Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
Since when do auto workers know how to build battery plants (some of the most complex materials manufacturing around)? In your world do pilots do surgery?
This story might be a concern, if actual production is being staffed by foreign workers. But for the construction phase? I sure hope it's South Korean engineers designing and supervising construction and not Windsor autoworkers.
|
I agree with you, but I think we should keep a watchful eye. The amount of knowledge transfer to the locals might be lower than we expect.
Speaking as a person with an East Asian background, Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese culture is permeated by a sense of superiority. You can see many instances where an East Asian tech company refuses to do the high value work in a foreign country - even the US - because those "Westerners have a worse work ethic than we do". Even after being showered with insane subsidies and tax breaks, companies like TSMC are still hesitant to set up shop in the US and complain about the difficulty of hiring workers who will do things exactly the way they want them to. The trade secrets stay inside the culture, the same way they did in Imperial China.
For East Asian cultures, this sense of superiority is a form of IP protectionism and even if it's racist and unfair, it has worked for them. Every advanced economy* has some form of protectionism that, on its face, is a social conceit that can be easily debunked but allows them to justify their high wages. Even Italy is able to convince the world that only the land of 'la dolce vita' can manufacture bespoke luxury fashion goods.
*We don't in Canada, and that's a problem for us.