Pretty soon, if this keeps up, we won't be makin' nothin' or earnin' nothin' here no mo!
Posted on 08/09/2006 8:54:06 AM PDT by Incorrigible
Gross VALUE of production rises because production costs to the companies in charge of bringing the product to market fall... a'la actual production and jobs being sent overseas.
This is an 800 lb. gorilla. But not the way you think. It is a gorilla that smacks you phoney free traders in the head most devastatingly. Because you ignore that China wasn't and still isn't productive in its use of labor. Even when we ship over entire plants and teach them how to make cutting edge-products...they are grossly labor inefficient...typically using ten times the amount of employees we use. But they can easily afford to be with their collossal wage differentials...artificially set and controlled by a communist government intent on further predation of the West. Further abetted by outright state subsidies...and domestic market protections in direct scofflawing of the WTO.
Your side ignores the numerous subsidy/and communist coerced trade unlevelled playing fields...and you have the gall to try and defame those who bust you on it as being "unfree" traders.
Shame on you.
Since the Western plants are hugely more productive than the Chinese...it is we who should be exporting to China...and them closing their wasteful and uncompetitive plants. But you ignore all that, and whistle past the contradiction of the comparative productivity levels.
Walk me thru how that works. We ship production overseas and so domestic production increases because costs fall? That sounds like some Willie (HWSNBN) logic!
Now it you had two working brain cells you would realize you just made one of my arguments for me (thanks). I like automation, I think automation is great. Automation requires skiiled engineers to design the factory, skilled workers to build the factory machines/robots. Skilled construction hands to build the factory and skilled labor to operate it. All skilled, all high paid, all American. win-win. But cheap labor is the enemy of automation, this is a fact jack. Why invest in automation when you can simply use cheap labor? Now if you think this is not the case, then just look at all the factories being shipped to China to take advantage of cheap labor. There are other factors at work too, but the cost of labor is one of the main drivers.
We are not doing a very good job of shipping our manufacturing jobs to China, seeing that it is losing them at a rate three or four times greater than the U.S.
Every year from 1980-2003 is included in the chart. A 23-year time period represents a solid sample. If you don't buy into the clear message this information sends, then please feel free to post any stats that disprove my numbers.
Exportation and earnings will rise as long as there is a market for the products produced... and the growth is based upon a myriad of factors, from inflation to cheap credit to the purchasing power of the baby boomers to natural progression.
Likewise, ownership has as much to do with borrowing power than actual prosperity. Do you have any idea how much debtor spending has increased in the past decade? And how much it will impact the economy when THAT particular merry-go-round breaks down? Much of the borrowing and credit extension is related to lower personal earnings. It is already starting to happen in the RE markets, and it's going to be one hell of a headache.
Employment is a double-ended argument, because national employment numbers mean little as far as the actual health of the average family economy is concerned... If I lose my $100,000/year-plus-benefits job as a quality control manager in a plant, and find a job as a (fill in the blank) at $90,000, or $60,000, or $40,000, how is that a benefit? Particularly if the job pool for lateral movement or advancement is shrinking every year? If I become self-employed and earn $100,000 a year with no insurance or 401K, how is that a benefit? If I graduate from school and take a $30,000/yr job, that does wonders for the net employment numbers but very little in terms of the actual cost of job exportation to the average American.
"Kumho tires get consistently good reviews and are about half the price of tires of comparable quality. I believe they are South Korean."
Agree. I replaced the Bridgestone Teranza's on my MBZ with Kumho's. $230 vs. $500. I've got 10,000 miles on them..so far so good. Tirerack.com is a great place to shop/compare tires.
This noted, I would draw the line purchasing Tires from China. The trade deficit with this country is only arming the Peoples Liberation Army. I fear we will oneday regret buying rope from them.
Important point.
An idea requires thought. Your idea is nothing more than a feeling.
We've created almost 23.5 million new jobs since NAFTA passed. See the chart here for proof.
How do we do that, along with rising real incomes, if we're shipping EVERY job overseas?
We won't need rising incomes, because we'll have lots of CHEAP STUFF to buy with our credit cards! Count me in!
Pretty soon, if this keeps up, we won't be makin' nothin' or earnin' nothin' here no mo!
Sorry for the size of the graph below, but I've never learned to shrink it.
I am at the point where I do not believe anything the government tells me any longer. I believe my lying eyes and empty wallet instead.
Sure... The value of production is gross profit made by the US (industries, companies, etc.). American companies have increased their profit margin by shipping production overseas, thus lowering their production costs... Domestic production value is the value of the goods produced for domestic companies, not the value of goods produced domestically.
Who's Willie?
If you can't handle having a credit card, don't use one.
Black is white, not black. LOL
I'm not against lower prices. Why are you? If our personal debt is rising so much faster than our assets, I'm sure you can prove it. Meanwhile, our household net worth (that's assets less debt) just keeps on climbing. It's now about $54 trillion.
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