Yesterday in class I made the bold proclamation that if we aren't careful about how we manage the economy going forward, we may all end up working for the Chinese one day. Today the New York Times ran a story about how this is already happening in some segments of the computer industry (just ask former IBM Thinkpad employees).
We all know computer companies like HP and Apple don't actually have any factories of their own. They design a cool gadget like a new color printer or iPod, then ask a contract assembler in Taiwan or China to put it together for them. For years, that's how it worked.
Now, those contract assemblers are starting to grow up. With names like Quanta or Foxconn, most Americans have never heard of these companies before. These two in particular, however, are investing millions of dollars into new technologies and startups, sometimes in the U.S., so that they can eventually compete with... their own customers.
Asian Computer Makers Move Into Riskier Ventures - NYTimes.com
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