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

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

[Nonstatist]

What can you really conclude about China? Most of the people who live there are agrarian, using third world farming methods, and surviving with govt subsidies. You can think of them as a huge Taiwan surrounded by 20 Laos's. Not necessarily the inevitable powerhouse you're imagining.

[Brilliant]

I don't care if they spend the those dollars or not. Our economy is growing as fast as it can without incurring inflation anyway. If they started to spend the dollars that they would otherwise accumulate, how would that help us?

At 5.1%, our unemployment rate is hardly worth losing sleep over. If China is taking all of our jobs, then why is the unemployment rate only 5.1%? What they are doing is they are taking the bad jobs--the low pay jobs. And most of the low pay jobs they are taking are not from Americans, but from other countries which would otherwise supply what the Chinese supply.

We don't make significant amounts of textiles in this country, and we haven't for decades. The few jobs that will be lost by allowing Chinese textiles flood our stores will be jobs which are low pay jobs, mostly held by illegal aliens. And keep in mind that there are jobs that are created by cheap Chinese textiles as well. A lot of clothing sales jobs would be lost, for example, if the cost of clothing went up because cheap Chinese clothes were no longer available.

Do you think the Chinese can force us to sell them our defense technology? I think not. Besides, they've done a very effective job of stealing it. Why pay for something you can get for free?

Our imports from China are a paper tiger. Our oil imports comprise 40% of the trade deficit. If you're worried about the trade deficit, then focus on that.

[jb6]

Why on earth would China give it up? It's beating us at manufacturing? Hope that they give it up to justify the sinking ship of Free Trade? Just like they'll revalue their currencies? :)

[jb6]

Not necessarily the inevitable powerhouse you're imagining.

And yet they produce more super conductors then we do, more televisions, etc. Yet they are our creditor and we are the debt ridden begger on the knees praying they don't dump and devalue our currency.

[hershey]

We need to come up with something big they can't outsource. Right now, we're treading water with all those small home-grown businesses/garage inventions. Oh well, China doubtless will steal or buy the technology/whatever.

[hershey]

I should have said, 'cellphones and HDTV's weren't enough'.

[hershey]

You are so right.

[hershey]

Cold fusion, anyone? But if we came up with a cheap, plentiful alternative fuel and stopped using oil, the Middle East would have nothing to sell. They'd hate us. We can't have that.

[jb6]

We have a lot that can't be outsourced: "would you like fries with that?", "Welcome to Walmart", "your problem is your watchmacallit is blown on your gasketcrankcasefilter, just leave it here over night", etc.

[jb6]

Your car won't run off cold fusion and your lawn furniture won't be made from cold fusion. We'll still need lots of oil.

[Paul Ross]

Japan and West Germany (their labor rate in the '50's was much lower than ours) gave it up, so dont be so sure.

Those were capitalist societies, who wanted to enhance societal wealth. Communist China's intentions are markedly more inimical, and adversarial...expressly wishing to displace the U.S. as the pre-eminent global power. The talk about the U.S. "Hegemon" is merely envious projection of their own designs.

[snowsislander]

Cold fusion, anyone? But if we came up with a cheap, plentiful alternative fuel and stopped using oil, the Middle East would have nothing to sell. They'd hate us. We can't have that.

Well, I am in favor of us lessening our dependence on foreign oil --- maybe turkeys will be one of our fuel sources. I checked http://www.changingworldtech.com/when/future.asp again a few minutes ago, and apparently things are still going well. In fact, I saw an interesting quote near the bottom of the page: We, therefore, expect to move forward with large operating facilities (at least 1,000 tons/day) in Colorado, Alabama, Georgia, and Nevada.

[Nowhere Man]

Free trade and free traitors are killing us.

Agreed, and they are so arrogant about it. I think "free trade" is all part of the big plan of The New World Order (best term I can use for it) with people like George Soros and the rest of the world's movers and shakers. I think the free traders and the libertine left are unknowingly (maybe?) partners in the one world agenda. A side note, I don't see The New World Order in everything nor do I look for things like black helicopters so I'm not a part of that crowd. I don't deny that there is a consensus by the anti Judeo-Christian, religious, libertine left and the libertarian, Randroid, money uber alles, free trade crowd.

Believe what you will, but it comes down to this: It is bad for all of us to have political and economic power concentrated in too few hands and between these two sides, we will get that although I think we are there already.

[Paul Ross]

[rdcorso]

The small city I live next to was once called the Brass City because of its manufacturing industry.Today those same buildings that once employed thousands are either falling down or were knocked down so a mall could be put up.This has happened all over the country and it won't stop until there's nothing left.General Motors has about half as many employees as it did in 1990 and they are cutting thousands more in the next year while they open state of the art plants in China.

[A. Pole]

That's why we lost world war ii. We simply couldn't build a war time industrial base largely from scratch fast enough.

Help me to understand you, please. Are you saying that USA built "a war time industrial base largely from scratch"?

[nairBResal]

bttt

[Paul Ross]

At 5.1%, our unemployment rate is hardly worth losing sleep over.
This is.
And this is just the beginning.

The relatively low U.S. unemployment based on new U.S. hires, as noted previously above in Dr. Roberts article is primarily not in exports. The non-tradable services sector jobs are accounting for the growth and, these do not add to national competitiveness in industrial trade. And your question of how we are doing it is a good one. Roberts, and others, indicate that it is because of the massive government and consumer borrowing binge. Consumer refinances borrowing against their homes in refinances, squeezing the last equity out of them, all to sustain their consumption. Often in the self-same housing sector, hence the housing bubble. (Prices inflating at 7% annually)

This represents, in macro terms, a "Dis-saving". But that can only go so far and so long.

Anyways, it is not the jobs per se that concerns me, but the loss of the U.S.'s industrial muscle. This should concern all Americans. And where is that muscle going?

[Cacique]

Those companies are registered in America, thus they benefit from military, civil and diplomatic defense and expenditures. Furthermore, they benefit from US Government (read: taxpayer) subsidies.

That's a mere technicality, the fact of the matter is that most refuse to fly the US flag at their headquarters lest they hurt the feelings of some country where they operate. Their profits increasingly come from abroad. They have increasingly pressured our government for policies that are detrimental to the long term interests of the country but in their short term interest.

[Nowhere Man]

All those layed off people should "pull up their bootstraps" as Rush calls it and get some more "skoolin" and get into bio molecular chemistry and nanotechnologoly.

Nah, those are wimpy industries and they will be outsourced to India anyhoo. Myself, I'm going for the big time, black hole engineering (*). /sarcasm>

I think really, this is where Rush is wrong.

(*) - With apologies to one science fiction role playing game, I rolled up a character with a degree in black hole engineering.