U.S. Labor Force: One Foot in the Third World

Chronicles Magazine ^ | Tuesday, June 07, 2005 | Paul Craig Roberts

[A. Pole]

Free trade bump!

[oceanview]

dead on.

[Brilliant]

What a bunch of BS. This country has been running trade deficits pretty consistently for 40 years, but we continue to get richer.

[oceanview]

I think this guy reads our FR threads about offshoring.

[A. Pole]

What a bunch of BS. This country has been running trade deficits pretty consistently for 40 years, but we continue to get richer.

You think exactly like Alfonso Nunez de Castro:

"Let London manufacture those fine fabrics of hers to her heart's content; let Holland her chambrays; Florence her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuna; Milan her brocade, Italy and Flanders their linens...so long as our capital can enjoy them; the only thing it proves is that all nations train their journeymen for Madrid, and that Madrid is the queen of Parliaments, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody."
(Prominent Spanish official - Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675)

[oceanview]

there is absolutely no need for any american kid to be studying engineering anymore, unless they want to compete for their wages with the Indians and Chinese. its a losing proposition, american parents are getting their kids out of the field in droves. US engineering programs would be imploding if not for enrollment of foreign nationals. enrollment in trade schools is booming - plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics.

[Wolfhound777]

I agree with your assessment. The article is dead on.

[Asclepius]

Considering the vast excess supplies of labor in India and China, Asian wages are unlikely to rapidly approach existing U.S. levels. Therefore, the substitution of Asian for U.S. labor in tradable goods and services is likely to continue.

This is risible on its face. If Asia's only advantage is a relative price advantage then Asia itself is supremely vulnerable. Does anyone remember when everyone thought Japan would bury us economically? Whatever happened to the Japanese juggernaut, anyone? Meanwhile, Asia continues to subsidize the US by providing it below-market-value goods and services--and we're supposed to be the losers? Ask yourselves: is underselling your goods or services a sustainable practice?

[oceanview]

we give a tax cut to Intel - they use the money to build a semiconductor plant in china. we are commiting national economic suicide.

[Ciexyz]

Reading all posts with interest.

[SwankyC]

Any minute now, lrudeboy and ToddsterPatriot will be here to lecture you about how we're exporting more than we import, most "import" cars are made in America and 93% of Walmart's goods are American.

[oceanview]

and how the north carolina furniture industry isn't being offshored to china, even though everyone knows it is.

[neutrino]

Thanks for the ping!

One foot in the third world - and the other foot on a banana peel!

[Nonstatist]

Intel still pays taxes and takes in a profit from licensing and marketing of their own product. The stockholders, primarily American, do well, too. And we're looking at 5 % unemployment rate here. .. How's Europe doing, by the way?

[Nowhere Man]

I'll drink to that! I don't know who is worse, the free traders who fail to see that their ideas will wreck our economy, the Islamo-Fascists who want to blow us up, the Red Chinese who will want to blow us up at some point, or the libertine leftists. It's like the old song by Steelers Wheel, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right." B-) B-P

Good find, we got to keep this rolling and hopefully CAFTA will go down in flames.

[Wolfhound777]

Your right and the real scary implication here is this: Our ability to provide for our own National Security is being sold out, and in the hypothetical event of major world conflict, we would have to re-tool all of our old manufacturing capabilities to sustain a protracted effort. One hopes that this could be achieved in time.

[Nowhere Man]

Any minute now, lrudeboy and ToddsterPatriot will be here to lecture you about how we're exporting more than we import, most "import" cars are made in America and 93% of Walmart's goods are American.

Yeah, I think I hear their engines on my sonar as I plow these waters. B-) Oh yeah, don't forget the "Randroids" either.

[Nowhere Man]

Your right and the real scary implication here is this: Our ability to provide for our own National Security is being sold out, and in the hypothetical event of major world conflict, we would have to re-tool all of our old manufacturing capabilities to sustain a protracted effort. One hopes that this could be achieved in time.

My grandmother said this way back in the 1970's. I don't know if I can vouch for Pittsburgh's abilities anymore, a lot of our steel plants and other industries have fallen to the wrecking ball. Maybe we still have some abilities in the South and Midwest, I dunno.

[oceanview]

once benefits run out, we stop counting unemployed. we also don't count the dozens of people I know in tech for example, who have lost permanent jobs with wages and benefits, and are now lucky to work on contract 6 months out of the year.

to be sure, we are doing better then europe because we have a large service economy. the numbers shown in the article indicating where job growth is occurring is fairly consistent, including the growth of government. but those jobs are lower wage, and the government jobs non-productive.

how does someone become a "stockholder" and benefit from this? I need money to buy stock, where do I get it? most people have only one thing to trade for money - work. unless our party is going to cater to people who come into large inheritances, family fortunes, or lottery winnings - we better come up with a new economic message.