[A. Pole]

"So what is you advice for American workers? How can they compete with the Chinese and Indian workers who have less living expenses?"

If the problem is living expenses that are too high, then the answer is simple: reduce your expenses.

Interesting. But in order to make expenses comparable to Chinese or Indian, the American worker would have either to move to China or India or to live on less than workers in these countries as housing/food/transportation/medical care is more expensive in USA.

Do you think it is possible?

[Logophile]

Interesting. But in order to make expenses comparable to Chinese or Indian, the American worker would have either to move to China or India or to live on less than workers in these countries as housing/food/transportation/medical care is more expensive in USA. . . . . Do you think it is possible?

Possible? Absolutely. According to one recent survey by Mercer Consulting (www.citymayors.com/features/cost_survey.html), Beijing is already slightly more expensive than New York, and Shanghai is only slightly less so.

Of course, such surveys are fraught with difficulties. (For one thing, the rankings depends greatly on the currency exchange rates.) Still, if a low cost of living alone made an area attractive to foreign business, we should soon see a stampede out of China to places like Asuncion, Paraguay.