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Big Shrimp: A Protectionist Mess
The Cato Institute ^
| 3. January 2005
| Radley Balko
Posted on 01/03/2005 6:39:41 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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I had to make sure the following makes it above the obligatory fund-raiser photo:
1
posted on
01/03/2005 6:39:42 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
2
posted on
01/03/2005 6:41:31 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
To: 1rudeboy
Free the shrimp!
More farmed foreign shrimp means less US shrimping and more shrimp eating game fish on our shores.
3
posted on
01/03/2005 6:43:57 AM PST
by
elfman2
To: 1rudeboy
Well, you can have steel tariffs, auto tariffs, shrimp tariffs, lumber tariffs, OJ tariffs ...
4
posted on
01/03/2005 6:57:49 AM PST
by
NonValueAdded
("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good" HRC 6/28/2004)
To: NonValueAdded
There are some here who argue that more tariffs equal more prosperity.
5
posted on
01/03/2005 6:58:53 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
To: 1rudeboy
As usual it all depends on who's ox is being gored. Free trade is free trade, in this case sink or swim. As I recall the shrimpers in Louisiana used to bitch about the Reverend Moon's shrimping company being unfair competition.
If you protect an industry from foreign competition the industry has no incentive to improve and try and become more competitive. The US government has been in the subsidy business forever when it comes to farm products and the rest of the world yells foul. On a level playing field we will usually find a better way to win the trade war.
6
posted on
01/03/2005 7:16:07 AM PST
by
Recon Dad
(What a tangled web we weave)
To: 1rudeboy
who can pay migrant workers less than what they pay American workers, and who can employ them without benefits. this is a myth. I have enough experience with migrant workers to know that they're not stupid enough to work for less than they are worth, and are always on the lookout for higher paying work, and work with benefits.
It's a good thing that the H-B2 thing is one-time, because no migrant that I know would work for less pay than American workers and, though they might go without "benefits," -- useless regulatory overhead, in other words -- they often don't stick around for long in such a place.
This argument is spurious and is actually employing a familiar leftwing device: the premise that poor souls are being taken advantage of (not true); and that premise is being used to push an agenda that really has no concern whatsoever for the well being of migrant workers (protecting American laborers -- a sort of tariff on foreign workers, if you will).
To: the invisib1e hand
I'm not so sure of what point you are trying to make, but I do know that the shrimpers were trying to argue that they needed those temporary foreign workers because the domestic ones wouldn't work for the wages they offered.
8
posted on
01/03/2005 7:20:19 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
To: 1rudeboy
Have any pix of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company?
9
posted on
01/03/2005 7:22:29 AM PST
by
snopercod
("When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk." - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
To: 1rudeboy
Since no one else bothered, I will point out that "Big Shrimp" is an oxymoron.
10
posted on
01/03/2005 7:24:20 AM PST
by
spodefly
(This message packaged with desiccant. Do not open until ready for use or inspection.)
To: bayourod
11
posted on
01/03/2005 7:24:46 AM PST
by
snopercod
("When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk." - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
To: snopercod
Which one? Are you from Chicago? I tried the Navy Pier location once. Stopped eating shrimp for a while afterward from sheer horror.
12
posted on
01/03/2005 7:25:49 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
To: 1rudeboy
13
posted on
01/03/2005 7:30:36 AM PST
by
Fiddlstix
(This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
To: NonValueAdded
Log the time. I finally got the joke!
14
posted on
01/03/2005 7:34:47 AM PST
by
1rudeboy
To: 1rudeboy
The point I was trying to make is simply that the big straw man in the immigration debate is that these workers are working cheaper, it is often said for "less than minimum wage," than American workers. It's a ridiculous proposition -- no immigrant is dumb enough to work for less than minimum for long. In the industry I'm most familiar with (the green industry) minimum wage is unheard of for anyone. Minimum wage is a myth, for most Americans and for immigrants as well. Surely there are exceptions. But exceptions shouldn't be touted as the norm.
If one wishes to take a position in the debate, let him not rely on flimsy "urban legends" for premises.
To: 1rudeboy
More tariffs means that Americas get to buy higher priced products. Thus we are consuming more expensive products and are obviously better off than if we were only buying the cheap stuff. "You get what you pay for" and all that so higher prices obviously = higher quality. I can think logically like that early in the morning before coffee if I have stimulated my brain cells with aqua vitae the night before.
16
posted on
01/03/2005 7:42:54 AM PST
by
arthurus
(Better to fight them over THERE than over HERE.)
To: elfman2
The best tasting shrimp comes from the Gulf of Mexico. You can keep your made in China shrimp.
17
posted on
01/03/2005 7:47:49 AM PST
by
PFC
To: 1rudeboy
18
posted on
01/03/2005 7:49:19 AM PST
by
Fury
To: the invisib1e hand
There are bigger forces at work that are only hinted at in the article. The 'foreign imported shrimp' is largely farmed. The domestic shrimp is almost exclusively wild caught. This is the 10,000 year old conflict between hunter gatherers (in this case shrimp boats) and farmers (in this case in ponds rather than fields). It is simply more efficient to deliberately grow things than hunt around looking for them in the wild. Our soybean farmers aren't wandering around meadows looking for wild soybean plants for a reason. But our shrimpers still are. Farmer beats hunter-gatherer hands down, every time.
19
posted on
01/03/2005 7:53:28 AM PST
by
blanknoone
(The two big battles left in the War on Terror are against our State dept and our media.)
To: PFC
Strangely enough, nobody ever argues from the point of view of quality. US Gulf shrimp and Atlantic shrimp (such as Mayport shrimp from North Florida) are much tastier than the farm raised Chinese stuff, and I think a market for quality could be built. Let the Chinese stuff go into frozen foods, fast food "shrimp," etc. Sell the good stuff for eating here by people who know what shrimp should taste like.
But that would require marketing and a little creativity, which no industry likes to engage in, especially if they can get the federal government to go out and do things for them instead.
20
posted on
01/03/2005 7:56:08 AM PST
by
livius
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