US ups ante on China

I also find the continuing arguement of there go American jobs to be mostly ridiculous.

In other words, some jobs won't come back... but a lot, a WHOLE lot will. And when they come back because of our comparative advantage there will be many new jobs created that were not in existence before.

The idea of globalization is to find out who has comparative advantages and invest in those countries. China is playing so that they have a comparative advantage in everything and its not working for us or anyone else.

And when they come back because of our comparative advantage there will be many new jobs created that were not in existence before.

Until equilibrium is restored the former of those two will not come back. There is no painless way to do it. China is going to have to just take it. The corporations that invested up to their eyeballs in China will have to take it too.

The latter of the new jobs I referred to will not happen until the former come back to where they belong. We are looking at long term problems otherwise.

Where in Asia do our exports go? I know it is not South Korea, having witnessed the incredible protectionism there. Just look at how they managed to actually compete with Japan and America in the automotive market. But, I do not know if it is the other cheaper labor markets or if it is the rich countries like Japan (or as I like to call it the wolf in a kimono.)

If it is just corn then I do not mourn. Already the single largest subsidy in America is for corn more than $10 billion a year. Of course this is said to be hurting Mexican farmers who have seen 1/3 of the market place taken over by American corn since the advent of NAFTA. I hardly think that our highest single subsidy can be dwarfed by the Chinese. If this is the case the US really needs to rethink its spending, there is no country in the world that should be able to out spend us on anything. Once again though I do not think I am arguing with you so much as the article you linked to. The article to me sounds too much like one of those "free trade will solve everything articles." When it is not free trade that we want but to hold onto the advantage. Perhaps just a question of semantics but it is one that drives me nuts.

I have to respectfully continue to disagree that jobs will return to America. I have yet to see any hard evidence of this and believe that in fact no one will know unless something is changed. I just know that for the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st the continuing trend has been for corporations to go global finding cheap labor, land and goods. I believe this will continue to be the case. Just as trade imbalance figures often do not contain the fact that many goods bought in America from China are actually being produced and sold by American companies. I feel that often these China trade discussions continue to focus on China and not on the Corporations that are get rich at both ends at the expense of Chinese cheap laborers and American unemployed.

One last thing that I wonder on the job front is are Americans victims of our own success. We have a continually increasing productivity rating if I understand this correctly doesn't that mean that as we get better at our jobs we need demand to rise that much faster in order to continue to employ people. If demand does not rise fast enough but our efficiency continues to rise that means we produce enough but then have fewer jobs to go around.

Where in Asia do our exports go? I know it is not South Korea, having witnessed the incredible protectionism there.

BZZZ! Wrong again...

Respectful or not its simply wrong.

We sold $22.5 billion dollars worth of goods in Korea last year alone.

Here is the link to a US Census dept breakdown of what we exported to Korea for a 5 year term.

In fact, we exported more stuff to South Korea alone than we did to all of China.

Go to this list and pick the country you want to know about.

We sold 2.5 times as much stuff to Japan as we did to China.

Between S. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan...just those 3...we sold about $92 billion worth of goods in 2002.

If it is just corn then I do not mourn.

Its not just corn.

Just as trade imbalance figures often do not contain the fact that many goods bought in America from China are actually being produced and sold by American companies.

Check out this table. According to the US Census Dept 78% of our imports from China are from non-related party trade.

Here is the definition of non related party trade:

Related party trade:

Imports: As defined in Section 402(e) of the Tariff Act of 1930, related party trade includes transactions between parties with various types of relationships including "any person directly or indirectly, owning, controlling or holding power to vote, 6 percent of the outstanding voting stock or shares of any organization."

According to them...your assessment isn't true. It would be something to look into though.

Secondly, the trade imbalances are calculated as follows: If a US corporation owns and operates a company in China, the profits remitted back to the US are deducted from total amount we import.

So if we import $100 billion in goods, then our corporations in China remit $5 billion in profits from their companies in China.... the imbalance is stated as $95 billion.

I feel that often these China trade discussions continue to focus on China and not on the Corporations that are get rich at both ends at the expense of Chinese cheap laborers and American unemployed.

I will agree with a lot of that.

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