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Op-Ed Globalization isn't killing factory jobs. Trade is actually why manufacturing is up 40%.
Los Angeles Times ^ | August 1, 2016 | Daniel Griswold

Posted on 08/02/2016 5:46:48 AM PDT by expat_panama

Foreign trade took a beating at both major party conventions, with speakers blaming free-trade agreements for all but wiping out U.S. manufacturing and eliminating millions of middle-class jobs. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have promised to renegotiate or abandon trade agreements with key U.S. trading partners such as Mexico and Canada. That would be a colossal mistake.

The number of manufacturing jobs in the United States has indeed been in a long decline since the late 1970s...

American factories and American workers are making a greater volume of stuff than eve...

...America’s 21st century manufacturing sector is dominated by petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, plastics, fabricated metals, machinery, computers and other electronics, motor vehicles and other transportation equipment, and aircraft and aerospace equipment.

We produce more manufacturing value with fewer employees...

The political anger about lost manufacturing jobs should be aimed at technology, not trade.

The political anger about lost manufacturing jobs should be aimed at technology...

...globalization and trade agreements have made a huge contribution to the ongoing success of American manufacturing...

...more than half of what Americans import each year is not for consumption but for production...

Like technology, globalization has allowed American manufacturing workers to “trade up” to more challenging and better-paying work...

...millions of U.S. jobs are eliminated each year by technology and changing consumer tastes, only to be replaced by new jobs that are being created by the same dynamic forces.

The right response to anxieties about trade is to invest more in education, retraining and enhanced labor mobility, not to pick trade fights with other nations that would put in jeopardy the success of America’s modern, competitive manufacturing sector.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; globalism; globalists; investing; manufacturing; trade
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Free Trade has made China a superpower.

They are getting very aggressive in the South China sea.

How much is Free Trade worth?


61 posted on 08/02/2016 7:19:48 AM PDT by crusher2013
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

We do not have two democrats running

If you want to make that argument to Jim feel free

Other than that you ought to shut your pie hole


62 posted on 08/02/2016 7:20:05 AM PDT by Nifster (Ignore all polls. Get Out The Vote)
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To: dila813

I indeed know what his policy positions are. I have read his policy books which I doubt you have. Plus I have read his position papers


63 posted on 08/02/2016 7:21:29 AM PDT by Nifster (Ignore all polls. Get Out The Vote)
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To: nathanbedford
You were born in WWII so i guess there was scarcity. You believe in mercantilism? Turn in your patriot card.

The "conservatives" are taking away the rice bowl of millions of lower capability/capacity (trying to be nice) Americans by offshoring production. They, along with the bought off corrupt congress(fascism), are creating social and economic chaos that is invisible to the gated community crowd. So any cost benefit, which is suspect anyway, is wiped out because the taxpayer is on the hook for all that added costs of an idled work force. Not to mention we need an industrial base to support out military.

64 posted on 08/02/2016 7:22:18 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Do you consider yourself a patriot? Because I don’t.


65 posted on 08/02/2016 7:26:19 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Ah, so it’s ok for American manufacturers to locate their plants in another country because it makes them more competitive in that market?


66 posted on 08/02/2016 7:27:35 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: crusher2013

We don’t have a free trade agreement with China.


67 posted on 08/02/2016 7:29:31 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: expat_panama

None of this BS changes the fact that thousands of factories and millions of US manufacturing jobs have been moved to cheap labor nations since NAFTA and before, and was accelerated by China’s being granted MFN status and joining the WTO.

And none of that BS changes the reality that over those same decades of deindustrialization of much of the US, the cost of our means tested poverty programs has mushroomed as have our budget deficits and national debt.

Show us a worthwhile stat if you can.

1. What percentage of manufactured products consumed in the US were produced in the US, now and ten, twenty and thirty years ago.

2. What is the total value of all manufactured products consumed in the US now and ten, twenty and thirty years ago. There are far more manufactured products now that years ago,and that alone makes your stats pretty meaningless. What were cell sales in 1980?

3. And then there would be adjustments for population growth over the past thirty years.

These stats people want to throw around that only address totals from year to year are practically meaningless as the makeup of all the manufactured products produced and consumed changes substantially over the years, as does the number of consumers purchasing those products.


68 posted on 08/02/2016 7:30:28 AM PDT by Will88
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To: Mase

They have MFN status.

Millions of American Jobs have been off shored to China.

I am personally aware of more than a few

Call it what you want but it is the same thing and you know it.


69 posted on 08/02/2016 7:34:30 AM PDT by crusher2013
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To: Mase

If the are producing the exact same product in the third world and selling it locally at a reduced price to the local market then I have a problem with that. The US consumer is subsidizing that market.


70 posted on 08/02/2016 7:35:01 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
Lots of conclusionary language which does not advance our understanding 1 mm but does make you feel better by getting personal and calling someone else unpatriotic.


71 posted on 08/02/2016 7:48:57 AM PDT by nathanbedford (wearing a zot as a battlefield promotion in the war for truth)
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To: central_va

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29636


72 posted on 08/02/2016 7:50:26 AM PDT by B4Ranch ("The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.")
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To: All

Auto Parts (for new vehicles and replacement parts)
Can’t find made in USA anymore. Even the good old names like Moog, Timken, Raybestos, Wagner etc etc. Most are made in Mexico. Lower brands, made in China. Take apart a new GM/Ford/Chrysler and you’ll see Mexico on hard parts, Canada on plastics and China on electronics. It’s disgusting. We’re even shipping stuff to Mexico to get rebuilt. Hopefully when Trump gets in, a bunch of entrepreneurs can jump in and start taking some of this stuff back here.

I’ve got some new aftermarket parts sitting here. Timken seal, Taiwan, which is actually better than china. Moog leaf spring bushings, mexico. Raybestos brake hose, already out of the package but the rubber hose itself says sunsong.


73 posted on 08/02/2016 8:11:24 AM PDT by Pollard (TRUMP 2016)
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To: B4Ranch

Those that say the Republican Party is the historic free trade party are simply ignorant of history or out and out lying.


74 posted on 08/02/2016 8:14:58 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: crusher2013
They have MFN status.

Not the same as "free trade." Chinese imports are subject to tariffs.

Millions of American Jobs have been off shored to China.

American industry is the most competitive int he world. Government is working overtime to make them less competitive. While you look to government to protect industry, I look at government as the problem.

75 posted on 08/02/2016 8:19:44 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Gaffer

“Perhaps for you, but not for me as I’ve seen”

I go back further when I make that comparison. Things like DirectV, Internet, wireless phones didn’t exist and prices of those are set at what people are willing to pay — they are semi-luxuries that we don’t need all that bad.

My premise is that things can be manufactured more cheaply that years ago and that includes food.


76 posted on 08/02/2016 8:19:57 AM PDT by cymbeline
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To: central_va
If the are producing the exact same product in the third world and selling it locally at a reduced price to the local market then I have a problem with that.

So your solution is to force industry to manufacture here, solely, so they are at a disadvantage elsewhere in the world while foreign companies fill the void and expand their share. It's a good thing that you work for someone else.

77 posted on 08/02/2016 8:22:48 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: cymbeline

Regardless of spendable income and pastime costs for what not, there are basic food items we use that cost more.


78 posted on 08/02/2016 8:24:38 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: central_va
Do you consider yourself a patriot? Because I don’t.

A big government "conservative" hurling insults at small government conservatives. I suppose it's justice that no one here gives a rat's rear end what you think.

79 posted on 08/02/2016 8:24:39 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Gaffer

just ignore all those ‘made in China’ labels. They are just your imagination.


80 posted on 08/02/2016 8:24:41 AM PDT by Pelham (Best.Election.Ever)
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