August 5, 2005

outsourcing etc.

Bri­lliant post from Sig: “The Logic Of Outsourcing”.

Whirlpool’s top-of-the-line front-loader washing machine retails for $ 1.200. It’s pro­du­ced in Ger­many where the hourly wage is $ 32. In the US it’s $ 23, in Mexico $ 3, and in China it’s $ 1.
And Whirl­pool has fac­to­ries in all four pla­ces.
The inte­res­ting thing is that only one — 1 — hour of such manual labour goes into the $ 1.200 machine.

Humans like to ove­res­ti­mate the impor­tance of things they can con­trol etc.
[Disc­lo­sure: Sig and I work together on the Thin­gamy project.]

One Response to “outsourcing etc.”

  1. Phillip says:

    Sig makes a great argu­ment against the outsour­cing of manu­fac­tu­ring to