Posted on 02/17/2009 5:12:29 PM PST by BfloGuy
The U. S. by far remains the world’s leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 — nearly double the $811 billion in 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China’s factories, America generates $2.50.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
It’s all about cheap labor...sorry, labor is cheap enough these days.
Just for the record, I don’t care one whit about minimum wage as I have no desire to pay people sub par wages, it doesn’t interest me.
D’oh. Go to an airport cargo facility and see our high tech radiology equipment and metric equipment being shipped. Go to a sea port and see our Caterpillar, Case New Holland construction equipment being shipped. In Milwaukee our drag-line company is doing well and hiring. (google it - its a big honking machine).
You have a microscopic world view if you rely on your trip to the store.
I don’t think you’re too stupid to understand this question:
If the minimum wage is such a good idea, why isn’t it set at $100,000 a year? Really... Why?
Exactly how did I tell you who to hire or fire?...not my business what you do. I never said anything about pushing up wages either...no idea what you are talking about.
Nice duck. If you aren’t going to answer, please just decline.
I understand the question...I don’t see why it matters. Minimum wage was first started by Herbert Hoover in order to combat the depression. He was fighting deflation. I have no idea how the government determines what it should be.
I have heard this before and congratulate you on your success. However, there is no doubt that manufacturing is down- a million manufacturing jobs were lose in 2008 alone. I can look at the manufacturing figures and trade deficit (and exclude oil for that matter). Good jobs are being lost both in insourcing and outsourcing...your success while admirable does not negate the overall decline. That being said, I am always happy to hear good news.
I didn’t duck...I think minimum wage is appropriate for entry level jobs...maybe even too low. Most jobs pay more in fact.
Totally untrue. The US is something like 6th in the world (was number one until the '80's) in machine tool production. Behind such world powerhouses like Taiwan and Italy.
Japan's Fanuc, Mitsubishi and Mazak lead the world in the items you mention - I work in the field.
I am pessimistic right now and fearful as well. My husband will most likely lose his job in April. We were just transferred here in September...not a good area for me in terms of employment. We have three kids to feed so yeah I’m worried.
Which proves nothing more than you made a bad employment decision. There are many small businesses that offer good pay and benefits.
I didn’t work there long...however; to be fair, how can small business pay well and provide benefits with the tax burden and the insurance system we have now.
Pretty much the way it has always been done; you offer a quality product and/or service that people want to buy and the company lives within its means. Find a risk pool for health insurance if need be. Work with employees when times get tough -- everyone, including the owners -- make adjustments when needed.
Labor unions, like the government, can change prices — in this case, the price of labor — but without changing the underlying reality that prices convey.
Neither unions nor minimum-wage laws change the productivity of workers. All they can do is forbid the employer from paying less than what the government or the unions want the employer to pay.
When that is more than the labor in question produces, some workers who are perfectly capable become “unemployable” only because of wages set above the level of their productivity.
In the short run — which is what matters to politicians and to union leaders, who both get elected in the short run — workers who are already on the payroll may get a windfall gain before the market adjusts.
Thomas Sowell
Just like France’s massive investment in the Minitel gave it a jump on the Internet?
The US government was the first to begin the ‘internet’. It was a government program so it is an example where government did some good/partnering with technology. It came out of defense.
“This Internet Timeline begins in 1962, before the word ‘Internet’ is invented. The world’s 10,000 computers are primitive, although they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They have only a few thousand words of magnetic core memory, and programming them is far from easy.
Domestically, data communication over the phone lines is an AT&T monopoly. The ‘Picturephone’ of 1939, shown again at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, is still AT&T’s answer to the future of worldwide communications.
But the four-year old Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense, a future-oriented funder of ‘high-risk, high-gain’ research, lays the groundwork for what becomes the ARPANET and, much later, the Internet.”
Much is left out of this argument...such as insourcing, outsourcing and illegal immigration damping down wages...unions account for 12% of all employed...the Fed Gov. workers is the largest union. We can no longer rely on market conditions to set fair wages because of globalization...I don’t want to see the US standard of living lowered to that of a third world country as this will surely lead to socialism.
Living within you means by today’s standards means paying substandard wages and forcing the uninsured to turn to government insurance programs. I have dealt with private insurance (parents), it doesn’t work well and is very expensive.
Umm, yes, but it was the development of Berners-Lee’s world wide web that made it a mass market phenomenon, and all of France’s investment in its Minitels in living rooms across France didn’t give the country a leg up on competing in the new environment—it actually impeded its involvement in the market.
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.