China vs. us!!! Are we letting China win?

Hi Fella's!

I just came back from a trip of my tool supplier. The owner is a Dutch guy and we got talking about my new toy company that I'm just starting. He spoke very harsh words about where our world is heading. I'm trying to sort my thoughts, but it's really hard to put it down.

First of, I was telling him about my job (sound guy) and how I get to travel lots. We both agreed that it is a real life experience to travel and see other cultures. To get a different look at how we operate in North America from a different perspective. The conversation continued and I told him that I was about to start a new company, building wooden toys here in Canada. He didn't really seem to like my company idea. He advised me to always think of the fact that we do live in a capitalistic world and that I have to operate within the boundaries of it. My business will in fact fail, if I try to reinvent the wheel, he said.

Art (the fella I was talking to) was telling me about one of his clients that had gone to China to see some of the factory's where they are building little toys. He was telling me about halls filled with thousands of people drawing intricate little designs onto toys, everyone so concentrated on his work, that they did not even look up or flinch when the visitor was walking through the halls. "These people make 10 cents per hour!" said the factory supervisor. That's just $200/hour in labor for 2000 people. At the end of the hall a door "Do you know what's out there?" the tour guide said "2000 more people waiting for more work!" It's scary to hear that, and I refuse to believe that this is healthy for the planet.

This really got me to think. Am I doing something wrong? Will my business fail, because I refuse to operate within the materialistic world? Within the capitalistic philosophy?

I refuse to support the system that is unhealthy for the people and for this planet! "They will take over the world", Art said. I believe that is true as well, but was it avoidable? Can it be that we let Asia take over, because we are so greedy? Just because a few of us (the few that are rich) want to make more and more money, and are creating the big bad machine. Just because we refuse to work for less and keep the money in our countries, we triggered Asia to create new power over us. Would Asia ever have gotten there if we did not bring our industry there? I think we triggered them, to maybe become a capitalist world, by giving them a taste of the things that we have and the things that we desire!

What do you think about this? Do we have reason to be scared about this? Do you think saving the planet by not supporting this bad system is the wrong choice or even possible? Is this the end of our society, just like all the other big empires in the past have failed?