Posted on 08/17/2016 7:09:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
“In a consumer economy it doesn’t make much sense to have massive numbers of workers who lack the money to purchase goods and services.”
I’m a simple person but how can companies see such a limited purchasing base in the USA that they have to go overseas to market ... but realize that overseas can’t necessarily afford their product(s) so they in turn hire overseas to create a middle class - but pay them so little that they can’t really afford their product(s) either ... and in turn, this decimates the purchasing power of the middle class in the USA due to the lack of employment ... I think here is where the tremendous amounts of cash that companies are sitting on comes in .
I wish I were smart enough to think out all the angles but all in all, since globalization/free trade, I do not see a better future for the American people - tragic how many are underemployed or not employed at all.
It isn’t just the union workers. They have moved the engineering and computer technology off shore as well. It is all about quarterly statements with multi national companies. They treat employees like things and not people. So it is not must wage demands that are doing this.
Do you think that "shareholders" are some sort of alien species, living on an undiscovered planet?
“Yes, I think the US will support American made. But there’s a catch. You can’t expect high wages for your job, but buy cheap, slave labor cost imports.”
Totally agree - and that means that we have to stop the mentality of having tons of ‘stuff’ that gets replaced constantly. Buy quality.
“the regions and states will lower wages would be able to produce cheaper goods than other parts of the country, and the field” would still be uneven.”
But they would all be American.
And the phrase you are looking for is “promote the general welfare”. That didn’t mean the specific welfare of Manhattan, or the general welfare of the entire world. It means the general welfare, of the American people.
You also cannot ignore the National Security implications.
Imagine if we had outsourced our manufacturing to Japan in the 1920s when we were still friends. Where would we have been once the Militarists took over and set them on a path towards war with the US?
China has tens of millions of people employed for no other purpose than to sell what they make to U. S. Citizens.
This one concept facilitated the rejuvenation of countless Chinese cities. It bloated the coffers of the Chines government. It facilitated the modernization of the Chinese military. It facilitated the move of China into the South China Sea against the objections of other nations that had a claim on the region.
Now folks are asking if this cost U. S. jobs? Tens of millions of Chinese people making things for sale in the U. S., and they can’t figure this one out. Then they denigrate others who can.
Not only did this cost U. S. jobs, it forced folks into lower paying jobs. That’s what happens when tens of millions of jobs move off-shore.
Tens of millions out of work... do we have evidence of that? Yes.
Tens of millions now working in the service sector for less wages. Have we seen that? Yes.
As China becomes a global thread, it will finally increase jobs in the United States. Our military will need more people.
Sooner or later, our citizens will die on the back of the poorest economic polices put in place in world history.
When this all happens, we’ll still see the folks who supported all this denying and blaming others.
We will know it when we see it.
We see it on this very thread.
“When I visit Germany, I notice factories almost everywhere I go. They are making the things we used to. The theorists here are killing our middle class.”
Then let’s talk reality. Germany has a chronic unemployment problem because of their heavy handed, centralized employment laws. Once someone is hired, it is very difficult to fire them. As a result, it is very difficult to get hired.
In addition, the average standard of living in Germany is MUCH lower than the average in the US. Just look at the average size of their cars? Or the fact that most live in much smaller apartments. A small home in the US is to be envied in Germany.
Do they have large refrigerators? No. AC? Not often. Two car families? Rarely. High capacity washing machines? I don’t think I ever saw one...
I could go on and on.
Yes, you have a point that their heavy handed, iron fisted, centralized control of manufacturing HAS kept production in Germany. However, do we want to take such a reduction in our standard of living? I doubt it...
You still haven't addressed the point that 87 percent of manufacturing job losses have been caused by productivity improvements. This is strike three.
Living in the Eagle Ford Play, I completely agree with him.
“RAISE a tariff of 2000 dollars on cars imported. Keep the jobs and make 5 billion, and foreign countries pay for it.
instead of killing off 25 thousand American jobs.”
We currently have in excess of 12,000 different tariffs, yet we are currently having this discussion. How about we eliminate the EPA and see if that works?
‘And the phrase you are looking for is “promote the general welfare”.’
Ah, a conveniently ambiguous phrase that means whatever the person invoking it wants it to mean. Usually it’s the lefties who resort to trying to pin their unconstitutional schemes on that phrase though.
“Coleman is an example, used to have some first class products.”
I’d be willing to wager that the great decline in quality of products is more related to our own federal government’s over regulation, namely the EPA. Have you shopped for a washing machine lately? The quality is terrible, but that is not because of Whirlpool/GE/Whoever is trying to make crap, it is due to the continually changing regulations on “water efficiency.”
Water heaters had the same over regulation, so did AC units, hence CArrier’s decision to leave. They can’t keep up with the ever changing regulatory environment.
I work in manufacturing and the rate of regulation changes is astounding. We have product development curves of approximately 3 years between project approval and product launch. The regulations change every year and it is a nightmare keeping up....
“According to a recent study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, productivity growth caused 85 percent of the job losses in manufacturing from 2000 to 2010, a period that saw 5.6 million factory jobs disappear.”
That’s an assertion by one source, not proof. That you can’t tell the difference says it all.
That’s nice. But in the real world, that is not why they are leaving. Yes, OSHA, and EPA can and should be scaled back, but I never want it returning to the standards of the 60s.
LA smog was a real thing that kids today screaming about saving the planet never saw. The Chicago river was basically an open sewer. Lake Erie sometimes caught on fire. Raw sewage and industrial waste was widely dumped into waterways.
And if other places like Asia will never adopt rational standards, they shouldn’t be able to sell their products here without paying the penalty commensurate with what such costs would be.
But once again, the race to the bottom is what the “answer” is. By the way, how do the Germans EVER get to manufacture anything? I hear tale that they have more regs than us by far.
“I’d be willing to wager that the great decline in quality of products is more related to our own federal government’s over regulation, namely the EPA.”
Nope, its thinner steel, craptastic plastic parts, cheap sourced parts, and built by monkeys and children who have no concept of what they are even building. Pride? lol
Nice try, But wall street really appreciates your efforts.
A global economy where countries do not protect their own individual economies kills jobs, yes.
There are two ways manufacturing can return to America. The first is to get American workers to accept Third World wages and standards of living - i.e. replacing the working middle class with a slum underclass. You also need to get Americans to accept Third World levels of raw industrial waste being dumped into our groundwater and into our rivers, lakes, and harbors.
Or, you can make allowances for the fact that China and Mexico don't deal with this overhead, and impose a protective tariff that will A. generate tax revenue that can be used to pay for income and corporate tax cuts and B. maintain an industrial base in the United States.
Since most Americans don't want to live in Mexico or China, B. seems like the better option.
As was the decision to import vast numbers of Mexicans illegally, and vast numbers of H1-Bs, in order to destroy the Middle Class.
Because diversity.
...and *profit* (for the very few).
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