ACORN

[kandrathe]

This is of course overly simplified.

He was probably considering his audience. I think he is spot on. I've made this point before, but the entire world is losing "good manufacturing" jobs, because of automation and other process improvements. The US complains about losing good manufacturing jobs to developing nations, and while that is partly true, the bulk of manufacturing jobs lost are not due to factory migration, but rather the efficiency with which those jobs are done.

OK, all your points have an effect, but a very small one. The country you had in the back of your mind when writing this was China.

China is the biggest one, and making the most mistakes in this area. My impression is that China has traditionally placed less value on human life and human dignity, at least in the context that "the West" has framed those properties.

And than point one is in the case just plain wrong, while the other points are true but only have a marginal effect on the price of a product, the main factor is of course the wages which can be factors lower.

Sorry, you are the one who is wrong. If one person making $100/hour can make 100 widgets per hour due to efficiency of process, as opposed to 100 people paid $1/hour who make one widget per hour, then associative property of mathematics remains true. People * Wage / Product = (Nearly constant), however in recessionary times often wages fail to keep up with improvements in productivity. The classic case of "doing more with less people", which means each person is carrying a larger burden of work.

Africa is a whole different case. The economies there are so far backwards that you cannot even compare them with ours. And even when you consider workers safety etc. etc. we are still not giving them a fair chance (agriculture subsidies being the major culprit here).

Sure, depending on where you are, but by in large vast areas are still agrarian and primitively subsistence based. Many places are no different than primitive hunter / gatherer societies that formed the base of even Neanderthal societies.