Posted on 09/28/2016 8:42:37 PM PDT by Theoria
Trade is under attack in much of the world, because economists failed to anticipate the accompanying joblessness, and governments failed to help.
For as long as ships have ventured across water, laborers like Patrick Duijzers have tied their fortunes to trade.
He is a longshoreman here at Europe’s largest port, and his black Jack Daniel’s T-shirt, hoop earrings and copious rings give Mr. Duijzers the look of a bohemian pirate. His wages put him solidly in the Dutch middle class: He has earned enough to buy an apartment and enjoy vacations to Spain.
Lately, though, Mr. Duijzers has come to see global trade as a malevolent force. His employer — a unit of the Maersk Group, the Danish shipping conglomerate — is locked in a fiercely competitive battle around the world.
He sees trucking companies replacing Dutch drivers with immigrants from Eastern Europe. He bids farewell to older co-workers reluctantly taking early retirement as robots capture their jobs. Over the last three decades, the ranks of his union have dwindled to about 7,000 members, from 25,000.
“More global trade is a good thing if we get a piece of the cake,” Mr. Duijzers said. “But that’s the problem. We’re not getting our piece of the cake.”
Far beyond the docks of the North Sea, such laments now resonate as the soundtrack for an increasingly vigorous rejection of free trade.
For generations, libraries full of economics textbooks have rightly promised that global trade expands national wealth by lowering the price of goods, lifting wages and amplifying growth. The powers that emerged victorious from World War II championed globalization as the antidote to future conflicts. In Asia, Europe and North America, governments of every ideological persuasion have focused on trade as their guiding economic force.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Trade” is an anachronism.
Yeah, just for those that want to work hard, be productive and be REAL AMERICANS. Yes, that does leave out the bums, losers, professional welfare recipients, illegals and other criminals. Must be discrimination, huh?
nyt is lies and leftist propaganda.
The more jobs are temp and part-time jobs.
If China and Japan played by the rules, there would still be a problem. The bottom line is that Milton Friedman was right. In return for our paper they send us relatively well made manufactured goods that are relatively cheap to the American people. Eventually those dollars must be used.If the US were disciplined and did not run huge deficits, the Chinese and Japanese would be forced to buy international products and the money would return. eg the Chinese sell the US flat screen TVs and cell phones, they buy oil from thee Saudis, the Saudis in turn buy American wheat, real estate and software etc. The problem is that with running deficits the money is recycled back to the US in the form of loans that finance consumption, not investment. Jobs are lost and the US standard of living declines. The real fault lies in our own consumptive deficit spending behavior.
1. Consumers want to pay as little as possible for what they buy.
2. Workers want to get paid as much as possible for what they produce.
Every single decision made by governments and businesses relates in some way to dealing with all of the complications that arise from these two conflicting realities.
Good post. The “consumptive deficit spending behavior” is probably an inherent characteristic of any global empire that has a higher standard of living than its trading partners.
While I agree that the NYT is a lying propaganda rag, their depiction of the impact of “free trade” on workers in Europe and America workers is accurate. Our leaders have made a lot of money holding a fire sale on our prosperity letting foreign state-owned and/or subsidized companies capture industries that we invented from scratch. What we need is tariffs to protect our industries and workers, not welfare. If you make nothing pretty soon you can buy nothing and are destitute. How can a country be a superpower if it cannot make its own ships, trains, planes, missiles, and computers? If its people cannot design and program them?
The answer is that America cannot be a superpower and be just a service sector economy. N
That's really part of the story here. The trading partner with the highest standard of living is never going to be very competitive in a global market.
Yeah, the same a-holes who championed the UN for ostensibly the same reason. How'd that work out? World gov't is their goal, and Western nationalism (especially in the U.S.) is their biggest obstacle. Hence their desperation to derail the Trump Train.
“Trade “ is just a euphemism meaning a global scheme for privatization of profits for political and economic elites, and socialization of the risks and losses to be borne by the rest of us.
Your comments on consumers and workers are valid.
However, there are other international players out there also seeking to game the system and get their cut of the action.
Since their proxies (that’s polite for corrupt politicians and bureaucrats) are the ones at the negotiating table for trade agreements they are the real winners of the trade deals.
1) use their tax revenue to bail out financial markets.
2) secure enough soldiers to fight their wars.
Both need consent from citizens in those states with firm national identity, which are impediments when the time is good and they are making lots of money. But they are sorely needed when things get rough.
People are fed up and now refuse to cooperate. They have been witnessing the unending bailout of financial markets while their economy well-being is declining and wars which never achieved anything, let alone lasting victory. The icing on top of that, a lot of them are now treated as politically incorrect subhumans.
And consumers = workers. When nobody can afford goods corporations produce, corporations face serious problems. However, that problem is way down the road. At the moment, it is not concern for any of them.
The icing [O]n top of that
I think the global trade system is selling out America.
Both political parties in America are completely sold out to China, to Mexico, in the matter of global trade.
Both of them. Our entire politicsl system. It is sold out. Everyone.
This will correct. When it does there will be heck to pay.
For real.
I had to stop reading at about the third comment. These people make me crazy! They say robots are good and there will be jobs running, repairing, and programming them. For what used to be the work of one hundred men, there will now be a handful running the machines, a couple of teams repairing them, and no former workers programming them. But all the work handled by a small percentage of the number who were once employed.
And then they also say, well, there are service jobs and need for caregivers. Well, first of all, who can pay for the services and caregivers? A lot of that care was once given by relatives, who are now so busy trying to make ends meet while working 2 incompatible part-time jobs (thanks, Ocare), and maybe studying, if they still have energy. but it is a fact that people who work in service jobs and nursing can’t afford all that much service themselves.
I just really hate the utterly clueless stupidity of the people who say these things from their ivy towers. Smug condescending people who just can’t imagine why anyone would vote for Trump!
Or in other words...who IS she??
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