Posted on 02/22/2006 8:44:22 AM PST by Willie Green
ping
Oh, Willie.
Don't you know by now that the boogeyman in all trade and manufacturing is the unions? Of course, union manufacturing membership (at less than 12% at this time) is responsible for even non-union shops closing and moving to cheaper countries.
With the news I recieved this week, it looks like more closings will be occurring. But then again, greedy Americans deserve to lose their jobs, don't they?
Or so our resident free-booters would have you believe.
Cheap labor inhibits technological progress. Maybe this is the key reason why China was stagnant for so many centuries?
This has been long over due.
When labor is commodified, capital will inevitably seek the lowest-cost labor in the market. In a global market, that means China or India.
I see no political solution to this problem. Erecting a tarriff barrier to raise US prices of foreign-made goods will work for a while, but in time we would be forced to eliminate them to avoid a trade war. Union activity to raise US wages will simply make U.S. producers less competitive than they are already and drive consumers to cheap-labor foreign manufacturers.
The only solutions I can see are these:
1. The decommodification of labor on a global scale (=end of capitalist economy);
2. Autarky, i.e. laws requiring the US to be self-sufficient in a variety of manufactures and resources (= rationing)
3. Nationalization of certain industries on the basis of national security, such as aerospace, critical minerals, airlines/air cargo, ports and terminals, steel, energy, etc. (= big government bureaucracies)
4. Taxpayer subsidization of US manufacturers (= high taxes and price supports).
Short of these solutions -- which are admittedly drastic -- US manufacturers will eventually be forced by market pressures to move their industry offshore or they will go bankrupt. The "free market" solution is the only other option , i.e. the elimination of all wage laws in the US, allowing US labor prices to drop to the natural global level (the "China price"), which would destroy the consumer economy of the United States, and probably the country as well.
If anyone has any other ideas on this subject, I'd love to hear them.
The new technology, astounding new energy sources, will require innovation in the vehicle industry, which in turn may be exported. America could become the vehicle manufacturing world leader again if they do this right.
You know, I find it funny that it is considered greedy if you want to keep a good paying job in the country (even though I despise the unions of the past decade or so), but it is not considered greedy to let the jobs go out of the country to allow the goods to become cheaper and more profitable for the corporations/stockholders.
bump for later
Well, one thing is certain, US Americans have no "right" to a job. Ask any Free Traitor. Blackbird.
A few things to think about,
1) If you can give a reason to buy domestic goods (better quality, etc.), then wouldn't that make a trade war a moot point?
2) If you have the tarriffs, wouldn't that give more incentive for the foriegn companies to open a plant domestically?
3) Unions can be side stepped, open plants in states that have right to work laws (such as in the south).
4) Give incentive to companies to hire US citizens, to try to reduce the number of Visa & illegal works.
5) Give incentive to companies to hire US graduates in engineering, other jobs that there is not enough workers to fill the jobs.
Now your solutions
1) Would never happen due to the lobbyists and campaign $ that buys the elected officials.
2) I firmly believe that the US should be self-suffiecient, but I don't think rationing is a way to go unless absolutely needed. I think there should be incentives, reduced governmental burden, maybe tax breaks to keep businesses and jobs in the US.
3) Nationalization is not a good idea, you not only make government larger but you increase the likelyhood of reduced efficiency and increased cost. Also you are setting up a system similar to a socialism/communism.
4) I would consider tax breaks, reductions, delays, etc. but nothing that would subsidize a business. Taxpayers should not have to bear the brunt more than once (corporate taxes built into prices).
Well you are partly right, the technology will be exported (IF it is developed here). America will not be manufacturing them though, they will be imported just like everything else.
Yeah, just daydreaming. What could be isn't necessarily what will be.
U.S. Exports of Autos and Auto Parts in 2004: approx. $90 billion.
Thanks for proving my point rude one! Blackbird.
You don't have a right to a job. Deal.
Me neither, damned if I know.
He who holds the bucks makes the rules.
So far, Japan has the most fiat-bucks, England and China, then the Caribbean countries. What you say? Caribbean?
Yes, Mon. And I say and I say the Carib...
Yup. And to think you can't offshore your bucks without lots of investigation but Uncle Buck can.
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