# Why I as an American support revolt in China **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353 "2011-06-21T23:13:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/1 "2011-06-21T23:13:15Z")
We have a lot of companies who have sent our manufacturing and production jobs overseas to China, because they are happy to work for pennies a day, while the Corporate execs rake in big paychecks and and expand the divide between rich and poor. Corporate execs’ pay has gone up 400% since 1970 (Source: MSNBC). If a large-scale war broke out that consumed all of China, it would suddenly become too costly and dangerous to not ship our jobs back to the US, where they belong. There’s a lot of jobs in China, and there’s a lot of unemployed people here. Do the math. ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/2 "2011-06-21T23:47:32Z")
Bump for great justice ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/3 "2011-06-21T23:52:13Z")
Nice prioritization of American jobs over huge losses of life. Well done. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/4 "2011-06-22T00:04:26Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Nice prioritization of American jobs over huge losses of life. Well done. Yes. A massive civil war in China would result in an _enormous_ death toll, and “jobs!” isn’t a good enough justification for that. Not only that, all that would happen is that the jobs in question get sent to the next most low paying country, _not_ America. So it fails even on that level. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/5 "2011-06-22T00:06:11Z")
What a great idea! Let’s you and him fight. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/6 "2011-06-22T00:06:59Z")
> [@](#): > > We have a lot of companies who have sent our manufacturing and production jobs overseas to China, because they are happy to work for pennies a day, while the Corporate execs rake in big paychecks and and expand the divide between rich and poor. Sounds like a win/win to me. We get cheap products and they get jobs they are happy to do for ‘pennies a day’. > [@](#): > > If a large-scale war broke out that consumed all of China, it would suddenly become too costly and dangerous to not ship our jobs back to the US, where they belong. Why would ‘large-scale war’ break out in China? What do you suppose would be the result if it did? Do you imagine that if there was some sort of civil war in China that this would automatically bring all those good low wage manufacturing jobs back to the US? Why? Why do they belong here in any case? Do we have some sort of lock on all manufacturing and production jobs in the world? (I’m of course leaving aside the fact that our economy would take a huge hit if China went tits up, as well as the effects on our trade not only with China but with several other countries that would be effected by civil war in China, since even glossing over that there are some, um, rather glaring holes in your OP) > [@](#): > > There’s a lot of jobs in China, and there’s a lot of unemployed people here. Do the math. Americans are not willing to work for ‘pennies a day’. The math seems to indicate that if those jobs weren’t in China they would be in some other country that has workers willing to work at those levels. If by some chance every other country with low wage labor on earth also broke out in civil war at the same time and that manufacturing came back to the US then most likely we STILL wouldn’t get all those jobs back, since what we’d actually do is automate. And you, I and everyone else would pay more for goods and services but still not have all those gods given Amurican Jobs™ done by Real Amurican Workers(aar)…they’d be done by machines. Why do we constantly seem to be getting bombarded by these kinds of threads? Do the math… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/7 "2011-06-22T00:07:39Z")
Jesus, what’s with all the anti-China threads lately ? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/8 "2011-06-22T00:35:41Z")
Well, you start one and an hour later you’re pissed off again. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/9 "2011-06-22T00:36:50Z")
Following the OP’s logic, doesn’t that seems like a good reason to have a revolution in the US instead? It’s not like China is the only poor country with excess labor. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/10 "2011-06-22T00:37:34Z")
Is there even a flicker of revolt on China’s horizon anyway? If there is, the state must be hiding the news quite effectively. ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/11 "2011-06-22T00:42:11Z")
The war thing is presented as an idea of a situation that could make it too costly to manufacture there. If you’ve got a better idea, I’d love to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/12 "2011-06-22T00:49:13Z")
You seem to be ruling out an American first-strike thermonuclear holocaust on China. Why? ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/13 "2011-06-22T00:50:03Z")
I missed the edit window, but here’s another thing. Should I take my Information Technology industry certifications with me to China so I can live on pennies a day like a rice farmer? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/14 "2011-06-22T00:56:54Z")
Of course, a revolution in China might succeed, and establish democracy, followed (after a painful period of fixing up the war-damage) by more-broadly-shared prosperity and even more amazing economic development. Be careful what you wish for. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/15 "2011-06-22T01:16:25Z")
[QUOTE=humanafterall] The war thing is presented as an idea of a situation that could make it too costly to manufacture there. If you’ve got a better idea, I’d love to hear it. [/QUOTE] A better idea for what? What exactly is the goal here? To bring back low wage high volume jobs to the US ‘where they belong’?? Easy…convince American workers to work those jobs for low wages and no benefits. Done. Or, conversely, convince the American consumer to pay more (a LOT more) for the same cheap goods they are currently getting. > [@](#): > > I missed the edit window, but here’s another thing. Should I take my Information Technology industry certifications with me to China so I can live on pennies a day like a rice farmer? I don’t know…does that seem to be a good idea to you? It has no really compelling allure for me. That seems like a life changing decision that you really shouldn’t ask people on a message board advice on before leaping in… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/16 "2011-06-22T01:18:10Z")
Yes, let’s have a war that might turn nuclear and result in decimation of two of the world’s largest countries, let’s have a war that makes the Ostfront look like child’s play. :rolleyes::dubious: ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/17 "2011-06-22T01:42:30Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Is there even a flicker of revolt on China’s horizon anyway? If there is, the state must be hiding the news quite effectively. China has a growing population of young unmarried men a portion of which are unlikely to ever marry. This is often a favorable precondition to warfare and social unrest. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/18 "2011-06-22T01:43:55Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Yes, let’s have a war that might turn nuclear and result in decimation of two of the world’s largest countries, let’s have a war that makes the Ostfront look like child’s play. :rolleyes::dubious: Soon, **Qin.** Be patient. Your Majesty’s Restoration is at hand. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/19 "2011-06-22T01:47:13Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > China has a growing population of young unmarried men a portion of which are unlikely to ever marry. This is often a favorable precondition to warfare and social unrest. It is also a favorable precondition for . . . [something that seems to give the Chinese government the willies, and not in a **good** way.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_China#Modern_China) Though they are getting better . . . > [@](#): > > Even as late as the early 1980s, there were some Chinese men seeking asylum in other countries reported that they had faced systematic discrimination and harassment from the government because of their sexual orientation as well as similar mistreatment from family members [2]. Likewise, the Chinese government did treat homosexuality as a disease and subjected gay men to electric shock therapy and other attempts to change their sexual orientation [“China Using Electrodes To ‘Cure’ Homosexuals”, New York Times, January 29, 1990] > > \ > > In 1997, the Chinese criminal code was revised to eliminate the vague crime of “hooliganism”, which had been used as a de facto ban on private, adult, non-commercial and consensual homosexual conduct. > > On April 20, 2001, the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders formally removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.[47][48] ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353/20 "2011-06-22T01:48:20Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Soon, **Qin.** Be patient. Your Majesty’s Restoration is at hand. Your Majesty’s Restoration? 😕 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-as-an-american-support-revolt-in-china/586353.md?page=2)