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To: Phyto Chems
Wage rates per unit of time are not the same as labor costs per unit of output. When workers are paid twice as much per hour and produce three times as much per hour, the labor costs per unit of output are lower. That is why high-wage countries have been exporting to low-wage countries for centuries. An international study found the average productivity of workers in the modern sector of the Indian economy to be 15% of that of American workers. In other words, if you paid the average Indian worker one-fifth of what you paid the average American worker, it would cost you more to get the job done in India.

In particular industries, such as computer software, Indian workers are more comparable, which is why there is so much outsourcing of computer work to India. But virtually every country has a comparative advantage in something, whether it is a high-wage country or a low-wage country.

For s/w, Indians have comparable productivity and are cheaper, so it's viable.  For manufactured goods, China is cheaper, but it's artificially cheap.  It'sproductivity is low.  If the yuan/renmimbi was brought to it's actualy value of about 2yuan = $1 instead of 8.4 : 1, that competitiveness would vanish.  If it's even reduced to 6:1 then we'd see something reasonable.

3 posted on 02/24/2004 2:45:56 AM PST by Cronos (W2K4!)
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To: Cronos
The same thing is true of India. If the rupee and the dollar were aligned by purchasing power, there would be 15 rupees to a dollar, not 47.

But investors believe the US is a better place to put their money....for now.
15 posted on 02/24/2004 4:58:05 AM PST by proxy_user
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