[Moonman62]

Thanks for the article. The chart says it all. For centuries, productivity increases have been freeing up employees to take better higher paying jobs, and it lowers costs, too, except where the government implements subsidies or price supports.

[edsheppa]

Don't mention it, it was my pleasure - I couldn't pass up a chance to piss off the gloom'n'doomers. I was rather surprised it hadn't been previously posted.

[templar]

The chart says it all. For centuries, productivity increases have been freeing up employees to take better higher paying jobs,

Could you explain? Maybe I don't read charts well, but it looks like employment has been going down for about 30 years with output greatly increasing.

[harpseal]

Thanks for the article. The chart says it all. For centuries, productivity increases have been freeing up employees to take better higher paying jobs, and it lowers costs, too, except where the government implements subsidies or price supports.

Given OPIC by the American government and currency controls by China the governments of these nations have implemented subsidies for Chinese manufacturing.

[NMC EXP]

The chart says it all.

THe chart is meaningless. It displays the absolute number of people employed in manufacturing. What has the population done in that time? What percent are employed in manufacturing? Here is a clue, it has steadily declined for 30 years.

For centuries, productivity increases have been freeing up employees to take better higher paying jobs, and it lowers costs, too,

That is what the economics textbooks tell us. Unfortunately, empirical data proves the theory wrong.

Read "The Pooring of America - the Myth of Free Trade" by Dr Ravi Batra. He uses US Bureau of Labor and the Economic Report of the President government stats to demonstrate that these assumptions failed ca 1973 and explains why.

It is because of free trade.

Regards

J.R.