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Zarin posted:
China's still heavily urbanizing, and that means that lots of people (hundreds of millions in this case) are moving to the cities, which produces surplus population and decreased wages. There's no reason to automate right now, at least in urban areas.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 04:53 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 18:59 |
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computer parts posted:China's still heavily urbanizing, and that means that lots of people (hundreds of millions in this case) are moving to the cities, which produces surplus population and decreased wages. There's no reason to automate right now, at least in urban areas. China was the largest purchaser of industrial robots in 2013 with roughly 20% of the worldwide share of industrial robots going to China alone. Concomitantly China's "lets Great Domestic Everything Forward" idea has caught on with robotics as well, which has led to a burgeoning domestic robot manufacturing industry that's largely propped up by government intervention. So much like everything else with China it's impossible to know just how much of the demand is market based. But what's undeniable is that China is putting a LOT of robots to use.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 04:58 |
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Isn't automation only a productivity boost if you have a large, highly skilled, and well-educated labor force that can capitalize on it? I don't see how kicking a bunch of Chinese workers out of the factories and replacing them with robots increases the productivity of said Chinese workers unless they all move on to more skilled jobs which I would bet the vast majority are unable to perform.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 05:06 |
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quote:
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 05:13 |
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Fojar38 posted:Isn't automation only a productivity boost if you have a large, highly skilled, and well-educated labor force that can capitalize on it? I don't see how kicking a bunch of Chinese workers out of the factories and replacing them with robots increases the productivity of said Chinese workers unless they all move on to more skilled jobs which I would bet the vast majority are unable to perform. Because individual market actors don't care about those workers who are displaced; the individual market actors only care about undercutting the market for iWidgets on Alibaba.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 05:23 |
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Zarin posted:Yeah, and the next logical question is, "What is everyone doing now that we've automated everything that used to occupy all their time?" That gets uncomfortable quick since I don't think too many Very Serious Policy People are looking at this hard (yet?). Automation is certainly getting a lot of attention and the government at least is making it a major part of their planned development policy. However, how much automation is actually being used is hard to say. As a personal anecdote, I'm working at one of the largest industrial level 3d printing developers in China and from what I've seen adoption of 3d printing technology in China is still fairly slow.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 09:13 |
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I am sorry to take this deficit spending offtopic even further but I am genuinely curious about it. What in particular did Greece do wrong that their deficit spending ended... well, the way it ended? Did they have to borrow for too high cost? Did they borrow too great volume in general? Did they handle the money they borrowed badly? Or can it just not be pinned to any particular issue and they just hosed up?
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 10:53 |
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Teal posted:I am sorry to take this deficit spending offtopic even further but I am genuinely curious about it. Greece had a few problems: 1. massive corruption leading to declining revenues; 2. forced austerity in the face of 1; and the inability to fix themselves because they were stuck on the euro.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 11:12 |
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Mr. Nice! posted:Greece had a few problems: 1. massive corruption leading to declining revenues; 2. forced austerity in the face of 1; and the inability to fix themselves because they were stuck on the euro. They also were cooking the books for a while. People who were able to do basic math and had some knowledge of Greece realized that Greece's numbers were bs, but no one could really say for sure how bad things were until it was finally revealed what Greece's situation was. And when it was revealed, well it was clear the Greeks were hosed and there weren't a lot of options for them at that point.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 13:03 |
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Crashrat posted:The WSJ article you quoted is utter crap, but that's what I'd expect from the WSJ. I was kind of surprised it took that long for someone to say anything from WSJ is crap. Not that it really mattered. Again, someone said productivity was down, you said 'no it's not' and posted a too broad chart showing, yes, productivity has been going up, up, up, except for the last 5 or so years. Which is important because that's what we're referring to when we say productivity is declining and not what the numbers were in 1983. But to contribute to your post - yes, the WSJ takes a simplistic approach with their rationale in that while higher productivity does result in higher wages - that hasn't been happening for awhile. Greedy corporations are partly to blame. However healthcare is also a pretty big reason why the massive productivity gains since 2000 haven't resulted in higher wages. And to source my claim (I didn't quote the WSJ): http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ Specifically... quote:According to BLS-generated cost indexes for wages/salaries and total benefits, benefit costs have risen about 60% since 2001 (when the data series began), versus about 37% for wage and salary costs. (Those indexes do not take inflation into account.) So according to their numbers about half of any wage increases have been eaten up by non-cash benefits, of which employer sponsored healthcare is the greatest component. It's a distant second to deficits, but I do enjoy the economics of healthcare too.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 14:41 |
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I saw someone with a minor in economics posting about a "Social Security Trust Fund' so I thought "Who boy. What an idiot, I better jump ahead a few pages while people put him straight." Nope still here. Hey, dude, go punch all your economics professors in the face because they ripped you off. There is no SS trust fund. Social Security is a tax. It is income to the government. Social Security benefits are paid out through regular appropriations just like any other government spending. Social Security is backed by the full faith and credit of the US ability to tax it's constituents. Just like cash money or T-Bills. Suggesting that SS be invested in the Stock Market is suggesting that the US Government take partial ownership of all publicly traded US Corporations. A communist is you. Now go away and get a real education. e: SS is also not invested in treasuries. The government is not going to lend itself money at interest. That it then has to tax people to pay for. The entire concept is ridiculous. Social Security is a tax. It is called the Social Security Tax. There is no trust fund. It is income to the government. Social Security benefits are made out based on the US ability to tax it's population. These two numbers (the amount collected and the amount paid out) do not have to be equal. Social Security cannot 'go bankrupt', it is not a bank it is a law. Although, just like any law, it can get repealed or modified. Murgos fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Aug 31, 2015 |
# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:03 |
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Mr. Nice! posted:Greece had a few problems: 1. massive corruption leading to declining revenues; 2. forced austerity in the face of 1; and the inability to fix themselves because they were stuck on the euro. This last part needs to emphasized. If they still controlled their own currency & central bank they'd at least be able to fix the situation. It'd be a really lovely fix that'd still be painful for everyone but it'd at least be an option. They don't have that though so in their case, yes, the national debt sort of IS like personal debt.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:21 |
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The government buys treasuries from itself all the time, though. Also, it is a tax, but the excess is required to be invested into government bonds. That's the trust fund. Anti debt guy is still an idiot for voting for Perot and probably being a libertarian, but there is a social security trust fund. edit: I mean, honestly, the US government is the single largest holder of its own debt. That's pretty basic knowledge. Killer-of-Lawyers fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Aug 31, 2015 |
# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:27 |
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Killer-of-Lawyers posted:The government buys treasuries from itself all the time, though. Also, it is a tax, but the excess is required to be invested into government bonds. That's the trust fund. Anti debt guy is still an idiot for voting for Perot and probably being a libertarian, but there is a social security trust fund. Right, but it's moving numbers from one column to the other. It's still paid for by taxes. The debate is how much money Congress allows Social Security to take out of the general fund.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:39 |
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Killer-of-Lawyers posted:The government buys treasuries from itself all the time, though. Also, it is a tax, but the excess is required to be invested into government bonds. That's the trust fund. Anti debt guy is still an idiot for voting for Perot and probably being a libertarian, but there is a social security trust fund. Hey, I admit I'm not rational in my hatred of deficits and Ross Perot would probably have been a terrible President. My concern on SS is primarily that money taken in now for the program is used to fund other things that may or may not be necessary. When the time comes that payments outstrip revenue (probably around 2020) we'll need to pay that not from the mythical SS Trust Fund, but via the general budget that is already hundreds of billions in the red. Hence more debt - which may not be as cheap to service as it currently is. So yes, it's all money trading hands within the government. But it still represents a very real expense that needs to be paid when the time comes. Or we'll just cut SS benefits by a third - which will happen right around the time most of us Goons retire.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:51 |
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'Government waste'.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:58 |
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quote:When the time comes that payments outstrip revenue This is a myth.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:08 |
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Krispy Kareem posted:Hey, I admit I'm not rational in my hatred of deficits and Ross Perot would probably have been a terrible President. My concern on SS is primarily that money taken in now for the program is used to fund other things that may or may not be necessary. When the time comes that payments outstrip revenue (probably around 2020) we'll need to pay that not from the mythical SS Trust Fund, but via the general budget that is already hundreds of billions in the red. Hence more debt - which may not be as cheap to service as it currently is. It's also not rational to pull numbers out of thin air.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:12 |
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Krispy Kareem posted:Hey, I admit I'm not rational in my hatred of deficits and Ross Perot would probably have been a terrible President. Stop posting. You're making GBS threads up the China Economy Megathread with your knowledge of ~201: Macroeconomics for non-majors~. Go to D&D to spread your half-baked ideology.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:25 |
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Krispy Kareem posted:I'm not rational in my hatred of deficits I guess we're done here
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:33 |
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Fishvilla posted:Go to D&D to spread your half-baked ideology. *ahem*
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:56 |
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Al Jazeera is reporting that people in China are being forced to confess that they were spreading false rumors about the stock market crash and the Tianjian explosion.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:13 |
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Dodoman posted:Al Jazeera is reporting get that people in China are being forced to confess that they were spreading false rumors about the stock market crash and the Tianjian explosion. Yeah, there's been a couple reports of multiple people being arrested and indicted for spreading rumors and insider trading.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:14 |
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Dodoman posted:Al Jazeera is reporting that people in China are being forced to confess that they were spreading false rumors about the stock market crash and the Tianjian explosion. So then China imprisoned all the crazy internet people, and also probably at least one serious blogger?
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:17 |
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So what's going on with the Chinese economy?
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:21 |
Dodoman posted:Al Jazeera is reporting that people in China are being forced to confess that they were spreading false rumors about the stock market crash and the Tianjian explosion. I thought that was pretty much par for the course for these sorts of scapegoat propaganda arrests, in just about any country that does them.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:31 |
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Peel posted:So what's going on with the Chinese economy? It is bad.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:34 |
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You're under arrest for spreading malicious rumors!
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:42 |
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Mozi posted:You're under arrest for spreading malicious rumors! Obama stares longingly out a Beijing window.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:43 |
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Peel posted:So what's going on with the Chinese economy? It's The only way it could be better is if they switched their currency to bitcoin
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:45 |
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I heard they were having some problems, glad to hear they got them under control in time for the big parade.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 17:46 |
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Peel posted:So what's going on with the Chinese economy? Market correction with Chinese characteristics.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 18:21 |
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Mange Mite posted:Barn door status: closed Update: poo poo just hit the fan. An rear end load of Chinese Ports other than Tianjin have stopped accepting all DG cargo both import and export. The few that are continuing to allow DG have major restrictions. This was a big loving deal. It is now a BIG loving DEAL.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:07 |
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So now there's a lot of high explosives just chilling on ships for the foreseeable future?
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:09 |
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Don't worry, huge rear end explosion accidents with ships loaded full of explosives never happened before.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:19 |
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Mozi posted:So now there's a lot of high explosives just chilling on ships for the foreseeable future? Stay safe, goons in Maritime Transportation. I know we have a surprising number of those (although it might go down in the near future ).
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:22 |
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I skipped a few pages, but someone was asking about arrests earlier. Reuters just put this article up.Reuters posted:The head of hedge fund manager Man Group Plc's China business has been taken into custody to help authorities in a probe into recent market volatility, Bloomberg reported on Monday, while separately a local financial reporter confessed on national TV to having spread false information that caused "panic and disorder". link
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:23 |
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We're all gonna be arrested.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:37 |
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BrandorKP posted:Update: Do you have a link for that? I'd like to read it because Google isn't helping me here.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 19:40 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 18:59 |
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Crashrat posted:Do you have a link for that? I'd like to read it because Google isn't helping me here.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 20:07 |