U.S. Furniture Makers to Seek Protection From China Imports

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7/15/03 | Dan Morse

[Texas_Dawg]

A group of American makers of wood bedroom furniture is preparing to seek protection from the U.S. government to stem a surge of imports from China that the companies say has ravaged their industry.

John Bassett, president and chief executive of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., Galax, Va., and a spokesman for the group of 14 furniture makers, said the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade intends to file an antidumping petition this fall with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

[EagleMamaMT]

Yeah. All this money saved will make lots of new jobs. New jobs in China. Tell me. How many of these factories and businesses "saving" all this money are actually building any new factories in AMERICA or going out and hiring any new AMERICAN employees? What?? None?? Well, I am surprised (NOT!)

BTW, I notice you STILL won't admit that you think your job is completely free of the eventuality of outsourcing to a foreign country. Why? Are you afraid it will hurt your "free traitor" arguments?

[Texas_Dawg]

Not in the case where they are forced to take federal welfare money because they can't compete against someone who virtually uses slave labor.

Haha. I'm not sure if they offer that box as an option to check on the welfare handout form. (Now I know you aren't going to try to argue that most federal welfare recipients are simply workers displaced by free trade laws.)

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Watch your language sir, this is a family thread.

You said eliminate the problem, get rid of the people?

[Protagoras]

the simple answer is usually correct - its greed.

Ah, the politics of greed. Usually used by liberals. But I guess there isn't much difference anymore.

The owners of that XRAY lab who send the technician's job to India, pocket the cost savings for themselves.

So?

American capitalism cannot suvive with the kind of corporate culture we have now, it's a straight track to a two tiered socio-economic structure, the wealthy and the working poor, with no private sector middle class, the middle class will consist mostly of government employees.

Nonsense.

That's where we are headed if current trends continue.

Nonsense.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Haha. I'm not sure if they offer that box as an option to check on the welfare handout form. (Now I know you aren't going to try to argue that most federal welfare recipients are simply workers displaced by free trade laws.)

LOL, if it is not there it needs to be.

[Texas_Dawg]

BTW, I notice you STILL won't admit that you think your job is completely free of the eventuality of outsourcing to a foreign country. Why? Are you afraid it will hurt your "free traitor" arguments?

I actually already answered that above. I work in finance. I don't know if that makes me an outsourcing target or not, and I don't know if there's a shadow government, or anything else along these lines. Not sure how relative my job is to economic law though.

How many of these factories and businesses "saving" all this money are actually building any new factories in AMERICA or going out and hiring any new AMERICAN employees? What?? None?? Well, I am surprised (NOT!)

Who says the jobs need to be replaced with more factory jobs? I'm sure the displaced butter churners found new jobs when their industry became obsolete and inefficient as well.

[Texas_Dawg]

LOL, if it is not there it needs to be.

Not surprising that Arkansas still votes for Democrats, eh?

[oceanview]

The "more taxes" won't come from me. If things continue down this path, you will have a permanent Democratic majority in the US, and they will tax the "haves" to buy the votes of the increasing number of "have nots" with a wide range of programs. And people won't care, because when MSFT employs 200 Americans, and the choice is to tax them or give free health care to all these displaced worker,s they will vote for the person giving them the free health care.

[Jim Cane]

Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary

Main Entry: free trade
Function: noun
Date: 1823
: trade based on the unrestricted international exchange of goods with tariffs used 'only as a source of revenue."

Tariffs are taxes, they should not be government tools to manipulate people or turn a tax into a government command and control economy.

[By preferring the support of domestick [sic] to that of foreign industry, he [the consumer] intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." ~ Adam "Commie Pinko" Smith 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'

"It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end proposed -- that is, an extension of the revenue .... If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds." ~ Alexander "Che" Hamilton 'The Federalist Papers #21'

[Texas_Dawg]

If things continue down this path, you will have a permanent Democratic majority in the US

That's odd. In the decade since the passage of NAFTA, the GOP has trounced the Dems in almost every single election (with 2004 looking like it could be the biggest rout yet). I guess we just have to keep waiting (and for you to keep hoping) for this to come true.

[oceanview]

The last presidential election should have taught us that we are right at the tipping point in America. The ability to cobble together a voting block against the Dems (socialists, as we all know) is on thin ice, and one of the last legs of that is the private sector middle class. If that sector of America is hammered away by offshoring of jobs, its over. Your flippant attitude does nothing to address the real issue here.

[Protagoras]

And people won't care, because when MSFT employs 200 Americans, and the choice is to tax them or give free health care to all these displaced worker,s they will vote for the person giving them the free health care.

So all the people are immoral so it's ok?

[Texas_Dawg]

If that sector of America is hammered away by offshoring of jobs, its over.

Eliminating predominantly Democratic, union factory jobs will hurt the GOP? That's bizarre. I've met a ton of union-working white American-born people in the Northeast. I'll take the Hispanics I've known in Texas over these communists any day. They are far more economically logical and far harder workers than these union-affiliated losers.

[EagleMamaMT]

Mister, I want a STRONG America with GOOD jobs for all Americans. I don't WANT to pay higher taxes to support the Americans YOU advocate unemploying so that you can make a fast buck.

What are you advocating? Let me explain what you're advocating so all on here can understand: You think you're some kind of an elite, entitled being, since you believe you, yourself, won't ever have to worry about your job being offshored. You know, a kind of "let 'em eat cake", "I'm better than you dirty low-class workers" type of guy.

You apparently want an America of abject poverty for everyone but the elite ruling class because outsourcing of American jobs is going to bring about that result in the end. You want a land of outhouses and shanties and mansions and limousines, and the complete abolition of the middle class.

I may be emotional, sir, but at least I CARE about Americans who are losing their jobs and I CARE what happens to America. You obviously do not, for all your big-mouthed rhetoric of your high Christian morals. In the words of my great-aunt Mary: "There'll be so many Christians like you in hell, their butts will be sticking out the windows!"

[oceanview]

Look, the late 1990s economy wasn't real, it was built on lies and "funny money". Still, alot of Americans were hired and got jobs during that period, to them it seemed like prosperity. In the meantime, the real economy continued to chug along beneath the surface, and the chugging involves massive job movement overseas. The tech revolution has made that easier, now any job held by an American that involves sitting at a computer terminal can be done in India. A huge amount of US white collar employees fall into that category: just think about it, its not just IT, its accoumting, insurance, financial services, etc. And businesses are falling all over themselves to offshore, because its the easy ticket to big bonuses for corporate executives. There are threads on FR about this every day, and believe me they are real.

Hoping? No, more like warning.

[Protagoras]

I agree with the definition. In fact I have been saying it all along. And I'll stand with Adam Smith anytime. And Hamilton had it correct, taxes are to raise money for government. Too high and no one pays them. Same as the price of anything else.

[EagleMamaMT]

Ah, finally! You've told us what you do. In other words, you're personally making money hand over fist from all the outsourcing that's going on. Well, now we know, don't we? I was right, wasn't I? Now we know why you're such a "free traitor".

[Texas_Dawg]

I may be emotional, sir, but at least I CARE about Americans who are losing their jobs and I CARE what happens to America. You obviously do not, for all your big-mouthed rhetoric of your high Christian morals. In the words of my great-aunt Mary: "There'll be so many Christians like you in hell, their butts will be sticking out the windows!"

Haha. Awesome.

I forgot... was Jesus from Pittsburgh?

[Wolfie]

People don't give a rat's ass until its their jobs being shipped overseas. It's just human nature.

[oceanview]

although this thread may have been about the NC manufacturing workers, the private sector white collar middle class is getting hammered by this offshoring, and many of those voters are Republicans.