Posted on 02/04/2015 4:00:18 PM PST by Lucky9teen
LOS ANGELES — Employers could lock out West Coast dockworkers in as few as five days if the two sides do not reach a new contract.
That warning came Wednesday from the head of a maritime association who is negotiating a new deal with a union representing longshoremen at 29 ports that handle about $1 trillion in trade annually.
Pacific Maritime Association CEO James McKenna said he wanted to avoid a coast-wide port shutdown, but employers wouldn't keep paying workers who aren't moving cargo at their normal rate if the ports become much more gridlocked. He said that could come between five and 10 days from now.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunherald.com ...
We need a 10% import tariff to stop this madness.
I am not sure why your data would even have a line item for TV’s and obsolete electronics. Any idea?
Apparently the Census Bureau collects the data and the data shows we export some.
So we put a 10% import tariff on foreign goods. Foreign countries then put a 10% (or larger) import tariff on US goods ... and we are right back where we started from.
Keep in mind there two major reasons why some items in particular are manufactured in China and other hell hole countries. Hazardous Materials and the potential lawsuits.
If you die from cancer at the age of 39 because you worked in a factory for 29 years. Your spouse does not get to sue the manufacturer.
The only country that doesn't tariff our exports now is Singapore, even Canada tariffs some of our exports.. Where have you been? I think the Chinese duty on construction equipment and cars is 50%....
The correct policy is not a fixed percentage but rather and equal percentage. That means if they charge X percent, we also charge X percent.
But import tariffs don’t fix the underlying cost of labor differential that businesses face.
An idled workforce is expensive and socially/politically unstable. There are costs both ways.
I vote for manufacturing to stay here even if it costs 5% more. The national security aspects alone justify it.
Unfortunately, not all Americans hold the same values as you. Many on the lower end of the bell curve are struggling to make ends meet and to do so, they will buy the cheapest product that gets them through their current “crisis”.
They don’t pay the extra 5% because they can not afford the extra 5%. Nothing to them is an investment or a value buy because they are struggling to get through the next day / week / month.
I prefer to buy the most durable product that I can find. Sometimes that is an American product (hand tools especially) sometimes that is not. So my 5% to 15% extra is for durability not necessarily American.
Make it a tariff, problem solved.
So one group of people, who dont have the money to purchase the extra 5% value product, will now have even less money. Their response will be to cut back on their spending and buy even fewer products.
The propose is to give the “captains of industry” pause when making decisions on cutting manufacturing in the USA. Hopefully the jobs stay here. Employed people can afford much more than unemployed people.
The purpose of business is to make a profit for it’s owners. In the case of corporations, the share holders. It is not the purpose of business to implement social programs. To that end, the “captains of industry” do the job that they are paid to do. Without a profit return to the shareholders, either in the form of an increase in the stock price or by returning dividends, retirees don’t get their pension benefits.
Now if a company pays higher wages, either the price of the product goes up, or the profits go down. That is a simple law of economics. If the price goes up enough, then the market responds by purchasing fewer products. If the profits go down, then the true bosses (stockholders) either do not get dividends or the stock price goes down and investors leave the company. Those stockholders are granny’s pension fund, or someone’s nest egg.
This “pay the workers more” and “only buy American” is ignoring the basic laws of economics and does not consider the consequences of such simple thinking.
The fact is a person will be paid somewhere between two points. The first is the minimum that they will accept as payment for their work. If the business offers to low of a number, the employee will seek employment elsewhere.
The second number is the maximum that the company will pay. That number is set by by the employer and will be no higher than the cost to replace the employee.
Agree and the propose of the Government is to make decisions that are in the best interest of the entire country. And the duty of protecting our borders and stopping off shoring is in the countries best interest. So how did this nation win two world wars and become the industrial power house of the 20th century before this off shoring crap?
So then if keeping business in America is so important, the reduction of taxes will keep businesses far more than raising tariffs.
The real question is what changed? Why are companies off shoring. A world leading tax rate is the single largest reason. 15%-39% (federal) + 0%-12% (state) + 0%-3% (local)
Agree, I would replace all income taxes with tariffs and sales taxes. Any thing that helps businesses is good with the exception of off shoring. It is in a category all by itself. It has social and political ramifications that are not just “business”.
What about them should be illegal? How would one write a law making it so?
It should be illegal for workers to form a conspiracy for the purpose of shaking down an employer for things they could not gain through merit. Each employee should bargain only for himself/herself.
See “Commonwealth v. Pullis.”
“...for the purpose of shaking down an employer for things they could not gain through merit.”
Employers take advantage of employees plenty of the time. As for the usual, “so start your own business”, not everyone can own a business.
There are good union employees, there are crappy union employees, and everywhere in between. Just like non union.
See Commonwealth v Hunt
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