Posted on 06/06/2014 4:21:49 PM PDT by mandaladon
“Today, liberty is under assault,” declared conservative firebrand Ted Cruz before an adoring audience Friday at the Republican Party of Texas State Convention.
The GOP senator and Tea Party darling left virtually no red meat unthrown, calling for a return to the Constitution – “the most extraordinary document crafted in history” – a resurrection of American leadership abroad – where “bullies and tyrants are laughing at [us]” – and a rebuilding of jobs and economic growth at home, through adhering to free market principles, supporting “the American energy renaissance,” abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and repealing “every blessed word of Obamacare.”
On the subject of the Constitution, Cruz declared that religious liberty was under fire, and blasted the recent controversy over the IRS’s alleged targeting of conservative groups that applied for nonprofit status. In one instance, an Iowa-based anti-abortion group was asked to provide information about its members’ prayer meetings, according to documents sent by an IRS official to the organization.
“You know what, the federal government has no business asking any American the content of our prayers!” said Cruz to roaring applause.
The Texas senator also touched on a high-profile federal case, in which the Colorado-based Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged is suing the Obama administration over an accommodation under the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that insurance cover contraception without a co-pay. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court affirmed a compromise that allows the religious nonprofit to sign a form certifying its objection to contraception, before sending it to an insurer who can then provide the coverage directly.
“Let me give you a simple rule of thumb,” said Cruz. “If you’re litigating against nuns, you’ve probably done something wrong.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
OK, but your policy will have a lot of negative effects on individual Americans so we should back up and cover some other economic insights. The most important for right now is understanding that it is the division of labor (labor specialization) is critical to wealth creation.
Here’s a video showing the division of labor in the manufacture of Wilson Footballs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkCwsKGO-2o
It’s just over 5 minutes long. Ping me once you’ve watched it and we’ll discuss it.
All great. That is a good video actually, thanks.
I just point out to you, that last year America imported from China 440 billion dollars worth of goods.
America only sold China 122 billion dollars worth.
Your video only shows a factory of Americans, making footballs which are used in America.
I don’t have any issue with that.
I have an issue with the massive imbalance in global trade we are currently experiencing with China.
We bought 318 billion dollars more from China, then we sold last year.
That is a huge problem for America.
We’ll get to that and I’ll prove to you that the “balance of trade” is an invention of socialists, central planners and mercantilists, but we’ll cover that in the future.
Right now the important thing is that you understand the division of labor. Did you notice that each worker had a specialty? They did one job over and over again. The labor was divided to all their benefits.
What the division of labor does is allow specialization, skill development, and saves time which is the same as saving money. That makes total sense correct?
It wouldn’t make sense to instead have each worker produce one football starting with one and then doing each job until they had six in a box, would it?
This factory example with one worker per process/skill makes complete sense to you, correct?
Well I disagree with your claim that the balance of trade is unimportant.
In my view it is critical, and America is giving away the farm.
I understand and agree with your claim about division of labor. Though I believe that is somewhat limited to the situation, of the specific example.
Jobs have much different variances, in the situations an employee encounters each day.
Some jobs, for example simple manufacturing jobs, can be very simple, although the simplest manufacturing tends to be the simplest to automate - eliminating the need for employees. Some can be extraordinarily complex. Some remain the same. Some change dramatically.
I would say the more complex jobs, and those which change relatively frequently, are jobs which would tend to less automation.
They are all different.
What isn’t different, is that America has sent far too many jobs, to other countries.
Bring back jobs to America.
So we have your opening opinion that jobs are basically unchanging, and it doesn’t matter whether they are done in America.
We have my own opinion that we very badly need to bring a whole lot of jobs back to America.
There is a lot we agree on. But I believe we need to have a whole lot more emphasis on bringing jobs back to America. You don’t.
OK back to you.
Yea Ted!
I do believe that we must work to make America more productive. I don’t really know what you mean by “bring jobs back to America” other than that you want to end or force-balance trade with China.
So you can see that division of labor at the Wilson Football Plant is critical to not only the success of Wilson, Inc., but to each employee as well and that’s important.
Did you also notice all the machinery? At one stage a guy uses just a metal rod to turn the footballs right-side out. Did you see that? That rod, along with all the machinery, is capital. Labor without capital is very, very inefficient. Think of a carpenter without a hammer.
So labor and capital go together, but what if a machine was made that could replaced the guy who turns the footballs right-side out, would it be OK to replace that worker with a more efficient machine? What about if another worker could do his job more efficiently, would it be OK to use a more efficient worker?
I have no problem whatsoever to improving manufacturing, even when those improvements mean automation which result in the loss of American jobs.
Zero problem from me.
What I object to is China taking over manufacturing in the world.
I believe that has strategic importance, about which American has for some reason become terribly short-sighted.
Bring back jobs to America. That is my point.
America needs to manufacture things. Right here.
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“Let me give you a simple rule of thumb,” said Cruz. “If you’re litigating against nuns, you’ve probably done something wrong.”
“Let me give you a simple rule of thumb,” said Cruz. “If you’re litigating against nuns, you’ve probably done something wrong.”
“Let me give you a simple rule of thumb,” said Cruz. “If you’re litigating against nuns, you’ve probably done something wrong.”
“America needs to manufacture things. Right here.”
That is so true, true enough that I have to believe that many of those pushing the destruction of American manufacturing are doing so out of malice.
“Ted Cruz calls to repeal ‘every blessed word of Obamacare’”
If I believed he had any intention of actually doing that I would be greatly encouraged. My entire outlook on life would change for the better.
But he’s a politician, and when they get elected they unzip their good-guy costumes and dive into the cesspool that is Washington.
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