Posted on 08/23/2003 7:42:02 AM PDT by cp124
This salient point that Pat states so well is the very point that most Free Traitor Dunderheads completely miss or are unable to grasp. When a nation loses an important industry it also loses the future spin-off industries that the old industry spawns. For example, as our steel industry withers away due to the allowed mercantile trade practices of other nations, we are losing the technical ability, know how and infrastructure to advance metallurgy into the new metals and compounds of the future which are crucial to maintaining our technological edge and national security.
The One Way Industry Destroying Trade policies of this Administration and Government are literally robbing America of the ability to shape its technological future and the prosperity that flows from it. Implicit in the reckless trade policies of today is some naive B/S notion of dependency on other nations for our critical needs.
It leaves one to wonder just how accommodating say the Red Chinese will be when we have to go to them for our military procurements because we no longer have the industry to produce it ourselves.
Oops. You meant assembling the foreign-made parts (which represents over 79% of the value added) into cars in the USA...all to evade our trade tariffs and import quotas. There is no superior productivity and lower costs than exist in Japan.
Chrysler, which is now owned by the germans(the ones we fought in ww2) has emphasized that it also wants its suppliers, parts suppliers, tool makers, etc. to be foreign, or to get its material from foreign lands. Frankly, I see nothing pro-american about Chrysler at all anymore, nor should I expect to. They were among the first to want to foreign outsource and lay off american workers after the germans took control. It is easy to see why Chrysler which is controlled by sons and daughters of nazi troops to do this, but why are other american companies so bent on replacing american workers? Is there any company left that is pro-america anymore?
Big plant closings get the headlines, but the ripple effect you cite often makes up the bulk of the hit side. A good example is the death of the heavy steel industry in the Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Mahoning Valley region. When those plants went away, the numerous (non-union, family-owned) small businesses, tool makers, machine shops, jobbers for specialty parts, etc., all went under. There are those who say small business is the backbone of America. But often small business is dependent for its lifeblood on big business. It is a symbiosis that is often overlooked by those who say we don't need big manufacturing anymore.Actually the reports of steel's death in Cleveland have been greatly exaggerated due to IMG, which seems to be doing well in the old LTV East plant. It's run by engineers, not beancounters (like the Japanese steel companies) and that helps.
A big and underrated problem with industry in urban areas is CERCLA. No one wants to buy/lease an old industrial site because you might end up liable for an extensive cleanup if something is found buried....never mind that it was buried legally fifty years ago and isn't bothering anything where it is. Even if one wanted to take the chance the banks won't...they have been held liable too.
The enviro-Dims only want to make things worse. The Clinton era EPA wanted to start charging companies with civil rights violations if they were found to be "disproportionately polluting" in predominantly minority areas. A number of big city mayors gave birth to porcupines (breech presentation) when they heard that idea.
-Eric
Not true, Russia was there too. But truth, Germany & Britian & France out produce both countries. But they reach platue and not improve. Then Russia fall to Communists.
Actually just as US government has right to ignore insturction so do EU have right to slam US companies working on EU soil. Sovereignty go both way.
It seems Pat forgot about Toyota, Nissan, Honda, BMW, and Mercedes, building car manufacturing plants in America to take advantage of our superior productivity and lower costs.
Clearly you feel that your brazen lie is sufficient to rebut all of what Pat has written. You may be so easily fooled by your own rhetoric, but the rest of us know that the unions forced Congress to lay heavy tariffs on completed cars brought into the united States. That is why Toyota, Nissan, et al have built assembly plants in the united States where manufactured parts are brought in and minimal assembly is performed to produce automobiles not subject to import tariffs.
China had a 100% tariff on Japanese made cars so Japan decided to build assembly plants in China. Also the fastest growing economy the world has ever seen has had a average 35% import tariff on all products and a few years ago reduced the tariff on import cars down to a mere 70-80%. So if China can have tariffs and enjoy the fruits of profound expansion, why do you hate America so much that you wish just the opposite?
What amazing rebuttal! Just come up with cheap shots and insults and you don't have to do any thinking of justification for the subversion you wish to see.
The world economy is here to stay.
Another amazingly stupid comment. Is that Dot Com economy still with us or has that moved on? How about the great Asian Tiger, wern't they in deep financial trouble in the late 1990's? And South America's economies? They all change. The world economy is remarkably different each decade, and yet you just mouth off "The world economy is here to stay." Yeah sure.
If you want to live in a world where cave men sell rocks to each other, you're free to move to North Korea and live under the joyful principles of ju-chi (self-reliance) at your convenience.
Why move? You and your Hate America First cabal are fighting to bring it to our doorstep. China and India enjoy high tariffs and great growth. The united States is selling herself like a cheap two-bit whore, except we really arent selling ourselves as much as we are just giving it away, or in many cases paying other nations to have their way with us. But I am sure that you are relishing the day when America and the freedom she represents will be some tattered whore lying near death in some Chinese gutter.
No need to deport, just extend our seizure laws to cover illegal aliens as "contraband". Presently, the War on Drugs gives government all kinds of seizure powers, if taking cars, boats, estates and bank accounts of drug dealers is fair game, then apartment buildings, check cashing/banks and lawn maintenance equipment for public auction is fair for those who knowingly trade in illegal aliens and run their support services.
Nothing like huge government deficits and true free market pressure to get those ad hoc tax collectors (police officers) to commence seizure operations against those who aid and abet illegal aliens.
But the ruling class has already contemplated this problem of the well-armed - by making them all dependant on government for their "safety", food, shelter, clothing, education and medicine.
To coin a phrase: "Don't shoot the hand that feeds you."
These days big companies like Boeing and Intel run competitions between cities and states that end up handing over huge benefits to them. Tax rebates, tax abatement, outright grants, bond funded development loans are just some of the goodies they get for locating a plant somewhere. Or even keeping one where it is.
The assertion that property taxes don't exist in other country's is simply untrue and depends on the country. In any event, Mexico has its own special tax: Mordida, a bribe paid up the line from the lowliest Mexican bureaucrat or street cop right to the top. Many companies have found out since moving there that this is an expense they never planned on which grows every year (think "extortion at the point of a gun").
Property taxes rightly belong ONLY on productive property. That was the original intent of the Anglo-Saxon system. By comparison, the Spaniard system only incurs taxes when a sale is made, thus providing no incentive to productively use property. The result of such a system is called "Latin America". Still think it's just property taxes?
Absolutely right. If you aren't in the industry, you won't know or remember the technology and you won't know how to advance it, because you won't see where the process can be improved or innovated. The knowledge base is in the companies, not the universities. If you export that knowledge base - as is being done now - it's only a matter of time.
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