# Professor Robert Whitelaw illustrates why low-cost labor in China is no longer a considerable threat to the US economy

1 Faculty News August 10, 2016 ![Marketplace Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/marketplace_logo.jpg?itok=IIav3Udj)>

Excerpt from [Marketplace](http://www.marketplace.org/2016/08/10/economy/china-trump-fighting-old-enemy) -- "'There’s just less labor content in a manufactured item,' said [Robert Whitelaw](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/robert-whitelaw), professor of entrepreneurial finance at NYU. 'A high-end GE refrigerator only has two hours of labor in it,' he said, adding that automation is also a powerful force at the low end of manufacturing. 'Where labor costs are less important, other things become more important, like distance,' he said."

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