Posted on 01/20/2011 5:03:34 AM PST by NRG1973
I thought Adam Smith destroyed the notion of Mercantilism, which when Mercantilism was at its height, the nation’s wealth, not individuals but the state and a ruling elite was the object, well, things were just peachy keen for the lower working class and the poor.
These 20 countries received 78.8% of the value of all U.S. exports as of June 2010.
1.Canada … US$121.9 billion, up 26.8% from 2009 (19.9% of US total exports)
2.Mexico … $77.3 billion, up 31.8% (12.6%)
3.China … $41.2 billion, up 35.6% (6.7%)
4.Japan … $29.2 billion, up 18.1% (4.8%)
5.United Kingdom … $24.3 billion, up 6.4% (4%)
6.Germany … $23.2 billion, up 9.5% (3.8%)
7.South Korea … $19.2 billion, up 52.7% (3.1%)
8.Brazil … $16.4 billion, up 37.7% (2.7%)
9.Netherlands … $16.2 billion, down 1% (2.7%)
10.Singapore … $14.2 billion, up 42.4% (2.3%)
11.France … $13 billion, down 6.3% (2.1%)
12.Belgium … $12.3 billion, up 16.1% (2%)
13.Hong Kong … $12.3 billion, up 26.4% (2%)
14.Taiwan … $12.1 billion, up 59.5% (2%)
15.Australia … $10.5 billion, up 15.2% (1.7%)
16.Switzerland … $9.7 billion, up 7.6% (1.6%)
17.India … $9.2 billion, up 22.9% (1.5%)
18.Italy … $7 billion, up 14.6% (1.1%)
19.Malaysia … $6.6 billion, up 50.3% (1.1%)
20.Colombia … $5.9 billion, up 35.8% (1%).
Among these top 20 countries, 18 or 90% increased their purchases of U.S. exports during the first 6 months of 2010.
Only the Netherlands (down 1%) and France (down 6.3%) decreased their consumption of American products over that time period.
Read more at Suite101: United States Exports So Far in 2010 by Trade Partner Country http://www.suite101.com/content/united-states-exports-so-far-in-2010-by-trade-partner-country-a277026#ixzz1BaGgwLJd
"And damnit, if that retribution is to make American citizens pay more out of their pockets, then so be it!"
If patriotism means paying millions or even billions in fees, permits, regulatory action, taxes upon taxes upon taxes, all on an annual basis, then I ask you, sir or madam, what is your definition of patriotism? Our fonunding fathers found what you consider patriotism deplorable, and dumped tea into boston harbor, fired the shot heard round the world, and fought the very same oppression that we are fighting today....just some food for thought
Ding Ding Ding......we have a winner!!!!
That's what you typically write when you don't have a response.
I remodeld luxury houses in Florida. We’d occasionally hire illegals from local labor pools. Mexicans. If you put two on a all day job, it took all day. If you put five on the same job, it took all day. Very social. From their economic standpoint, it was in their group benefit to stretch out the job as long as possible. They knew why they were there, and were going to squeeze as much out of it. In a way, they had a true, popular union attitude.
One time I cut the labor force 2/3. The boss cam by and said what happened to the ..eight guys. I said two could do as little as eight.
Another time after they cleaned up a big sheetrock job, the boss asked me why there was still a light film of dust on the floor. I said they were Mexicans, not Germans.
My wife asked me this.
Your experiece triggered this thought.
Why do we pay by the hour instead of by the job?
Who started the policy?
Would we increase productivity paying by the job?
Lol, everyone with one shred of integrity will admit one thing: all Americans, regardless of education or job skills, are compensated far more than people of most other parts of the world. People in India are performing highly skilled, outsourced work for 20% and less of what people are paid in the US and the developed world.
The only thing really determining whether a job stays in the US is whether or not the job can be moved and the tangible product produced and exported back to the US, or whether the work task can be performed and the work product transmitted back to the US via modern communications.
All this other blither and blather people are engaging in is just cover for their own self-interest.
And in what overcompensated field of work are you engaged in the USA?
If the wages were as low as in Mexico, do you think the jobs would have been outsourced? Or do you think companies outsource just for the sake of outsourcing?
Simple:
Even if every country reciprocated with 100% tariffs, it would still be a net win for American jobs.
The motivation to import, will have gone down. The field will have leveled.
Remember, shipping will also continue to rise as a cost. Further removing incentive to send jobs elsewhere.
Let’s run though an example, please. A $3/day Chinese factory comrade makes a flatscreen tv, and the cost is $100 to make. Labor cost is not really a significant part, maybe a dollar. It’s shipped by container, to Los Angeles, where it is offloaded and trucked to Walmart in Omaha. Shipping cost maybe $10 addition to the actual cost.
Total actual cost: $111.
Then, there’s a trade war.
The cost of that television to make and sell from China just went to $221.
The same television, made by an American in Omaha, might have $25 labor cost.
Now, that American made television, cost $125 to make. And it needn’t be shipped across the Pacific, through Los Angeles by container, to Omaha. Perhaps a new factory can be opened in Des Moines.
This only works, if we actually reduce other taxes, to replace them with tariffs. Not add to our tax burden.
We really are in a no-lose situation at this point, about tariffs. We are no longer the ones who would lose a trade war.
We would win, this time.
That's typically what I write what your inane and irrelevant postings aren't worth a thoughtful response.
I can do ya one better....was doing an install in a plant in canada....all that was left was to put the endcaps on 2 runs of tool rail...the endcaps were sheet metal, about 3 inches by 8 inches, and you climbed up a ladder, slid it in, and fastened it with 2 screws. holes were pre drilled. They were 8 feet off the ground. each run gets an endcap at each end. 2 runs equals 4 endcaps. I got 2 millwrighs and 2 ironworkers ( per union rules, must have equal number of millwrights to ironworkers, and since a union man is not allowed to work alone, 2 of each trade were required )..after an 8 hour shift, all 4 went home, and the endcaps were still laying on the ground.
Some irony there, since your own contribution to this thread doesn't even rise to your impression of mine.
“This is not about unions. It is about globalism, and “free trade.”
Actually, the Electrolux move to Mexico is about unions, and their wage demands, and the economy of modern transportation. Tax and Tariff all you like, Smoot, but, most else being somewhat equal, cheaper labor usually gets the jobs.
Hmmmm...
I sold Electrolux vacuums 30 years ago.
Great product but taught me I don’t care for sales in the home.
Did anyone in Sweden complain when Electrolux outsourced the jobs to the US?
I propose a law which would apply to any union officials or anyone working directly for a union organization, that their salary could not be more than a total of, say, $100,000 a year (salary and benefits).
They would be free to organize and agitate at will, but all they could benefit would be a reasonable salary and the "satisfaction" of "helping" the "working man". If helping the workers is the real objective here, the same old thugs ought to continue within the new pay and "benefit structure,..(good luck on that).....
I submit to you that most of the destructive union activity would stop, and any union activity resulting would be more helpful to the workers and the companies involved.
....but, its all about the money....its ALWAYS about the money...
I worked for this company for more than three years back in the Nineties in the plant that made the washing machine transmissions that fed the Webster City assembly plant mentioned in the article.
This is a very big blow to our whole area and several communities.
It’s been coming for years, though. They’ve been reducing, reducing, reducing their work force for a very long time.
When I worked there they were already working extensively with the Brazilians, but I don’t know where the work is ending up. Frankly, I haven’t followed it that closely.
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