> 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.
The real economy is still based on tangible goods, also in advanced economies. Because real wealth creation only comes from tangible goods. The value created by manufacturing is then just re-distributed by the service sector, which always smacks of economic "bubbles" because it's just hot air. Basic needs -- food, shelter, clothing -- are met by tangible goods. Outsourcing their production to abroad is dangerous because it makes a country dependent on foreign forces. Come to think of it, that's the goal of the "Free" Traitors. A precondition for "the coming cull"... > Second, the manufacture of items is usually a minor part of their cost. > Getting them to the consumer is a major part. This just doesn't make sense. The amount of work and the material costs to extract, move and convert the raw materials and to combine them to the finished product is so much bigger than the amount of work and the fuel to ship the product to the consumer. Maybe you're talking of marketing and brand name fees, but that is out of the realm of manufacturing and shipping, and basically an unnecessary cost factor. If "Getting them to the consumer is a major part", then Chinese goods shipped around the planet must be more expensive in America than American goods!? > So, perhaps the Chinese got > five dollars for my keyboard. I paid $59 (after a $20 discount) for the > finished product in my hands. This absurdity is only enabled by slavery and unbridled pollution, which you support. > 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. This is a market distortion that I don't support. > 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. No, there's no need to artificially find more work. If you buy American products instead of slave imports, then there's enough work for Americans. And the Chinese can produce for the Chinese market, they don't have to be unemployed either if you don't buy their products. > People do not want to work. They work because they have to, or to achieve > some personal goal. ... > 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. Then why do you force Chinese slaves (minimum wages for maximum exertion) to work for you? > 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! If nobody bought slave-made goods, the sweatshops would close pretty soon. If everyone bought FAIR Trade goods, there would be enough good jobs for the former slaves to switch to. I'm just applying the principle of demand and supply, don't you agree with that? > "Fair trade" is the name given by conservatives who are anti-free trade. > You are in good company. As long as the principle of "comparative advantage" is maintained, FAIR and Free Trade are compatible. (E.g. bananas can be exported at ANY price to Switzerland, because bananas don't grow here.) But you don't want "comparative advantage", you want slavery. > You should rethink yourself and not quote from socialist pamphlets. I'm not interested in socialist pamphlets, except as a study in deception. > 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. In Europe, the low-qualified jobs are usually taken by immigrants, also by illegal immigrants (e.g. in plantations). As for trucking companies "carefully hand-picking their drivers", consider that the largest fire in a trans-Alpine tunnel, costing 39 lives and hundreds of millions in damages, was caused by a drunk Turkish trucker without a driving license employed by a Belgian company that didn't even have an insurance to pay for the damages. They even "saved" on the fire extinguisher, by which the trucker could have put out the fire from the beginning, but he didn't have one. That's "Free" Trade at work! > I suppose " turning the US into a 3rd World country" happens when I use my > wireless keyboard with my computer. Yes, because if China stops supplying you with keyboards (e.g. because the dollar has become worthless by focusing on "services" à la Madoff), and the US manufacturing plants & know-how are gone, then welcome to the 3rd world! Your keyboard won't work forever, especially because it's so cheap... > You have a peculiar way of looking at things. If logic is peculiar... > 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. The cave-man propagandists consider "dog eat dog" a natural condition, but I think a civilized society can do better. > "Protection", on > the other hand, is a political policy designed to protect the fatcats from > competition at the expense of the poor. Protecting the domestic economy and citizens is the natural task of politics. It is a precondition to a civilized domestic policy that prevents the gap between rich and poor from getting too big by other means. In Europe, this has worked pretty well until "Free" Trade expanded... By buying slave-made cheapo imports, you make conditions worse both for Chinese slaves and American workers (or rather ex-workers), while making fatcats like Walmart share-holders and Chinese slave-holders ever richer. 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
