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To: CutePuppy

So American workers should continue getting kicked in the ass, because they cannot survive on slave wages?


15 posted on 03/14/2018 9:33:19 AM PDT by TallahasseeConservative ( Isaiah 40:31)
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To: TallahasseeConservative
It really depends on the industry, doesn't it?

Whether a tariff on steel (for example) is a good idea or a bad idea depends entirely on whether you are SELLING or BUYING steel.

That's why the shares of U.S. auto manufacturers took a hit when these tariffs were announced. Imposing a tariff on one of their raw materials makes it more expensive to do business here.

17 posted on 03/14/2018 9:42:50 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Go ahead, bite the Big Apple ... don't mind the maggots.")
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To: TallahasseeConservative; Alberta's Child; Kaslin

What you have is a long period of Joseph Shumpeter's "creative destruction" due to technology and productivity improvements, which led to general improvements in quality of life in the US. Some industries (e.g., horse buggies and buggy whips a century ago) are dying or shrinking due to technological advances and/or poor government policies (like minimum wage and odious regulations) that increase the cost of goods or services to the point where they become uncompetitive (i.e., "pricing themselves out of the market") relative either to other producers of same / similar goods or other industries which can produce alternative options (such as 3D printing/cutting or "additive"/"subtractive" manufacturing) which has little or nothing to do with country's overall trade deficit or surplus. Composition of trade deficit / surplus may be of interest — is it raw materials for production, finished goods, services etc.

We usually don't complain about importing oil when its price is low... unless we happen to work in the oil industry. And so on...

With the official unemployment around 4% and severe labor shortages in moderately skilled positions it's difficult to argue that workers have to "survive on slave wages" but some industries can be doing better or worse for reasons specified above.

Unemployment / Participation rate / Construction-worker shortage - https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ON-CL525_Labor__9U_20180309201656.jpg

When Labor Shortages Hit They Can Last Years - https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ON-CL524_BABQ76_9U_20180309201636.jpg


Here's the typical headlines you see today:

The Great Labor Crunch - B (sub), by Avi Salzman, 2018 March 09

From The Great Labor Crunch - B (sub), by Mary Childs, 2018 March 10:

In the U.S. 50 - 60 years ago computers were very expensive and human labor very cheap; now computers and computing power is very cheap and human labor is very expensive.

Most of what you see in some industries has more to do with that fact and poor government policies misallocating fiscal and human capital than it is with trade deficit. But don't expect some politicians to acknowledge that rather than exploiting it to get elected.

26 posted on 03/14/2018 4:53:10 PM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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