The Six Dollar an Hour Man.

There will definitely be a day when Americans can no longer afford the products we outsourced to China.

Remember, we went to China to make products at lower costs. We sent them our plastic sandals and t-shirts. But now they have our computers and televisions. And one day, the American worker won't make enough money to buy that computer.

When corporations look at the Chinese factory model with envy, you know the goal is to turn Americans into slaves. Cheap Chinese labor is driving down the value of the global workforce to near zero. "We've found someone who will work cheaper than you. Goodbye."

But, yes, to say the goal is SLAVERY is to oversimplify. The goal is to keep China happy.

I've heard stories about what it takes to do business in China. One story says that a company needs to turn over all the schematics and manufacturing plans to China to have them approved. And then China keeps them. But I don't know if this true. Because if true, it would mean that any American that outsources to China is staying in China. Because if they leave, China will simply build the products anyway. And sell them and put the American companies out of business.

Listen to this story where the corporate executive is giddy, absolutely giddy with the notion of a workforce that produces 24 hours a day:

One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

source, NYT,"How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work."

Look at what is expected from workers. That is an inhumane work environment. That factory could not legally exist in the United States. But that's what corporations want: no labor regulations, no rules at all.

And who the hell brewed those 8,000 cups of tea?

I think the next step is to treat laborers as a commodity, trading at a fluctuating rate on world markets. Today, you make $10 an hour, but tomorrow we pay $9.27. The result might not be slavery because there is some income, but it will be slavery because there will be no place else to go.