Outsourcing is done for various reasons but obviously labor costs have the most consideration. Companies don't make outsourcing decisions based on belief which people work harder (too subjective, hard to measure) but which people work cheaper (easy to measure), among many other criteria. If Boeing outsourced some supply chain operations to Japan and I'm most positive they did, I doubt Japanese Collectivism was a unit of measure on the Excel spreadsheets.
People outsource where they can get more for their money. It's much more complex than getting more done in quantity but also where they can get better quality, where they can get it done faster (research, production) etc.
1. ME - this is the data collected by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development)
2. YOU - I know this Chinese girl
I'm surprised that you're always so quick to make assumptions. Coming from finance major I'm suprised that you're coming with data that is worth as much as myspace tips as far as "hard work" is concerned. Economics go far beyond "hard work". These are barely numbers that represent local regulations, infrastructure, education, culture and social background (money making skills), migration of skilled workers, existing companies and their wellbeing etc more than hard work alone. Americans don't sell their movies, music, video games because people making them work harder than the Chinese manufacturing the shoes you wear while recording them, yet your arguments would lead us to those strange conclusions.
I understand that Americans translate work to money and numbers, but to find out who works the hardest you'd need sociological observations. Other cultures might judge their work by totally different standards and focus on different priorities. You can't place an American-eque "Excel guy" to count how hard a Chinese guy works at filling his forms or a Korean doctor curing patients with what she has (American drugs and equipment are more expensive and often unavailable, so you can really forget about purchasing power parity numbers ). So to answer that you have to see how people work and look at their culture and analyze how serious they are about long AND hard work. Since you wanted more than my word:
http://www.workhealth.org/whatsnew/lpkarosh.html
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2009/gb2009015_807968_page_2.htm
http://c-pc8.civil.musashi-tech.ac.jp/RC/doc/04.htm
http://www.stippy.com/japan-work/why-do-the-japanese-work-so-hard/
I'm not sure if you've picked ex-Sony CEO's book "Doing it our way" and compared it to the likes of Steve Jobs where they mention how they work, and how they make their employees work. That Sony book will help you understand the Japanese business culture.
http://www.amazon.com/Doing-It-Our-Way-Memoir/dp/4924971251
Now as a response to your data alone (aside from the fact that they're irrelevant) they're short term and not detailed (at the very least services vs production; public vs private sector; not even listing results more accurate than averages) and this is only one source alone.
The thing is, I'm not willing to dispute that there isn't a Chinese kid in some sweatshop working harder to produce Nike shoes than an American woman making American Apparel clothes in the US. I'm just simply saying that making that assumption to make a large point such as productivity is a weak argument to make. It's also very surprising to see that coming from such an analytical, numbers-oriented person.
See, it's impossible to translate hard work to numbers, which might be counterintuitive to an American I guess? You guys are raised and educated to earn money and it's your goal. It's not like that in the Asian culture. They work because they're expected to work and they want to exceed those expectations. I would use numbers whenever they make sense.
I could say that Asians study more and since their IQ is way higher than in any other region of the world the chances of them being better qualified workers and earning more money is higher. I could back that up with data like this:
http://books.google.pl/books?id=Xn8OVNDC1_EC&pg=PA388&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dj7hueuj-U0/TFW3t9Z7y5I/AAAAAAAABos/hLAlNiWOyyI/s400/IQ Score Distribution.png
but frankly, that doesn't make them more capable of making money, yet it is a good sign that they might work more/harder. These numbers wouldn't correspond to real life gains because the culture is different.
As far as Japan goes, I thought the fascination stopped at the end of the 80s. The Japanese economy has stagnated for like the last 20 years. Their public debt is at like 200% of GDP. If their people weren't saving every penny they made, they'd be so fucked.
Japan could get a fair amount of your lands if they wanted their money back.
Their economy took a huge hit, that came a few years ago, I agree. It came from your economy collapsing, the Korean and Chinese economies taking over, some internal issues and perhaps some lack of inspiration and that strange trend of leaving their good old ways behind, doing things too much like Americans and losing their edge coming from the Japanese way of doing American business.
Why should it stop fascination though? (jumping to conclusions that I'm fascinated with their businesses btw.)
If it wasn't for the Japanese business model back in the 70s, 80s and 90s you wouldn't have some of the most important tools that helped your businesses making money. Of course it worked the other way around too. When the Japanese and American business models combined it resulted in a huge synergy.
I have a hard time dealing with Masta247's bullshit but I read your post and am assuming you dealt with it adequately. Good job, sir.
I have a hard time dealing with your comments. Not really, but you shouldn't speak like an asshole when your opinion differs.
