You get "economy leveling" when a 3rd world nation buys its first weaving machine. This doesn't mean that the 3rd world country suddenly has American standards of living...our economies aren't actually "level," but they will move a little bit closer to parity. India did this in the 1970's. 3 decades later their economy is no where near ours, but yet, it is far more "level" than it was in 1975. I get economy leveling when the 3rd world nation buys its first weaving machine, then slave wages us out of the infrastruction of our weaving industry. I'm not getting why we would want to elevate the economy of a 3rd world pit at the expense of our own.
What I am saying is that 3rd world nations want to buy, and will buy and adapt when they can, American productivity advancements like weaving machines, refineries, cotton gins, robots, software, etc.
They're not, though, except for machinery and techniques to go into competition with us. The only way we can compete is to lower our standard of living toward theirs while raising their standard of living toward ours in a process of entropy.
Theirs may elevate some, but our will lower more because their countries are not based on the same philosophies as ours and freedom of the people thereof is not a value. I see no reason for us to do this.
I see no objective reason based on the good of American and her people to become as deeply involved in world trade as we are becoming. I can see the objective benefit for agencies within and without the US that want a global government, though.
"The only way we can compete is to lower our standard of living toward theirs while raising their standard of living toward ours in a process of entropy." - William Terrell
No. The way that we compete is by replacing human labor with free robot labor.
Even cheap Chinese and Indian labor can't compete with the free labor of an American Coca-Cola softdrink vending machine/robot.
...And putting those American machines in offices around the world doesn't *lower* our standard of living, it raises it. Now it's a little more convenient to grab a drink. Life just got a little bit better.
Same thing holds true for introducing robot painters onto automobile assembly lines; ditto again for robot welders.
The more that we automate, the higher that our standard of living goes. Those robots, for instance, give us better quality paint jobs on our cars than the old hand-sprayed jobs...at lower costs. Those robot welds are consistently better than the old human welds, too...giving us cars that hold up longer.
How do the Chinese and Indians compete against free American robot labor?
While you're worried about the U.S. somehow "lowering" our standard of living, not only have our real living standards increased (e.g. life span, healthcare, % invested in stock market, % who own their own homes, etc.), but the reality is that it is our competition that relies upon "cheap labor" that is getting slapped around by our robots.
How do such nations compete against fully automated factories?! How do they compete against softdrink vending machines and newspaper vending machines?!
Cheap labor isn't the threat. Cheap labor is being threatened.
By the U.S.