How is the World Different with Zero Labor Cost?
doxo...@gmail.com
away with one staggering observation--or perhaps I should say
question: "How is the world different with zero labor cost?"
Westerners hear constantly about the current and future impact of low
labor costs in China...and elsewhere. But I found seeing it myself
showed a more extreme magnitude than even the media expresses. Imagine
driving out of town on a good road that, after 2 hours, turns into a
poor road. At the transition sit three men on white, plastic chairs
(the sort you might buy for $3 at Target or Walmart). Each has a 3'-
long chisel and a hammer. And each is using these hand tools to break
up the old road. From the looks of their progress, the three might
move a couple of feet per hour. A single front loader could move that
distance in 45 seconds. And it's not like China has no front loaders.
Needless to say, the equipment to create that Yang Tze dam is massive
and plentiful. Using people and hand tools just makes more sense. And
that's a terrible example because the "world isn't different." It's
just the same old task, but with people instead of machines. OK,
here's a better one: a very old traditional building had been painted
a bazillion times over the centuries. Apparently the layer of paint
four or five layers down was the one they really wanted. So rather
than repainting the building that color or stripping the paint off and
starting again, an army of people with tiny hammers and tiny chisels
was tapping away at the top layers of paint to remove them and leave a
particular layer of paint. Again tracking the progress, I'd estimate
each person finished 1 square foot every 30+ minutes. Staggering.
Dox O'Ryan (http://doxspot.blogspot.com/)
ltlee1
They do that in all preservation projects.
>
> Dox O'Ryan (http://doxspot.blogspot.com/)
No such thing with zero labor cost as long as they have to eat.
An opposite but related question is:
How will the world be different with "green leopard plague?"
Green leopard plague is the name of a science fiction in which
vector capable of photosynthesis infects human and enables the
people to produce their own food by standing under the sun.
PaPaPeng
<doxo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> But I found seeing it myself
>showed a more extreme magnitude than even the media expresses. Imagine
>driving out of town on a good road that, after 2 hours, turns into a
>poor road. At the transition sit three men on white, plastic chairs
>(the sort you might buy for $3 at Target or Walmart). Each has a 3'-
>long chisel and a hammer. And each is using these hand tools to break
>up the old road. From the looks of their progress, the three might
>move a couple of feet per hour. A single front loader could move that
>distance in 45 seconds. And it's not like China has no front loaders.
>Needless to say, the equipment to create that Yang Tze dam is massive
>and plentiful. Using people and hand tools just makes more sense. And
>that's a terrible example because the "world isn't different." It's
>just the same old task, but with people instead of machines.
Aha. You made a very poignant observation. Here's the explanation.
China is a very big country with a humongous population. With the
society undergoing breakneck and fundamental changes the old iron
ricebowl security doesn't exist any more. Many tens of millions,
especially the older folk who do not have farms or factory employment,
are out in the cold and have no prospect of full time employment
again. They draw small pensions, not much but no one is starving.
That "road work" was most likely a make work job to keep them busy and
not meant to provide them permanent employment income. Read a few
more books on China and there will be similar stories. The one I
remember (Nat. Geographic) was the tree planting program that was
financed by an UN agency. This was in a very poor part of China
where even young men could not find work. So our author asked him how
was progress? It seems that he had been doing that for quite a few
years and while a lot of holes were dug there was not much in the way
of tree growth, the soil being too dry. But when the UN inspector
came around the headman could show him the holes dug and the grant
money would be released. This young man wasn't paid but was given two
packs of instant noodles for his labor. No meat or anything else and
the noodles could be eaten without cooking. Why did the young man
continue working? Because there was nothing else to do and this kept
him busy.