Jobs Come and Go (One of the smartest economists in the world hits the nail on the head)

www.townhall.com ^ | 11/26/2003 | Walter E. Williams

[lelio]

So you're saying that it's better for 500 people to lose their jobs to a machine permanently so 2 or 3 people can maintain them than for jobs to go overseas until the natural long run equilibium of economics comes into effect and those jobs come back to the US? I'm sorry to laugh but that's kinda funny....

Yes I am ... as that's the way its been done in the US for over a century. You loose your switchboard job, you move into network management. You loose your job turning a wrench on a factory line, you start using the new tool.

The jobs that are going overseas aren't coming back. I know someone's going to bring up foreign car plants starting up in the US but a) that's the only one I can think of that has come back and b) how much tax money was given to the plants to setup shop here?

[MonroeDNA]

A classic example. Better than the buggy whip industry; more up to date.

Capitalism works, and it comes from individual Freedom. We have the most prosperous nation that the earth has ever seen, and it is all because individuals are free to choose their own path.

Some will choose dead-end careers. That is unfortunate, but their fault. People are responsible for their own choices.

Don't like your situation? Start a company, doing what you do best.

Or whine and blame others for your wories, and demand government intervention.

People who say they can't, are right. People who say they can, are right. Attitude determines success.

[MonroeDNA]

I had a paper route, then several minimum wage jobs. Never complained. I was glad someone would provide me a paycheck, and was thankful. They didn't have to. I rose up, and failed several times. Re-entered the minimum wage arena, and didn't complain. I was still greatful for a job. They didn't have to employ me.

Made it on my own, eventually, but nobody gave me anything, and it was not luck. It was attitude, and acknowledging that life is tough, and nobody owes me anything.

I now employ people, and I don't owe them a job. If they act like I do, I fire them.

I have no respect for anyone who thinks society owes them anything. And if people complain about working for low wages, all I can say is your attitude will prevent you from earning more.

Nobody owes you anything. Thank your employer, and shut up. Or whine, and get fired.

[MonroeDNA]

Don't know where you read that, but WW is against tariffs. Where did that come from?

[Dog Gone]

If you can't or refuse to adapt to new jobs and a changing economy, you have two choices.

You can blame the government or you can blame yourself.

Real conservatives rely on themselves instead of blaming the government for their current condition.

[Windsong]

Hmmmm...

Do you owe God anything?

[MonroeDNA]

Longshoremen in LA make an average pay of $110,000 per year. Average. Clerks get more, $130,000 per year. Clerks.

When you pay people more than they are worth, your company loses money. Your company is owned by shareholders, like me. My 401k goes down when you pay much more than people's skills are worth.

Somebody else will start a company, and pay clerks less. Much less. That stock will rise, and my 401k will rise, if I invested in them, rather than a union company paying clerks $130,000 a year.

Fact is, people who pull levers for a living are not worth a hundred grand a year. Clerks are not worth anywhere near that. But their union locks out competition, so we all pay more, and our retirement plan suffers.

People who screw bolts onto car bumpers are not worth $70,000 a year, either, but the UAW has a monopoly, so Detroit pays. They jack up the price of the car, and we pay.

Frankly, if you don't use your brain to produce, as in you pull levers or screw in bolts for a living, your job is in danger, as it should be. Unless you actually get paid what you are worth. I would pay $25,000 for a clerk, or $40,000 for a bolt screwer, but that is all it is worth.

Meanwhile, I buy Toyota. Even with the 25% tax they have to pay to inport their SUV's here, it is a better quality product than Ford. Because they don't pay clerks outrageous salaries.

[Bob J]

Click Here for the RadioFR website!

ON 7/10pm! “UNSPUN” with AnnaZ and Diotima!

It's our last show of the year,
and we're going out with a bang...
Special Guest

Kenneth Timmerman
will be discussing his latest book!

Click HERE to listen LIVE NOW while you FReep!

Would you like to receive a note when RadioFR is on the air? Send an email to radiofreerepublic-subscribe@radioactive.kicks-ass.net!

Click HERE to chat in the RadioFR chat room!

Radio FreeRepublic is sponsored by the FreeRepublic Network.

[MonroeDNA]

Look for the union label....

On the bat smashing through your windsheild!!!!

[Willie Green]

This man is a genius. Every article he writes just explains the topic of interest so well and so truly.

Walter Williams lost all credibility as an objective economist when he became a syndicated partisan pundit. IMHO, he's almost as worthless as Oprah.

[MonroeDNA]

"It would be stupid for Americans to study engineering and then not get a job "

It would be stupid for people to not try. Fail. Then fail harder.

Raise your hand if you have been homeless, and lived in a car. I have, 1980. I did not give up. And never filed for unemployment. And never blamed anybody, nor whined.

I put my mind to it, and clawed my way up from homeless to making artificial hearts today.

Was I lucky? lo f*in lol! He!! no! I was homeless because I was too stupid to try. People in the service industry get paid what they are worth, or their job goes away. Don't knock service industry jobs, but don't espect a 4-BR house, either. Your choice to do it for a living.

In Michigan, in the dead of winter, snow, cold, etc., I rode my bike to my job at McDonalds. I had no money for gas, for the car I barely owned. In McDonald's uniform. Did I whine about service jobs? He!! no. I was glad to have a job.

The whining of people here about visas, and unfair, and blah, blah, blah, makes me lose respect for Americans. What a bunch of whiners. What a bunch of pansies. My gift to you is to wish upon you that you somehow end up living in your car, so that you can start over and appreciate the opportunity you have. You need to re-calibrate your life, and appreciate the opportunities life here offers.

Freeper #39.

[vbmoneyspender]

you gotta check for those </sarcasm off> tags before you take a post seriously.

[BiffWondercat]

The Caste system for starters...

[vbmoneyspender]

Are you saying its the untouchables who are becoming computer programmers?

[MonroeDNA]

You are right; my bad. Sorry!

[Lancey Howard]

It's my guess that the average anti-free-trade person wouldn't protest, much less argue that Congress should have done something about the job loss in the telecommunications industry. He'd reveal himself an idiot. But there's no significant economic difference between an industry using technology to reduce production costs and using cheaper labor to do the same. In either case, there's no question that the worker who finds himself out of a job because of the use of technology or cheaper labor might encounter hardships. The political difference is that it's easier to organize resentment against India and China than against technology.

This is the crux of the argument, in my opinion. America is legitimately benefitting from the tremendous windfall of cheap overseas labor. Most of the goods we buy are cheaper because of it. We win.

[Willie Green]

One forgotten beneficiary in today's job loss demagoguery is the consumer.

Since when have the demagogues forgotten the consumer, Walter?
Seems to me that's all you talking-head buffoons ever babble about.
In fact, YOU'RE the one who keeps forgetting that people first need good, productive, well-paying JOBS BEFORE they can become consumers. What the hell can they consume if they can't earn a decent living?

Finding cheaper ways to produce goods and services frees up labor to produce other things.

Yep. Labor saving technology is developed in response to costly, labor intensive production methods.
So what's your point, Walter?
Did you forget that globalization is a regressive force that acts against technological development?
It continually substitutes ever cheaper labor to undermine development and implementation of more sophisticated (and expensive) automated technology.
Go back to watching the Oprah Show, Walter.
Quit pretending that you're a "conservative" economist.
Heck, you might as well quit pretending you're an economist of any type, for that matter.

[BiffWondercat]

X-Rays and MRIs are now being transmitted over to India for evalutation for a great savings. Good luck guy!

Funny, shouldn't medical costs go down if such savings are employed? That's right, lawsuits. I thought that GATT would allow us to import them as well?

Hell, if entire countries can print money....
We can sue each other into infinity for sustinance!

Actually, someone suggested that they were going to "outsource myself" by hiring someone for $3/hour and keep the rest and his time for himself.

Damn great idea...

[nmh]

Dear Willie Green, if you had your way we'd all be eating with our hand and living in caves. Honestly, you are such a Neanthral.

You really don't like anything that ends the status quo. If you could you'd charge the world for someone to print set a paper. You wouldn't have wanted that automated either since "jobs were lost".

Give it up dear Willie. Your sour notes don't play well.

[lewislynn]

My 401k goes down when you pay much more than people's skills are worth.

Who are you to say what anyone is worth?

If you don't think Longshoremen are worth their pay then you don't remember the lockout last year that (sadly) almost brought the country's economy to it's knees...I'd say that's a pretty compelling argument FOR their worth.

The GOP anti-union attitude is embarrassing idiocy.

Who says you're skills/service are worth the rest of us having to pay your 401k contributions?

I have a (non-union) "service" business. Though I do business with all types of people, the majority of the "blue collar" people I do business with are union members (because they can afford it) ...almost -0- non-union (because they can't afford it).

Much as you may not like it, your import was probably off loaded and shipped via union labor.