Some things you should understand, Chris. In advanced economies, services become an increasing part of the activities, while manufacturing diminishes. So, it is quite normal to import a lot of things that were previously made.
Second, the manufacture of items is usually a minor part of their cost. Getting them to the consumer is a major part. So, perhaps the Chinese got five dollars for my keyboard. I paid $59 (after a $20 discount) for the finished product in my hands. When I was first involved in exporting umpteen years ago, I was appalled at how cheaply we would send products overseas -- often at a fraction of the prices to the home consumers. As for your desire to " provide more work", you are simply mouthing modern political economy which spends its efforts in finding work -- any work -- for people. This, along with taking people out of the labour market by keeping them at school too long, drafting them into military service, forcing early retirement, and so on. People do not want to work. They work because they have to, or to achieve some personal goal. One of the basic laws of economics is the conservation of energy -- one wants to get as much as one can for as little effort as possible. Because the economics system is so screwed up, it spends its time trying to find work for people who do not want it. They want wages and if they can get wages for minimum exertion, that is the way they go. You tell us all the silly arguments that have long since been refuted. So, we do not buy from the Chinese because it is slave labour. So, the slave labour will be much better off if we refuse to buy their products. Ridiculous! "Fair trade" is the name given by conservatives who are anti-free trade. You are in good company. You should rethink yourself and not quote from socialist pamphlets. For example, you say " jobs of low qualification such as port hands and truckers. (Jobs that are usually taken by (illegal?) immigrants, not Americans, btw.)" The unions at the docks are very powerful. They usually say who can work and who cannot work. Illegals are not very acceptable. As the truckers, there are millions of them and they are Americans, not illegals. The trucking company simply would not hire anyone who does not have proper bona fides. I suppose " turning the US into a 3rd World country" happens when I use my wireless keyboard with my computer. You have a peculiar way of looking at things. Incidentally you capitalised "Free" and used lowercase for "protection". It seems difficult for you to understand that "free trade" is not a political policy but merely leaving things in their natural condition, where people have always exchanged since the beginning of time. "Protection", on the other hand, is a political policy designed to protect the fatcats from competition at the expense of the poor. You choose a peculiar side in this discussion. Harry -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 4:35 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Futurework] A Lesson in "Free" Trade 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 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
