Posted on 08/20/2024 9:19:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
Buy gold. That’s the only take away from this insanity.
One of the biggest challenges in the political world is that candidates cannot win unless they feed the delusion that most voters have — that they can have $35/hour wages, Walmart prices, and steep tariffs on imports … all at the same time.
More importantly than the exchange rate between countries and governments, who seem to try and out-central-plan each other - is the “exchange rate” between the government currency and your individual labor and savings.
And that is declining relentlessly.
I think the motor vehicle trade should be financially balanced along the lines of American/Canadian method used about 60 years ago.
American-made internal combustion engines and EV batteries might flow to Mexico in exchange for Mexican-made auto parts and wiring assemblies.
Another thing is to have simple things that can be made by machine be made in the USA.
“they can have $35/hour wages, Walmart prices, and steep tariffs on imports … all at the same time.”
A lot of things can be made by automated machinery in the USA.
Walk through a Walmart.
I’m not sure who’s to blame- the candidates or the voters. Perhaps both need to be better educated on economic matters.
Holy dollar hurts all the idiots and traitors who outsource their factories to other countries.
the dollar has already lost over 90% of its purchasing power in my lifetime....
1 percent
2 percent
....
48 percent?
Come 2029.
WIKI
The first ships required about 230 days to build (Patrick Henry took 244 days), but the median production time per ship dropped to 39 days by 1943. The record was set by SS Robert E. Peary, which was launched 4 days and 151⁄2 hours after the keel had been laid, although this publicity stunt was not repeated: in fact much fitting-out and other work remained to be done after the Peary was launched. The ships were made assembly-line style, from prefabricated sections. In 1943 three Liberty ships were completed daily.
Class overview
Name Liberty ship
Builders 18 shipyards in the United States
Cost US$2 million ($43 million in 2024) per ship
Planned 2,751
Completed 2,710
Active 2 (Traveling museum ships)
Preserved 4
General characteristics
Class and type Cargo ship
Tonnage 7,176 GRT, 10,865 DWT[2]
Displacement 14,245 long tons (14,474 t)
Length 441 ft 6 in (134.57 m)
Beam 56 ft 10.75 in (17.3 m)
Draft 27 ft 9.25 in (8.5 m)
Propulsion
Two oil-fired boilers
triple-expansion steam engine
single screw, 2,500 hp (1,900 kW)
Speed 11–11.5 knots (20.4–21.3 km/h; 12.7–13.2 mph)
Range 20,000 nmi (37,000 km; 23,000 mi)
Complement
38–62 USMM
21–40 USNAG
Armament Stern-mounted 4-in (102 mm) deck gun for use against surfaced submarines, variety of anti-aircraft guns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship
In fact, in some ways we did sixty years ago when a new car on average cost three month's gross wages. We gave it all up in exchange for "free trade," a bloated administrative state and mass immigration.
Really laugh out loud funny. The US has the most bloated, inefficient, and costliest healthcare system on the planet. You can get comparable healthcare in Europe for 1/8 to 1/10 the cost. In fact, my old insurance would pay to fly you to Europe to have certain procedures like knee replacements done.
The end result is that you end up with the government subsidizing non-productive citizens just so they can buy the things produced by the productive ones. This is exactly where we are in 2024.
You are making the common mistake of assuming that the economic landscape sixty years ago was anything remotely resembling “normal.” In fact, it was the opposite. The post-WW2 period was a brief anomaly when the U.S. was the only major power to emerge from the war with its infrastructure and industrial capacity unscathed. Things began to unravel quickly in the 1960s when the rest of the world got back on its feet.
Three things actually happened:
First the US government bought the support of foreign governments by allowing unfair trade. The best example is the US consumer electronics market. In the early 60s, US manufacturers were right up there with German and Japanese producers. The Johnson administration then allowed unfair Japanese competition in exchange for Japan's support of the Vietnam War. The Japanese closed their market to American imports, MITI heavily subsidized Japanese exporters and with a few years they drove most American TV manufacturers out of business. Even now, the State Department is perfectly willing to trade US jobs for diplomatic advantage. It's easier to do that than get foreign aid through Congress.
Second, in 1971 Nixon dropped the Bretton Woods gold exchange rules for international trade. Gold exchange automatically limited trade deficits because a big deficit meant a big transfer of gold and a big transfer of gold meant your currency went down and the exporters went up. Then Nixon also bequeathed us the EPA at the same time as import limitations fell, so US heavy industry was faced with enormous new costs that its foreign competitors did not face while many of them were also subsidized my their own governments. The result was the slow collapse of American heavy industry and their high-paying union jobs.
Third, the immigration reform act of the mid-60s and Reagan's amnesty meant the increasing trickle of immigrants became a flood, reducing American wages and displacing American workers.
Saying we are good at services like this article does is like saying a boxer has a good left hook after his right arm has been amputated.
The dollar is rapidly devaluing without being officially “devalued.” That’s what inflation is.
Devaluation will not lead to high inflation. It IS high inflation you dolts.
Well,at least someone here understands what makes things tick.
“The only downside is that with fewer and fewer people working in productive industries, the customer base for those things produced with automation gets smaller and smaller.
“The end result is that you end up with the government subsidizing non-productive citizens just so they can buy the things produced by the productive ones. This is exactly where we are in 2024.”
The cost of the automatically produced products represents labor + material cost + machine cost + profit. Each of those four items go to people who need to buy services.
A shareholder might need a lawn mowed. A machine operator may need a new roof and car repairs. A refinery worker may need legal services and nursing care for his mom. An oil rig worker might need a root canal and a kitchen remodel for the wife.
Most of the non-food manufactured stuff Walmart sells might come to $200 billion a year. Most of the non-food manufactured stuff Amazon sells might come to $450 billion a year. The wholesale cost totaling for the two $450 billion or so. That’s a now minor part of the $15 trillion(?) per year US economy.
The only reason to hand out money is because some people are incapable of work. Much of Social Security is pre-collected.
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