Western Executives Visiting China Come Back Terrified \ stacker news ~econ

pull down to refresh

Western Executives Visiting China Come Back Terrified www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/why-western-executives-visit-china-coming-back-terrified/

285 sats \ 9 comments \ @OT 3h econ

“I can take you to factories [in China] now, where you’ll basically be alongside a big conveyor and the machines come out of the floor and begin to assemble parts,” he says.

“And you’re walking alongside this conveyor, and after about 800, 900 metres, a truck drives out. There are no people – everything is robotic.”

If this is true and continues to grow and replace human labor, I wonder what all the workers are going to do? Mass UBI?

view all related items

132 sats \ 7 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 2h

Throughout history, some jobs disappear and new ones show up, maybe now it’s just happening faster. But that’s a natural thing, and societies have shown they can adapt. What doesn’t make sense, and definitely isn’t gonna happen, is keeping people getting paid for doing nothing over long periods of time.

161 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 56m

100%

Human wants are unlimited and comparative advantage means that there will always be demand for human labor (if only because they can underbid higher performing robots in some tasks).

One seemingly likely prospect for humans is just the demand for things that are made by humans.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 28m

totally. Sometimes the shift happens faster or slower, depends on demand like you said, but it happens in the end.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT OP 46m

I'm sure they'll adapt. The already know they're on their own (as in the gov won't save them) so they'll like adapt to fill a void somewhere.

111 sats \ 3 replies \ @OT OP 2h

They've been trying to transition to a service economy for more than a decade now. I guess at this pace we'll find out pretty soon.

32 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 2h

almost 50% services labor force

https://www.statista.com/statistics/270327/distribution-of-the-workforce-across-economic-sectors-in-china/

88 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT OP 49m

I think they do service differently to the west. They pay low and over hire to optimize convenience. In the west (well in Australia at least) the minimum wage is high so companies can't afford to hire too many employees.

I remember going to this fancy restaurant in Shanghai and they had a waiter stand over every table. I felt uncomfortable, but maybe the locals thought different.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 25m

This looks like some fancy restaurant!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @035736735e 18m outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.