Posted on 09/18/2005 9:19:51 AM PDT by Willie Green
Angel Mills worked at GST AutoLeather in Williamsport, Md., most of her adult life. She cut, inspected, packed and shipped leather upholstery until she was laid off in June 2003 as the company scaled back local operations and shifted production to Mexico.
"It's sad. It's scary. I've been a factory worker all my life, and I didn't know what I wanted to do," said Ms. Mills, a 38-year-old Williamsport resident with a teenage son.
But by March 2004 she was taking a half-year course to become a state-licensed massage therapist. A federal program that helps workers who lose jobs owing to foreign competition paid for her training and offered extended unemployment benefits.
In July, she started working at Venetian Salon and Spa in Hagerstown, Md.
~~~SNIP~~~
Mr. Thomas said that for all trade adjustment program workers passing through the consortium, the average wage was $14.36 an hour before the layoffs, while after retraining it was $11.87 an hour, a decline that is common for factory workers who have to restart their lives.
U.S. Labor Department figures indicate that among the retrained, those that find new jobs end up making only 70 percent to 80 percent of their old wages on average.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
And who controls the market?
Consumers
"I'm safe too."
I'm Not. You want to know why?
The Americans who bought products made with leather from GST AutoLeather will save some of their own money in the form of less expensive products thanks to a more efficient factory in Mexico. On the average, they will then use this money to satisfy other wants. Ultimately, this indirectly manifests itself in Angel Mills finding a job as a massage therapist.
If Americans instead chose or were forced (by tariffs) to buy products made from leather from GST AutoLeather's plant in Maryland, they would pay a higher price for a less efficient plant, and on the average, America would be poorer. Instead of being able to afford both a leather couch and a massage, they would only be able to afford the leather couch.
With unfettered trade between Mexico and America, however, it may be more cost efficient to have the plant in Mexico instead of Maryland and to import the leather. Imported leather is paid for with dollars, which then are used to pay for American exports in industries that are most cost-effective and efficient by being located in America. The same goods, at a cheaper price, means that consumers can spend their money on their other demands. It means that a consumer can have both his couch and his massage, instead of wasting part of the price of the leather in the couch for an inefficient plant in Maryland.
It also means that Angel Mills is re-employed more efficiently as a massage therapist. Jobs are not a scarce resource, gentlemen, because human demands for things are unlimited. That is how and why a free market works to my understanding, and I'm not even an economist.
This is exactly the point. We either have a market controlled by us, or we have the market is controlled by the government. We don't want governments wasting it's time (as well as ours) telling who we buy from and at what price. That's our business. The government's job is to arrest illegals. I say the solution is less government. Let's get rid of all our unwanted "regulations and bureaucracies". Raising import taxes to protect our bureaucrats is not the answer.
Bump
That day is upon us. The Treasury is about to increase the minimum payment from 2% of the unpaid balance to 4% - or more. That's going to have an impact; quite a problematic one, I think.
Hey Pos, raising my import taxes in order to make you financially safe is just going to make me feel unsafe too. Then I'll start wanting to raise someone else's taxes and on and on. We're all just going to just have to start making ourselves safe on our own.
A myraid a govt. regulations defining the way trade is conducted.
Factory work does not pay too well these days. She should consider a career change.
What many are failing to recognize:
$14.36 an hour was for experienced(?) workers in mature(?) industries.
$11.87 is a starting wage for a new hire in a new position & probably has upward potential
&, it's far better than minimum wage.
If the market for massage therapists were already saturated, then it would not make sense for her employer to hire her. The fact that she was hired seems to indicate that there was a demand or at least a perceived demand for her labor in that position. I'm ignorant of the details of the American trade deficit, so I can't usefully comment on that.
I suppose you think that if we raise the minimum wage to $100/hour that we would all be rich and your taxes would go down?
Wrong! You really missed the reality in that example. The factory in Mexico is not more "efficient", the labor is simply cheaper. In the immediate, it made the American worker slightly poorer and only provided the Mexican a job. The Mexican will receive no raises in the future and thus will remain poor. But maybe she'll make enough to pay for her husband or kids to come North. The surplus of illegal un/semi-skilled workers lowers the base wage in America. In the end, GST AutoLeather will not have done itself, its owners/shareholders, its workers, its state or country, a favor. GST will be bankrupt in five years.
Now if GST had invested in a more effecient factory in the USA......the benefits would have killed 'em!
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