Eight Ways China Affects Us

Editor's note: Last week, Jim Jubak examined the Chinese economy's impact on world financial markets. In this week's column, he takes a closer look at the role China plays, and will continue to play, in the everyday lives of Americans.

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Just walk into the toy section of a Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) if you want proof that China's emergence as a global economic power reaches deep into the lives of all of us here in the U.S.

China manufactures about 80% of all toys sold in the U.S., even such iconic products as Etch A Sketch. In 2001, Ohio Art moved production of Etch A Sketch (which it playfully likes to claim is the world's first laptop) to Shenzhen near Hong Kong from Bryan, Ohio, where the toy had been made for 40 years.

Count the ways this one example ripples across our economy:

• Manufacturing jobs that paid $9 an hour in Bryan are shipped to China, where workers at the new manufacturing plant make 24 cents an hour.
• Toys are cheaper at Wal-Mart, where an Etch A Sketch sells for just $9.99. (That's pretty remarkable for a toy that sold for an inflation-adjusted $23.99 in 2004 dollars when it was first introduced in 1960.)
• There's more pressure on the pensions and health benefits of U.S. workers because most of the workers they're competing with don't get those costly "perks."

OK, you're familiar with the lost-job story by now. But the China syndrome -- which I'm using as shorthand for all of the changes to the global economy brought about by the entry of China, India and other rapidly growing economies onto the world stage -- is by no means limited to job losses and lower prices at Wal-Mart. It extends far deeper into our lives than most of us realize. And for better or worse, China will have even more of an influence here in the years ahead.

Let me dust off my trusty crystal ball and sketch eight ways that China matters -- or will matter -- in our everyday lives.