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It is refreshing to see a liberal telling the truth about immigration hurting American workers.
Could it be that as a country, we are slowly beginning to admit the truth?
If you ask me, there has been a massive bubble in the EGO of Americans. This idea that just because you are an american you are entitled to wages that are 500% higher than everyone else. Those days existed at one point due to the fact that foreign countries were economically and politically unstable and companies couldn't access the talent and labor. These days those countries have wised up and opened up their markets. Now they bend over backwards to encourage business in their countries - free trade zones, low or no taxes, incentive to do business there etc. They just want businesses to go to their country and employ the people.
These days if you ask me this is what the value of various labor pools are:
General labor/no skills - 1$/hr
Basic skills or experienced - 2-3$/hr
College level knowledge and advanced skills - 10$/hr.
These days what makes sense for a business is to try to automate as much as possible and if the task cannot be automated then simplify it so it can be preformed by a no skill person. Then minimize the need for basic skilled people or the experienced. Advanced skilled people should only be hired for developing new products or on a contracted basis only.
America can only be saved if we realize that we live in a globalized economy and protectionist policies will not work. We need to encourage business in the states with low taxes and business friendly regulation. If we don't do that then the USA will turn into socialist wasteland with high unemployment and high poverty. If that happens we won't have to worry about carbon emissions because we won't be able to afford to buy fossil fuels.
If you ask me, there has been a massive bubble in the EGO of Americans. This idea that just because you are an american you are entitled to wages that are 500% higher than everyone else. Those days existed at one point due to the fact that foreign countries were economically and politically unstable and companies couldn't access the talent and labor. These days those countries have wised up and opened up their markets. Now they bend over backwards to encourage business in their countries - free trade zones, low or no taxes, incentive to do business there etc. They just want businesses to go to their country and employ the people.
These days if you ask me this is what the value of various labor pools are:
General labor/no skills - 1$/hr
Basic skills or experienced - 2-3$/hr
College level knowledge and advanced skills - 10$/hr.
These days what makes sense for a business is to try to automate as much as possible and if the task cannot be automated then simplify it so it can be preformed by a no skill person. Then minimize the need for basic skilled people or the experienced. Advanced skilled people should only be hired for developing new products or on a contracted basis only.
America can only be saved if we realize that we live in a globalized economy and protectionist policies will not work. We need to encourage business in the states with low taxes and business friendly regulation. If we don't do that then the USA will turn into socialist wasteland with high unemployment and high poverty. If that happens we won't have to worry about carbon emissions because we won't be able to afford to buy fossil fuels.
Do you know of something called "cost of living"?
In what area of the US can you survive, let alone live, on 2k/year or 6k/year or even 20k year? Not too many places right?
I can point you to a number of countries where protectionist policies have led to positive results. American industry was built on protectionism. So was Japanese, Chinese, German, Korean, etc.
This is the great lie pushed on Americans during the past 2 decades. Namely that of "free trade". There is no such thing. Americans have been getting screwed at the expense of multi national corporations. That is a fact. Capital is free flowing around the globe. Labor is not.
If you ask me, there has been a massive bubble in the EGO of Americans. This idea that just because you are an american you are entitled to wages that are 500% higher than everyone else. Those days existed at one point due to the fact that foreign countries were economically and politically unstable and companies couldn't access the talent and labor. These days those countries have wised up and opened up their markets. Now they bend over backwards to encourage business in their countries - free trade zones, low or no taxes, incentive to do business there etc. They just want businesses to go to their country and employ the people.
These days if you ask me this is what the value of various labor pools are:
General labor/no skills - 1$/hr
Basic skills or experienced - 2-3$/hr
College level knowledge and advanced skills - 10$/hr.
These days what makes sense for a business is to try to automate as much as possible and if the task cannot be automated then simplify it so it can be preformed by a no skill person. Then minimize the need for basic skilled people or the experienced. Advanced skilled people should only be hired for developing new products or on a contracted basis only.
America can only be saved if we realize that we live in a globalized economy and protectionist policies will not work. We need to encourage business in the states with low taxes and business friendly regulation. If we don't do that then the USA will turn into socialist wasteland with high unemployment and high poverty. If that happens we won't have to worry about carbon emissions because we won't be able to afford to buy fossil fuels.
I agree. It may not be ego though. It may be that as a nation Americans do not want to accept that the world is changing and affecting the way we got used to the things and lifestyle we enjoyed for so long. As long as we keep this attitude others will keep going forward in the world. So some machines replace workers? Other workers will be required to maintain, repair, and program those machines. This required more education, something others in the world are putting more attention to that us.
We are expectin the government to do more and more for us. The American resiliency, inventiveness, and many other traits that characterized our nation are fading away. We are being more and more dependent on others to take care of our needs. I agree with you that as time goes by and we keep this attitude we will become a socialist system that promises every citizen what he wants and at the same time become another Russia type economy, take care.
its one big global market. each country now excells at doing something better,more efficiantly and with greater value for the buyer then others can..
that helps get us world class products at cheaper prices than ever before.
i like german and japanese cars. i buy them for only one reason.they represent the better value to me. i dont buy them because i expect the emperor of japan to order something from my company.
brazil tried an edict. if it wasnt made in brazil it couldnt be used by businesses there.
needless to say ibm and smith and wesson who had plants there packed up and left as they couldnt run their business on the crap brazil offered .
that was done away with as company after company planned to leave.
i remember the memory chip shortage we had in america when we got the idea to stop the dumping of chips here with tariffs.
that worked well. our own computer companies couldnt even crank out machines because of chip shortgages in this country. chip prices sky rocketed.
needless to say that idea ended as fast as it began.
that way we can all go back to the crap detroit used to push on us before foreign competition made them try to shape up.... i remember the days of buying a new car and already planning the day i would take off from work to bring it back and have all the defects fixed because with no world class products as competition nothing got better.. detroit held us captive. trade restrictions only hurt the consumers.
if products dont offer the better value to us we dont buy them regardless of where they come from so artificially trying to force us to take less than world class goods and the best of breed doesnt do any of us any good.
the days of forcing us to take products that are either over priced or less than the best the world can offer went away forever.
Last edited by mathjak107; 06-27-2011 at 04:09 AM..
what is going away forever is a prosperous america.
now america is stuck with a government that destroys perfectly good used cars in an attempt to force buying of more expensive vehicles-whether from overseas or here.
i wouldn't be surprised if they started taking down housing to force housing prices up......
the less prosperous your country is, the less choices you have as citizens.
different issues. the clunker program had nothing to do with foreign goods. the 8,000 buck home rebate was a failure too but that had nothing to do with it either.
america needs to develop what its skill set is and we offer alot the world doesnt.
when they had to get those miners out of the shaft in chile and needed bits designed they went to good old pittsburg . we designed those bits that actually worked and got them out.
america has become the thinkers,the inventors and the best at certain fields. that is what we have to cultivate and grow.
chasing the ghosts of the past when we were manufacturers and the world wasnt isnt the answer
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