Patrick J. Buchanan Examines "The Slow Awakening of George W."

Washington Times ^ | 09-17-03 | Buchanan, Patrick J.

[RLK]

There will be damned little effective retraining. The retrained graduates will be unleased into an easily saturated market.

[ninenot]

Free trade fools who babbled about low skill jobs being "jobs America can afford to lose" never wondered about a society full of idle young men hanging out at all hours.

You said a mouthful.

Now imagine a neighborhood full of 50ish men, unemployed and rather unhappy, all members of the NRA--with guns...

[A. Pole]

Trickle-down - An economic theory which advocates letting businesses flourish, since their profits will ultimately trickle down to lower-income individuals and the rest of the economy.

What about trickle-up economy? Where the prosperous middle class makes upper class much more comfortable than third world oligarchies could ever be? Well-off workers make also good consumers.

[RLK]

Now imagine a neighborhood full of 50ish men, unemployed and rather unhappy, all members of the NRA--with guns...

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That's one of the real reasons we need gun control.

[maui_hawaii]

Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard.

Didn't GW go to Yale?

[BMiles2112]

Now imagine a neighborhood full of 50ish men, unemployed and rather unhappy, all members of the NRA--with guns...

Man, those crazy NRA members and their guns, always out shooting up the town when they get unruly. Seriously, I would hope that if there were neighborhoods full of unemployed, middle-aged men, they would look at starting their own businesses and becoming productive.

[RLK]

Didn't GW go to Yale?

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He went there, but he didn't inhale. Actually, he took guts courses at Yale, then went to Harvard finishing school. It prepared him to fail in his business, then take jobs on the board of directors of other businesses.

[Lazamataz]

You sure don't seem like much of a Georgian. Do you even know what time the game starts?

What years do you claim you went to GU?

[A. Pole]

If we mandate a $5/hr minimum wage in the US, and the Chinese, who have no mandate, pay their skilled labor $1/hr, then how - without using a tariff, can a US company compete?

Also the wage competitive with China is not enough to pay the cost of living in America. It is not possible to pay workers LESS than they need for subsistence. Even Ricardo knew it. Before this point is reached, something will happen.

[Ciexyz]

I posted this before, but a family friend, age 50, Pittsburgh PA, just lost his machinist job when it was outsourced to China. The man is now eligible for retraining benefits. The wife is now the main support of the family. They're raising a granddaughter, they have custody.

The typical American family of today.

[ambrose]

bump for later

[Ciexyz]

The workers' comp system is part of the problem, too. In PA, it's out of control.

[Texas_Dawg]

What years do you claim you went to GU?

Haha. GU?

Are you trying to figure out who I am or something? No thanks.

[RinaseaofDs]

No, before I answer your question, I'd like an answer to mine.

Just to show you I'm not a hard hearted guy, I'll give a preview of what my reply to your question will be:

A: I'm not dealing in conjecture here, but in regulatory reality.

But let's play pretend for a moment - what would be your economic measurement criteria for determining what $5 of US labor would be in China? Give me that answer and I'll give you mine. For example, what kind of labor do you want to discuss? Brain surgeon, welder, weaver of cloth?

Would you rather be in a Chinese jet fighter or a US F-15?

Or, how about we take a real world example: Rare earth magnets. There was a single place in the US that produced those magnets until a Chinese company bought them out. Those jobs are headed to China. Why does this matter?

Because rare earth magnets help the fins on a cruise missile adjust to the terrain changes mandated by its guidance system. We now source these magnets from China.

So there are strategic implications to free trade to that aren't even being considered here.

I'm not being rude, I'm being frustrated. It comes down to simple subtraction in terms of understanding why the playing field isn't level, and to realize that it isn't the company that is tilting it, but the government. It's just math, not ideology.

If the government wants my company to carry insurance, do diversity training, sexual harrassment training, have fire extinguishers, foot the bill for unemployment insurance, offer benefits, carry special insurance against litigation, and provide a safe work environment, then they can make trade policies with countries that feel the same way, or slap tariffs on those countries that don't.

Else, they can take all of those obligations away from me.

It's not my choice, it's GWB's, very literally.

[RLK]

Also the wage competitive with China is not enough to pay the cost of living in America.

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The wages of an engineer there wouldn't be enough to allow for my gasoline and automobile insurance to drive to work.

[TomasUSMC]

What hi-tech jobs are left in this country are being given to foreigners via the H1B visa program which in reality has no cap since the exceptions are anything connected to education or non-profits, which amounts to hundreds of thousands more than the 200,000 yearly cap.
In 2000 there were 163,000 H1b visas and an additional 342,000 H1b visas issued in the exempt catagories. In 2001, it was 79,000 and 215,000 respectively.
Outsourcing, H1B and L1 visas, illegal immigrations, Nafta and Gaat, abortion and other anti family social trends are killing off Americans much faster than all the terrorist in history. What is the solution? You can't handle the truth ...or can you?

[RLK]

Outsourcing, H1B and L1 visas, illegal immigrations, Nafta and Gaat, abortion and other anti family social trends are killing off Americans much faster than all the terrorists in history. What is the solution? You can't handle the truth ...or can you?

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When you have a self-blinding committed ideology, you no longer need the truth.

[TomasUSMC]

Ah, you forgot one thing, if you don't have a job you can't be a consumer. Don't consider a costlier widget worse than a american who has lost their job so that the widget can be made by slave labor in China.

[A. Pole]

Or, how about we take a real world example: Rare earth magnets. There was a single place in the US that produced those magnets until a Chinese company bought them out. Those jobs are headed to China. Why does this matter? Because rare earth magnets help the fins on a cruise missile adjust to the terrain changes mandated by its guidance system. We now source these magnets from China.

Why the guy who sells a copy of a bluprint for such technology will be convicted for espionage and treason, when people who relocate the whole factory get the fat bonuses and praise for free market attitude?

[RinaseaofDs]

Exactly. Paging Bernie Ebbers . . .