Posted on 03/25/2006 8:07:17 PM PST by ncountylee
The Durabrand 10-inch portable DVD player available at Wal-Mart retails for $199.94. A group of senators would like to raise the price to $254.67. The Creative Zen Nano Plus 512-megabyte MP3 player seems like a bargain at $89.72; less so at $114.39, the price the senators would prefer that you pay. The price hikes would be the result of a 27.5 percent tariff on goods imported from China, a proposal sponsored by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Senate this week.
Schumer and Graham aren't crazy, of course—they know better than most that taking money out of voters' pockets is a sure way to be sent packing. In other words, that 27.5 percent price hike won't be coming to a retailer near you anytime soon. But as an attention-getter, it's pretty good, and attention is what the two senators, and a number of colleagues who support them, are after. The chief bogeyman they want to flog is China's communist government, which—according to Schumer and the rest—deliberately keeps its currency undervalued in order to sell more cheap imports to the United States and other countries. Reasonable economists differ on that question. The tariff, if you buy the argument, would bring prices on Chinese imports closer to their unsubsidized value, leveling the playing field for honest tradespeople in, say, New York and South Carolina, who can't possibly produce goods as cheaply as the Chinese and still earn enough wages to buy all the DVD and MP players that they need.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
I've always found that argument amusing. In order to prevent socialism, we should embrace socialism.
We should have tariffs, one easy low rate of 5% across the board. They should be constant for every nation and not vary by nation for political purposes. The revenue from those tariffs, with a modest tax apportioned among the states, should finance all government operations (with a balanced budget) and the individual income tax should be abolished.
Thank you. Free trade is vitally important, but national security is the first responsiblity of our Federal government. And national security is not advanced by building up the economy of your enemy.
A British company is one thing; a Chinese company is another.
It has to do with philosophy. There were 10 kids in my family but none were taught to get a job. They were all taught to make yourself a job. Bad grades are not tolerated in the family. Science and math courses are required, not a simple curriculum. Everyone is not cut out for their own business nor are they able to take advange of a good operitunity. We have two that have worked at a job all their life and they retired well. The rest work for themselves. My dad still had a business at 87. My mother is 83 and right now starting a new enterprise. We do it because we were expected to do it and we enjoy it. None had a big corporate company and I don't think anyone of us would want one. I did not pay for my children's collage and its not something I endorse. We all saved the money necessary to start our own business, it was not given to us. Yes I am nonchalant over starting a business and can do it anytime. Most of us failed one or two times but just went back and did it again. Knowledge and confidence are the keys. my daughter and niece both stared with small companies but only worked there for about two years before they sought contract work. They found it with Starbucks.
Actually I don't know but I would suspect not. Most communists restrict free enterprise and trade and are trade protectionists. I have never ask any supplier or banker if they were Communist, liberal, Conservative, libertarian, or any other philosophical entity. If its your requirement you can live by it and it would explain your attempt to slight.
I have already succeeded at economics and know the principals very well and although knowledgeable in political science I have no desire to be be the servant of government. I leave that to you.
Can anyone explain any problems in my theory
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There are no problems in your theory, you are absolutely correct. But you don't go far enough, there are many other taxes buried in the cost of goods, not just the income tax.
Plus, there is the cost of complying with all sorts or regulations, environmental and otherwise which the Chinese don't have to worry about, all this puts us at a great disadvantage. The question for the future is what all this will mean with new technology changing the face of manufacturing, in the future it may be possible to manufacture most of what we need with almost no labor input with the advent of nanotechnology. I am only speculating, I don't claim to have any idea what things will actually be like ten years from now but I think they will be hugely different from today.
Most of us can see that welfare wrapped in the American flag is a pretty disgusting site.
Back in the 50s and 60s, far more families could afford to raise a family with just the father working as well. While Americans can afford more usesless toys such as consumer electronics, it is more difficult to afford housing, fuel, medical and send children to college.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thank you, that is the type of thing I can't help but think of when people on FR want to tell me how,"real wages are higher than ever", I simply don't believe it and I don't see how anyone over fifty can believe it.
My younger brother said to me recently,"you know, luxuries are getting cheaper all the time but necessities are going sky high". "Thanks, I have been saying that same thing for twenty years", was my reply.
. The wage at Westinghouse was the best in my town. It was ~$60 a week for a 48 hr. work week mandated in 1943.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..
My father was a carpenter, he made $60.00 a week for a forty hour week here in low-wage South Carolina in the mid-fifties. He supported my mother and four sons, we owned our property free and clear, our only vehicle was the 1951 Ford pickup that he drove to work but it was bought new for cash, no payments, we were DEBT FREE. By the way, my mother stayed home, she did not have a paying job, what she did at home was worth far more in imputed income than she could have earned at any job that was available to her.
We certainly didn't have all the luxuries people have now but we had the luxury of our own forty acres plus thousands of acres of our neighbors property on which young boys could roam at will and play all sorts of games, we had home grown pork, chicken, beef, eggs, vegetables etc. that tasted far better than what is sold in the stores and I learned things at a very young age that most young people never learn now. By the time I was a teenager I was doing things that would have the child protection agencies in an uproar now and I am glad I did all those things, they taught me to be self-reliant.
Executives lie through their teeth every chance they get.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You noticed that too? I don't know if you can really call it lying or that they are just very good at convincing themselves that whatever is to their benefit must be the truth.
One thing I noticed long ago is that all employment aps have a line that says that furnishing false information is grounds for termination of any job you may obtain by furnishing false information. Yet, I don't think I ever took a job but what I found out later that I was lied to when applying for the job.
I grew up in Hampton SC. I drove to Allendale SC to get my drivers license in my own car the day I turned 14. It was 60 cents and supposed to be good for a lifetime. People were a whole lot more reliant then and could do on a lot less. Most seemed of a better nature than today.
Somehow it seems that one of you started by posting something about the 1950s and 1960s and then the other started talking about 1943. I was born in 1944 so I have only very limited memories of the very late 1940s but I have no doubt things were very tough then, especially during the war years, but things were much better in this area by the mid 1950s. There are many aspects of life in the mid 1950s that I think were better than today but I certainly would not want to go back to the 1940s.
That's all I needed to hear you say...more power to you and yours!
P.S. In the meantime...
Where or from whom would you recommened someone learn from? Not everyone was blessed with the advantages and good examples in your family?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.