating education to skills, although common, is still a bad practice. There is no such thing as high skill and low skill labor, just labor that requires calculus and labor that doesn't.

    • @Nothing2150
      @Nothing2150 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I disagree. Education can be in more than calculus.
      It's the difference between moving dirt by hand/shovel and moving dirt with a excavator. One can be done by literally anyone without training. The other cannot.

    • @daivdsmith3746
      @daivdsmith3746 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Formal education and having the skills to complete a task are not the same but the term "skill labor" literally refers to someone who works in a field that requires a degree or specialized training usually through a vocational school i.e. pilots, electricians, and nurses are all considered skilled laborers.

  • @michaeldavid6973
    @michaeldavid6973 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Love your graphs!

  • @davidchang4878
    @davidchang4878 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I think a lot of people don’t realise, why China?
    The cost of Chinese labour increase also due to its productivity. There is cheap labour in Africa but companies are not flocking there cos they may lose everything.
    Companies use China also because of the highly educated population too.

  • @illiiilli24601
    @illiiilli24601 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    14:47 Mauritius is usually not spelt that way in English

    • @KingArthurWs
      @KingArthurWs ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Unfortunately, you have an anime profile pic, so your opinion is void.

    • @illiiilli24601
      @illiiilli24601 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@KingArthurWs true, people with an anime pfp don't have valid opinions

  • @yudogcome5901
    @yudogcome5901 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Tesla's efficient production in China benefits from the fact that local Chinese manufacturers can provide more than 90% of the accessories, including glass, motors, air conditioners, batteries, etc., and even the exaggerated Giga Press, yes, the manufacturer is a Shenzhen company , which also holds the Italian IDRA company。

  • @MOBXOJ
    @MOBXOJ ปีที่แล้ว +40

    Economically speaking, kids are very useless - PolyMatter 2023

    • @ThwipThwipBoom
      @ThwipThwipBoom ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Just useless in general

    • @daivdsmith3746
      @daivdsmith3746 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ThwipThwipBoom I take it you don't like kids or have any?

    • @ThwipThwipBoom
      @ThwipThwipBoom ปีที่แล้ว

      @@daivdsmith3746 I don't keep things with no use around

  • @clausbecker9350
    @clausbecker9350 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    I subscribe to Nebula but find it is sometimes hard to find videos that I see on TH-cam

  • @bangscutter
    @bangscutter ปีที่แล้ว +2

    12:46 In Asia, honour / face is the most important value above all others. Working in these undesirable / menial work is considered shameful in Asian culture. This is in contrast with Western values where every work is considered valuable to society and there is no shame in doing "undesirable / menial" work.

  • @tincanmaniac1931
    @tincanmaniac1931 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    If anyone wants a book that goes into this further, the book "Invisible China" by Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell covers this, though it focuses most extensively on the rural/urban education and economic divide. It's a somewhat quick read, at a around 200 pages, and imo very interesting, if you like this topic.

    • @ninjal7588
      @ninjal7588 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      It was a really interesting book. Although also sad if you care about kids on the other side of the world.

  • @petersmythe6462
    @petersmythe6462 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    "Your iPhone is a result of Mao's 1960s plan to survive nuclear war."
    So does this mean criticizing communism on an iPhone is now the hypocritical thing?

    • @ViburaBlanca
      @ViburaBlanca 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes and no because China also benefitted from capitalism making things like the iPhone possible.

  • @Smoothe932
    @Smoothe932 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you for providing a direct link to this video in Nebula. I hate TH-cam, and all that they stand for. TH-cam does, at least in some part, shows the videos that I'm interested in. No doubt it is filtered / slanted to TH-cam's own agenda. Nebula on the other hand has many of the videos that I want to watch, but is difficult to navigate or get notified of new videos. I wish Nebula could be more friendly. The direct link helped.

  • @amarthakur093
    @amarthakur093 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    @polyMatter you missed the most import factor about current foreign investment in China. One is not allowed to take money outside of China. So any company that already had invested will continue to do so until they can from the money they generate from it within China. But there will not be any more foreign funding in China.

    • @EmmaNguyen-mg5xq
      @EmmaNguyen-mg5xq ปีที่แล้ว +3

      🤣🤣🤣🤣

    • @billshi6005
      @billshi6005 ปีที่แล้ว

      go check the FDI data of China first😓

    • @sumonechan8514
      @sumonechan8514 ปีที่แล้ว

      There are also different regulations for different entities...some of the stuffs you heard online are taken out of context.

  • @MGZetta
    @MGZetta ปีที่แล้ว +70

    Japan, Korea, and China all went through the "Cheap Labor" era, and now it's continuing in Africa, India, and ASEAN countries.
    Ofc, no one is perfect and you shouldn't expect it from any government but I can't say the Chinese government was all wrong when you're watching the fastest growth in human history in front of you. And they did it without colonization, invasions, and wars all over the world.

    • @devashok4242
      @devashok4242 ปีที่แล้ว

      Belt and road initiative to debt trap, Pakistan which is basically a economic colony of China, Tibet invasion, failed invasions of Taiwan, indo-sino war, sino-vietnam war, north vs south Korean war 🤨. Learn before commenting something bullshit

    • @helsreach001
      @helsreach001 ปีที่แล้ว

      Exclude india ,india not following East Asian development model .

    • @GeorgeChuy
      @GeorgeChuy ปีที่แล้ว

      not all wrong, just tremendously wrong and exceedingly obstinate😅

    • @xtzhao2196
      @xtzhao2196 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@helsreach001India re-define what is industrialization, Turk re-define economy.

    • @datouqd4106
      @datouqd4106 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ​@@helsreach001 China and India have almost the same population and economic situation, even India's GDP initially exceeded China's, why China's GDP is now six times that of India, this is a question worth pondering

  • @sammead7911
    @sammead7911 ปีที่แล้ว

    Man, I learn so much from this channel.

  • @TheTarrMan
    @TheTarrMan ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This is wonderful news. They should be paid more. Breaks my heart about near slave labor factories. I try to buy American whenever I can because of my guilt for that. I feel responsible for it. I know I am partly but I try to do what I can to minimize my impact because how unavoidable it is here. It's like I don't have a choice. It's everywhere.

  • @300guy
    @300guy ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Big problem with Nebula, if you don't know who has content on it, you will never find them, it doesn't give you a menu of content or creators

  • @jackjhmc820
    @jackjhmc820 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This was already happening almost a decade ago when there was a book called end of cheap China published in 2014. Obviously cost is NOT the only factor. Time to get things done needs to be considered.
    What s the point of investing in a cheap country if it takes twice or three times to set up factories from burdensome regulations, corruptions, and lack of skilled labour.

  • @prasanth2601
    @prasanth2601 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    70% of china's population not having even a high school education is the biggest shock for me.

    • @orkkojit
      @orkkojit ปีที่แล้ว +16

      85 percent of India's population doesn't have a high school education too

    • @sksksks5072
      @sksksks5072 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      dhotis😂

    • @Sky_Blaze
      @Sky_Blaze ปีที่แล้ว

      Alot of people dont!! Life is a reality and alot of people can't stay in school..and on top of it it doesn't help that most schools teach meaningless BS. And once you get to college and stuff God only knows how much money it takes just to be able to be there which guarantees, nothing. The elite are holding a carrot in your face that you're never going to get.

    • @MyMovie5858
      @MyMovie5858 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Free public education in China is 9yrs. Many living in the rural or agriculture areas enter the workforce soon after graduation.

    • @prasanth2601
      @prasanth2601 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@MyMovie5858 Are college fees too expensive there? I mean how long can China sustain itself without it's population having a high degree if it want to be a tech giant

  • @viceroybolt3518
    @viceroybolt3518 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Not sure why it always gets me... but chili is a food and chee-lay is a place!

  • @michaellovatt3944
    @michaellovatt3944 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I get that the graphs are supposed to be simple, and I appreciate that very much. There is however an issue when you just... lack any labeling on the Y axis...

  • @ricardokowalski1579
    @ricardokowalski1579 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    This is good data
    It still only scratches the surface.
    The rise of china's cheap labor 1970s coincides with the stagnation of wages in the US and Europe. The huge labor pool in China affected wages everywhere. Effectively China's labor was a price cap.
    In just the same way as a more expensive chinese labor pool today will rise the prices of labor everywhere, the cap is moved somewhere else and it is much smaller in size
    What is needed is a quantitative evaluation of global labor demand, labor availability, and then track inflation adjusted prices in the 1950 to 2000 period. Further insight can be gained by tracking container ship tonnage and traffic (as a proxy for globalization)
    One of the better videos of this channel

    • @hamstsorkxxor
      @hamstsorkxxor ปีที่แล้ว

      Lots of western countries haven't had wage stagnation though. For example, Sweden and Norway have increased the wages of the middle class substantially since the '90s.

  • @BlueBeeMCMLXI
    @BlueBeeMCMLXI ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Only so much can be done in space and time in a country with many different cultures - not an homogenious population. Lifting education standards for example. MY GREAT GRANDFATHER spoke about China's inevitable rise in Australia of the 1870s. So, thinking is not always received. You crammed a great spread of data into this video report, so much food for thought. Thank you for your efforts!

    • @clydedoris5002
      @clydedoris5002 ปีที่แล้ว

      Australia might as well be china 2.0

  • @IRoYzI
    @IRoYzI ปีที่แล้ว +1

    You have answered HUGE questions I’ve had for forever!!!!

  • @gebbygebbers
    @gebbygebbers ปีที่แล้ว +6

    12:23 14:14 you didnt just describe china, this is the entirety of East & South East Asia 😂😂😂😂

  • @gregoryferraro7379
    @gregoryferraro7379 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    So many of the world's economic problems right now are related to investors foolishly believing that things just go on forever. Growth, demand, population growth, peace - all of those things were expected to just get better and better without stopping, and entire countries built themselves on those assumptions. I can't see how anyone who would consider themselves an authority in any field could be so foolishly optimistic.

    • @iXpertMan
      @iXpertMan ปีที่แล้ว

      Guess people’s greed and lack of education is the problem - but hey, this is what drives the economy indefinitely, why stop the money train? Just make sure you’re the smart train driver ;)

  • @st20332
    @st20332 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    11:33 College enrollment may have tripled, but the quality of education and information matters more to the potential outcome of students.

  • @KyleHohn
    @KyleHohn ปีที่แล้ว +52

    Yes the per hour is almost 4x other countries, but china’s actual productivity per hour is still the among if not the best in the game.

    • @unconventionalideas5683
      @unconventionalideas5683 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      China has the lowest labor productivity is the worst in the world, among those who publish such figures. It might be better when adjusting for price level, but it is still lousy because their factories are so reluctant to change. For example, instead of conveyors, many Chinese factories (especially in rural areas) hire people to drag it across the floor, including an imaginary hypothetical one that I am going to use to illustrate my point. The owner of our hypothetical factory is typical: he (or she) comes up with a series of excuses as to why conveyors will not work for their factory instead of investigating to see if it could work. Thus, the factory never increases its automation and eventually becomes uncompetitive, so it loses all its export business. Then, the business really struggles, and eventually faces bankruptcy.

    • @realname4401
      @realname4401 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@unconventionalideas5683 I think it's only valuable price adjusted. There are 2 distinct labor productivity categories, one is developing the other is developed. There is a massive gulf between the 2 categories that's astronomical, but the price diff is also astronomical. Until the cost gulf *really* closes, the productivity gulf doesn't need to close.

    • @fluoroantimonictippedcruis1537
      @fluoroantimonictippedcruis1537 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@realname4401 When you look at comparable countries, there is still a gap. In Mexico, the average worker produces about twice as much economic activity per hour worked compared to China.

    • @realname4401
      @realname4401 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@fluoroantimonictippedcruis1537 Is Mexico really a valid comp tho? They industrialized along with the rest of the western world, China didn't open up until 78. Also the worker productivity is a measurement manufacturing productivity. It's total GDP divided by total work hours. A easily skewed data point. Since China has 400 million agricultural workers, I don't think that stat represents the economic viability of it's industrial economy. It's overall productivity is limited by demand, not supply. The workers multinationals are hiring are not hired to do farm work. The transition from unskilled agriculture to unskilled manufacturing immediately multiplies gdp output.

    • @fluoroantimonictippedcruis1537
      @fluoroantimonictippedcruis1537 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@realname4401 If US buisness wants to reshore, nearshore then friendly shore in that order of preference, Mexico is a strong candidate to go to. That makes Mexico a good comparison.

  • @TimothyCHenderson
    @TimothyCHenderson ปีที่แล้ว +3

    "...that it would somehow be miraculously unimpeded by the challenges faced by every other country". Indeed. I remember watching videos and reading comments back in the early 00's about China and how a common refrain from Chinese nationals was that they would beat the west at their own game. In many respects they have, but they've also inherited all the same problems that the west faces except on steroids due to the speed of modernization. In that regard, it creates many new problems that are unique to China.

  • @ricardorehlander348
    @ricardorehlander348 ปีที่แล้ว

    A great video as always from this channel. Thank you for the insights !

  • @luisotaviomoreira5682
    @luisotaviomoreira5682 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    anybody: how much factual errors can you put into a video made to look like informational?
    PolyMatter: yes

  • @silvencenturion7133
    @silvencenturion7133 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    nice video as always!

    • @polygontower
      @polygontower ปีที่แล้ว

      But the video was released just 4 minutes ago

  • @timothyrockwell2638
    @timothyrockwell2638 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    The end of cheap Chinese labor doesn't mean that China won't continue to be the world's manufacturer. China still has the world's most efficient supply chains and advanced logistics systems, in large part thanks to the CPC's investment in infrastructure. China also has the world's largest skilled labor workforce, even if they are more expensive. But not only that, China also leads the world in automation, robotics, and AI, which means their manufacturing quality and efficiency will only continue to increase.

  • @albertlew3481
    @albertlew3481 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Very impressive that this channel from a Western country can share such deep, unbiased and faithful insights into China’s history, status quo and likely future. Love this channel and already a fan!❤

    • @stdew07
      @stdew07 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Reverse is not possible

    • @herman65
      @herman65 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      What do you mean 'from a western country'? Why wouldn't they be able to?

    • @nerd2544
      @nerd2544 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@herman65 a good chunk of the west (esp. Americans and rightwingers thanks to red scare) still thinks China is just a backwater when in reality their cities and infrastructure (even the third-tier cities) have far surpassed western ones within the last decade.

    • @blazer9547
      @blazer9547 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Most biased content are from Indian channels.

    • @kimp9023
      @kimp9023 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      lmfao, maybe you should watch less CCTV and CGTN

  • @russellcossar4433
    @russellcossar4433 ปีที่แล้ว

    When I was living and working there in 2019, it was very common to see jobs advertised at 3000rmb a month ( around a dollar fifty an hour).
    Not sure where they got $8/hour from?

  • @JogieGlenMait16
    @JogieGlenMait16 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    These are basically peter zeihan's talking points.

  • @sinoroman
    @sinoroman ปีที่แล้ว +12

    escaping the middle income trap by going higher, the country will most likely have a smaller birthrate
    convincing the population to have more children is more a social/societal problem, less economic

  • @rumcajs009
    @rumcajs009 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I don't think it's a massive problem. It's a problem for CEOs of big brands and their bonuses. We pay pretty much the same for tires made in China or Made in France of the same brand, the difference is that this brand earns less when its made in France.

  • @sirjman
    @sirjman ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Uh oh. The 'flights to China' segment uses imagery for China Airlines...a Taiwanese airline.

    • @lolasdm6959
      @lolasdm6959 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      average Western Taiwan indepdence supporter

    • @BSPBuilder
      @BSPBuilder ปีที่แล้ว +3

      That is because Taiwan's official name is Republic of China.

  • @austinchen1004
    @austinchen1004 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    “Children also known as free farm labor”😂😂😂

  • @charlesliang4118
    @charlesliang4118 ปีที่แล้ว

    I don’t think the cost of labor is above 8 dollars per hour in China. Just checked online the hourly wage for Foxconn (major manufacturer/supplier for apple in China) is around 30 RMB (which is around 3.75 dollar)

    • @handyrus
      @handyrus ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Hourly wages aren't the same as 'cost of labor'. COL includes various other components and some indirect costs as well, that go into the mfg process. Hourly wages is one of those components.

  • @sam08g16
    @sam08g16 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    This is a BRILLIANT video. It covers very important economic concepts so we'll explained that makes it easily understood by the general public. Well done, keep up the good work!

  • @wenbozhao4325
    @wenbozhao4325 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    At least it shows the Chinese government isn't lying about poverty alleviation

  • @GenericInternetter
    @GenericInternetter ปีที่แล้ว +2

    "cheap chinese labour" is a nice way of saying "21st century feudalism"