Labor hours and cost of goods are only directly translatable in their respective countries since we're discussing labor disparities. Its error to equate what a Vietnamese person could buy in the us. As you don't disagree it it takes 3 hours to make a shoe. This would be regardless of who is making it. What it costs to purchase a nike is whatever the person selling the shoe says it is. In the us that is 9 hours, what it costs in Vietnam idk but people there seem to wear and buy shoes. Shoes are essentially a fungible good and the cost in the us is about 3 labor hours for the cheapest [1]. I used Nike BC they are the company that comes to mind when one thinks of exploitation and it was mentioned at the above.
They could travel to Vietnam to benefit from the lower prices
The flights I found cost about 90 ($1600) hours of labor for the median worker pre tax so this isn't as a reachable thing as you may think. Especially considering most Americans must go into great debt for education, healthcare, and spend about 30% of their income on rent [2]
(As for the 50/hours labour-per-item, I'm not the OP but that must be an average and it's unfair to reject that figure by finding a commodity that seems to take 2.5 hours of production; a figure itself that (incorrectly) assumes the only labour is in the assembly factory.)
This was presented without evidence and can be dismissed without evidence.
I look around and I see Americans living sick, in debt, working gig work, in shit conditions, and with no legal protections from their employers. Then I'm told they have no revolutionary potential because they're benefiting from exploitation. I don't see that with my eyes or by research. I understand that some Americans most definitely do benefit but it seems me that they are a small minority and thus solidarity and revolutionary potential can be found in the US. This whole Joe cracker shit seems Taylor made for ultras and mtw to wreck for whatever reason.
If the pay you get for one hour of your labour allows you to purchase goods that take 50 hours of labour to produce in the Global South (which is approximately the case if you live in the imperial core), you benefit from exploitation of the cheap labour in the Global South.
This is what I was responding to. It seems that with some quick research and some looking around at poor af Americans this feels like this statement is not quite right. As a Marxist I believe that assertations must be examined. I'm am more than happy to criticize Joe cracker but if in doing so I'm told that capitalists are somehow generous then my eyebrow will become raised.
Its a chauvinist doing 10min reports on China's business practices. Its mostly a guy presenting well researched information about how China is eating the us' lunch and being frustrated about it.
I heard that China is going to replace us manufacturing with in house automation. They already have export restrictions on it and a declining population. Fully expect them to become Australia from manna