Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The downtown cores of major US cities are already high-density. Manhattan has a little more than 72,000 people per square mile. Wyoming has a little less than 6.
The purposes of high-speed rail are to offer speed, comfort, reliability, and efficiency in medium-range travel so as to pull people off of the highways and out of the skies.
Republicans have traditionally hated the idea. If Trump were to jump on such a deal with Japan, it would be like Nixon going to China. A Democrat would have been impeached for it.
Because our pay discrepancy is soooooooooooooooo imbalanced. Americans have demonstrated time and time again that they won't work for the paltry sums that overseas workers will accept.
Not "won't work for..." it is more that they cannot work for the paltry sums that overseas workers will accept. In the old country my mother had a maid and a housekeeper on her middle class salary. When she emigrated here that lifestyle went away in a hurry. The American Middle Class has normalized subsistence wages. When your rent is $1,000 a year, you can work for $3/hr. You won't be rich, but...when your rent is $1,000/mo. how in blazes are you supposed to survive on $3/hr.?
The downtown cores of major US cities are already high-density. Manhattan has a little more than 72,000 people per square mile. Wyoming has a little less than 6.
The purposes of high-speed rail are to offer speed, comfort, reliability, and efficiency in medium-range travel so as to pull people off of the highways and out of the skies.
Republicans have traditionally hated the idea. If Trump were to jump on such a deal with Japan, it would be like Nixon going to China. A Democrat would have been impeached for it.
Pub-911, I attempted to rate this post positively, but I was told that I’m required to spread my appreciation around. Anyway, I regret that our nation doesn’t spread our positive consideration for our nation’s entire infrastructure.
I very much appreciate President’s Eisenhower’s federal spendings to upgrade our interstate highway systems.
However, the states leveraged their every penny they could for federally qualified new or extensively remodeling of highways. Spending for upgrading safety devices, water and sewage treatment, and repairs and maintenance for any infrastructure was minimized.
Our existing streets, roads, bridges, public utilities, railroad tracks, were permitted to deteriorate to an extent extremely costlier than the financial support that was denied for those purposes. Among the worst consequences of these policies our major railroad accidents. Due to this policy, we've since then suffered derailments, explosions, fires, crippling deaths, compromising of public health due to lack of safety devices, safety equipment, or simply repair, maintenance and monitoring.
[Flint Michigan’s poisoned water was not due to this policy. The governor and the state’s legislators were simply indifferent to the lives of their constituents. It’s not ignorance or stupidity but rather criminal negligence and indifference. It’s shameful if the governor receives a pension rather than a sentence to a state penitentiary].
Last edited by toosie; 02-08-2017 at 05:05 PM..
Reason: Signature
Not "won't work for..." it is more that they cannot work for the paltry sums that overseas workers will accept. In the old country my mother had a maid and a housekeeper on her middle class salary. When she emigrated here that lifestyle went away in a hurry. The American Middle Class has normalized subsistence wages. When your rent is $1,000 a year, you can work for $3/hr. You won't be rich, but...when your rent is $1,000/mo. how in blazes are you supposed to survive on $3/hr.?
12 roommates. Which is a living situation immigrants here will tolerate.
High paying manufacturing jobs can come back...as robotics techs and such with high skills and degrees. But the walk out/drop out of high school and get a good paying manufacturing job on a line with benefits and a union? That's gone and never coming back.
...High paying manufacturing jobs can come back...as robotics techs and such with high skills and degrees. But the walk out/drop out of high school and get a good paying manufacturing job on a line with benefits and a union? That's gone and never coming back.
Notnamed, I’m a proponent of USA unilaterally adopting the trade policy described within Wikipedia’s “Import Certificates” article. It would increase our GDP and numbers of jobs more than otherwise; (which in turn indirectly boosts wages purchasing powers).
The greatest possible improvements of USA’s social and economic well-being could be achieved by improving our educational systems. Any such improvements would to no less extent improve our economic and social well-being.
Robotics techs and such with high skills and degrees, are certainly desirable. Technological advancement and education have and will always continue to be to their nations’ net benefits.
However, to the extent that other nations similarly improve, we gain no competitive advantage due to technology and to the extent their labor costs are less we remain at an economic disadvantage if we continue to seek “pure free trade”.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,480,204 times
Reputation: 12187
It's complicated but nearly all economists right or left believe free trade benefits all involved. For example what if major tariffs hurt Toyota so much that they close down all their US factories?
The mass of actual economists (there are 18,000 members of the American Economic Association) are not themselves right or left in their work. Bringing any sort of political bias to economics would in fact disqualify one from an honest or reputable practice of the profession. What you have instead is ranges of economists whose work has been either endorsed or attacked (often after distortion) by political hacks. This is a very different thing.
The notion that free trade benefits all parties is meanwhile so widely held because there is no coherent broadly-based argument against it. Babble over local and anecdotal tales simply does not make the grade.
It sounds like Buffett wants to create a financial scheme like carbon-trading where financial firms like his get in as middle-men. These certificates are traded between owners of firms. It doesn't do much for most of the workers of the firms who receive cash for selling their certificates.
Anything that tries to change the balance of trade, such as a border tax or a tax certificate, is going to have its impacts mitigated by the change in currency rates. If we take in less goods from Mexico, their currency will drop since they'll have less dollars held in their reserves.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.