Garment factories to buy into automation [Cambodia]

Phnom Penh Post ^ | August 23, 2016 | Hor Kimsay

[C19fan]

Investors in Cambodia’s garment industry are increasingly purchasing modern equipment as they look to produce higher value-added products to compete in the international market and counter rising labour costs, an industry insider said yesterday.

Ly Tek Heng, operation manager at the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), said rising factory worker wages were thinning margins on the production of low-value garments and footwear in the face of fierce global competition.

[C19fan]

A country with a per-capita GDP of only $1,000 is already automating what is traditionally the first step, textile manufacturing, of development. The key issue of our time is what will happen when AI/robotics means billions of people will have zero value in the world economy.

[Montana_Sam]

Thanks for posting this as automation poses difficult moral questions. The foundation of the problem is the nanny-state that wants to eliminate pain and suffering by taxing the rich to pay for providing services (food/medicine/housing/etc.) for the poor. So the business is getting taxed to death. What does it do? Cans all the workers and puts in robots to produce the same goods. The manufacturer is producing goods, getting taxed heavily and still able to make some money.

We are seeing the problem in this country with raising the minimum wage in the Seattle area, among others. It isn't going to end well as it is going. Socialists' IQ is a zero-sum property. One socialist has an IQ of 50. Ten socialists have a collective IQ of 50. A thousand socialists have a collective IQ of 50. And so it goes. The more socialism spreads, the dumber its adherents.