Harry wrote: > It doesn't increase unemployment in the US. > > I paid $59 for my wireless keyboard. Most of that went to Americans > who moved the keyboard from the dock to my computer.
This is a peculiar statement, coming from an economist. Moving the product from dock to consumer requires only a tiny fraction of the work involved in manufacturing the product. So, compared to manufacturing the product in your country, you do increase unemployment in the US if you only leave the transportation to US workers. And considering that developed countries usually import most of the raw materials for the products they manufacture, you would provide more work even to the transportation workers if you'd buy products made in USA. Just importing finished products, instead of manufacturing them, is the hallmark of a Third World economy. It seems you want to reduce America to a Third World country, with jobs of low qualification such as port hands and truckers. (Jobs that are usually taken by (illegal?) immigrants, not Americans, btw.) If most of the end price "went to Americans who moved the keyboard from the dock to" the consumer, this only means that the Chinese slaves get way too little for manufacturing the product. The social & environmental toll of this "saving" is vast, both in China and your country. But worrying about this makes me a "dictatorial socialist", I guess... > Then we have to pay for the keyboard in some way, or the Chinese are > working for nothing. They are working for close to nothing, that's why you buy their products. But slavery is not what the concept of "comparative advantage" is about. > If we don't buy from the communist "sweatshops" what happens to the > people? The slaves have no job. Perhaps no job is better than a > sweatshop. What about FAIR Trade? Decent wages, trade unions, work safety regulations, environmental regulations, healthcare insurance, retirement plans, ... but you're not interested in such "protectionist coercion", you just want cheapo stuff and coercion of slaves and environmental degradation. That's why you're outsourcing the jobs to a socialist dictatorship (which you say you can't stand) in the first place, turning the US into a 3rd World country in the process. After all, the "coming cull" has to be prepared, right? > In any event, contact and cooperation is better than hiding behind > walls. Switzerland never had a wall, and globally has a very free economy, see e.g. http://www.heritage.org/index/country/Switzerland > Trade is natural and isn't a political policy, whereas > Protection is a political policy, so you had better have a good reason > for raising prices to the poor while increasing the takings of the > rich. Protecting their citizens & economy is a core responsibility of politicians. It is "Free" Trade, not protectionism, that increases the gap between rich and poor and creates destitute masses of unemployed or working poor slaves. That's why greedies are forcing "Free" Trade on the world in the first place. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
