Back when I was fighting the introduction of NAFTA, a small manufacturer invited me out to his plant. When I entered his office, I noticed the wall was covered with granted patents in food processing. (One of ‘em was automating segmenting oranges to make those canned Mandarin Oranges.)
He told me he had invented a machine that would automatically de-stem strawberries without crushing them. The U.S. companies said they were interested but he said it was obvious they just wanted to steal his idea. (This was before China really got into the industrial piracy act.)
So . . . he went to Mexico, but couldn’t make a sale down there either. One factory owner was pretty candid and showed him why. He was led into a large two-story warehouse that was filled with tables each holding about a dozen people, working like fury cutting out the strawberry stems. There was a catwalk on the second level where a guy with a bullhorn was walking around and blasting some table that didn’t look like they were working fast enough.
The owner pointed to those people and said that it would cost him more to wash down the guy’s machine at day’s end than it cost to pay all those people. The guy said there were too many there, even at slave wages, to work cheaper than his machine.
The owner said that half the people there didn’t get paid. In order for those who did, to keep their jobs, they had to supply their kids and relatives to work for nothing.
It’s no wonder those people risk their lives to get out.
The owner pointed to those people and said that it would cost him more to wash down the guy’s machine at day’s end than it cost to pay all those people. The guy said there were too many there, even at slave wages, to work cheaper than his machine.
I can top that... many years ago an American company went to China - the company rep saw women - on their hands and knees - cutting the plant grass with scissors. The man in charge explained that it was cheaper to hire women to cut the grass by hand than to buy gasoline for the mower the company had supplied. The company rep told them to use the mower even if it cost more...