Platforms are for sissies
In the U.S., I would see windows of tall buildings being washed, many time in my life. There, a catwalk-like platform is lowered along the face of the building: it has railings to give safety and security, and the window washers can even clip belts to the rails.
In China, even today, many things that we would expect to see done by machinery, in the U.S., are done, manually, in China. Event though China markets itself to the world asd a modern country, that is simply marketing and PR. Others might have you believe that China has underpaid workers in poor conditions. That is too far to the other side. Although there are many cases of poor work conditions, that would not be true of many people in many different types of jobs.
The simple truth is that: (1) China does not, yet, have a lot of capital assets, especially, if you look at things on a per capita basis; (3) China does not have access to all of the latest technology, especially given its record od turning a blind eye and hands in pockets. China does, on the other hand, have a huge pool of labor, most of whom are trying, still, to move beyond the agrarian society that China had been, in still is, overall. In that regard, they try to make up for the lack of worker productivity, i.e., output per person, by having an abundance of worker capital.
That said, with window washing for even tall buildings, in China, window washers rappel down the side of the buildings, mountaineering style, buckets and brushes, hanging from their rope belts. Someone on the top of the building passes down a hose for rinsing. You can see a group of them cleaning the windows of a building that we can see from our office.
I have also seen crude block and tackle, using 3 tall stout logs lashed together at the top to make a tripod to lift incredibly heavy things into place. I've seen hoards of men using jackhammers where we would use heavy machinery, and I have seen hundreds of men using shovels, not even good snow shovels, to clear major highways of snow because there are not enough snowplows around.
© 2009 Red Hill Capital Corporation, Delaware, USA; all worldwide rights reserved!
In China, even today, many things that we would expect to see done by machinery, in the U.S., are done, manually, in China. Event though China markets itself to the world asd a modern country, that is simply marketing and PR. Others might have you believe that China has underpaid workers in poor conditions. That is too far to the other side. Although there are many cases of poor work conditions, that would not be true of many people in many different types of jobs.
The simple truth is that: (1) China does not, yet, have a lot of capital assets, especially, if you look at things on a per capita basis; (3) China does not have access to all of the latest technology, especially given its record od turning a blind eye and hands in pockets. China does, on the other hand, have a huge pool of labor, most of whom are trying, still, to move beyond the agrarian society that China had been, in still is, overall. In that regard, they try to make up for the lack of worker productivity, i.e., output per person, by having an abundance of worker capital.
That said, with window washing for even tall buildings, in China, window washers rappel down the side of the buildings, mountaineering style, buckets and brushes, hanging from their rope belts. Someone on the top of the building passes down a hose for rinsing. You can see a group of them cleaning the windows of a building that we can see from our office.
I have also seen crude block and tackle, using 3 tall stout logs lashed together at the top to make a tripod to lift incredibly heavy things into place. I've seen hoards of men using jackhammers where we would use heavy machinery, and I have seen hundreds of men using shovels, not even good snow shovels, to clear major highways of snow because there are not enough snowplows around.
© 2009 Red Hill Capital Corporation, Delaware, USA; all worldwide rights reserved!
Posted by In Country China at 10/1/2009 5:22 PM 
Categories: Did You Know, China Fact
Tags: machinery capital manual labor window washing economics China safety labor
Categories: Did You Know, China Fact
Tags: machinery capital manual labor window washing economics China safety labor
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