>>A bit simplistic for my taste. Environmental standards and bureocratic hurdles add more cost in "developed" countries.
China has clamped down hard on environmental issues, imposing clean standards that put a lot of polluting factories out of business. They had to- associates who visited industrial zones in China in the last 20 years were left aghast at what they saw being done to the environment. Stuff that used to be easy to produce cheaply if environment was no concern- e.g. cast ironworks, steel, chemical products- are going to be a lot more expensive now.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
