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Posted on 07/18/2011 11:48:57 AM PDT by JerseyHighlander
Ross Perot Was Right On July 18, 2011, in Economy, by Tim
Spotted over at Patrick.net this morning, 1992 Presidential candidate Ross Perot’s warning about a steady decline in U.S. wages from almost 20 years ago sounds quite prophetic. All you have to do is substitute “China” for “Mexico” when you hear about wages converging at six dollars an hour – ours going down, theirs going up.
Sadly, no one talks about his much – instead, you get a political debate about taxes and spending. And, of course, monetary policy at the Federal Reserve that is largely based on a consumer price index that doesn’t distinguish between imported goods and goods that are produced domestically only exacerbates the problem.
Someday perhaps you will tote a tag line in concert with mine. ; )
Than what?
We need to free ourselves from this domination of freedom that has been forced upon us by God! /MS
Bingo and well said!
B.S. we still pay tariffs to the G20 nations while they don’t. You call THAT a good deal?
The only way free trade works is if everyone is playing by the same rules.
It only fails because our own government puts the shackles on us.
Business based in the U.S. have to play by their own set of ludicrous rules that puts them at a stark disadvantage in the world.
This is a big-government problem, not a free trade problem.
I counted 3 nations of the G20 with which the US has free trade agreements. Setting the US aside, that leaves 16 nations in the G20 who pay tariffs into the US Treasury.
It was noted long ago that an idea would take hold in America and one could not shake it. We have been victims of the influence of narrow minded Free Trade fanatics over the last forty to fifty years. This bizarre 18th century ideation is certainly one of the factors sending the American economy into a tail spin. The others being: EEOP, regulations, Environmentalism, a tax system out of control, the collapsing social system, bad morals etc. etc.
Ross Perot was right and the free traitors were and are wrong.
The free traitors will say, but, but what about inflation if we produce our own products.
The US produced most of its products for most of its history without massive inflation.
How is it that the US could exist all those years with every consumer product known to man and the average consumer was able to afford it all?
How it is that the American standard of living was already the best in the world before all this outsourcing?
Before Japan, China, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Mexico came on to the scene, the US was producing and consuming just fine.
Nobody was suffering and starving because we weren’t buying crap from China.
Instead of “then”.
Really? The wealth of our nation is being systematically looted and all you can do is play silly chat room games?
Sigh.
After one decides who to blame (and anyone will do, since it is the placing of blame that is important), what's next?
Protectionism won't solve the problem. Protectionism (which is collectivism) will produce inferior products at a higher price. Eventually the old Soviet joke becomes a truism. “Everyone’s working but there's nothing on the shelves.” Why would we turn to a failed system to “protect” us?
The solution is twofold. Compete where you have equality or advantage. Where you can't compete, don't. Simply take advantage of the cheap goods available and buy them. Competing directly against extremely cheap labor is impossible. How many times do we have to learn that lesson? It's been evident for centuries.
We must retrain our labor force to perform at a higher level than people overseas who can push a couple of buttons on a factory machine or do piecework for a few cents an hour. Like everything else about this economic situation, the fix is going to take a long time.
I forgot about saving the country or the world long ago. I got busy and saved myself. I learned how to compete with people in my industry who underpriced me by not competing with them on price, but on trust.
I left the world-saving to the lefties. This left me with a few important lessons:
You can't make a good deal with a bad guy.
Beware the naked man who offers you his shirt.
Never sign anything in a room with a chandelier.
Don't trust anyone who wears sunglasses inside.
The amateur always blames the equipment.
I was in Uni as a Finance major undergrad when I first found FR.
Recently did a spring cleaning and had to decide whether to keep or toss my undergrad textbooks. The theories espoused in those econ books will be as discredited as phrenology by the time my own kids attend college some day.
I was under the same disillusion as my econ professor was a national level Libertarian at the time. Overcoming Confirmation Bias is a hard process to accept, especially as I focused my studies on a field that is looking worse for wear by the hour in these difficult times.
Really? All you can do is take shots a patriot of enormous accomplishment who had it figured out in 1992 that the Bushes and the Clintons were on the same page, started a third Party with his own personal money to give the people a choice, and when things work out badly, exactly as the successful entrepeneur predicted, all you can do is say he was wrong? Plus, you don’t even know the difference in English usage between then and than?
Plus, you don’t even know the difference in English usage between then and than?
I give people the benefit of the doubt.
NO disagreement here but I fear you still believe in collectivism in the sense you want to retrain your fellow AMericans in the workforce to go upmarket and compete at higher profit margins.
Having worked as a PC/computer/IT certification instructor during President Bush’s big drive to retrain the workforce after the 2001 recession, all I can tell you is that
1. Most of the students were untrainable
2. Most of the students were receiving Gov loans/grants
3. There was almost no net benefit to the individuals or the economy as a whole from those retraining programs.
The only people really helped by that private IT school I worked at were younger minority students who couldn’t afford a community college but had potential, and immigrants who had potential but limited opportunities.
“Never sign anything in a room with a chandelier.” - That is going to stick with me.
Have you ever heard of these treaties? AFTA, CEFTA, COMESA, GAFTA, GCC, NAFTA, SAFTA, SICA, TPP?
BTW, the average Tarrif in 2010 was 1.3%. So it mine as well be free. I get hit with a higher local sales tax.
China manipulates their currency, does not have an EPA, EEOC, Minimum wage law and does not pay tariffs to us. This is why so many businesses are building there. It’s not a level playing field.
It’s like playing a poker game and they have one set of rules and we have another. The way the game is currently set up... we will lose.
The skill levels are converging too.
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