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China has no lawsuits, no strikes, no environmental regulations. Anyone goes on strike is arrested and taken to some reeducation camp. I'm not trying to defend them, but this is what we're up against. In my opinion, we should take Trump's lead on this and cut EPA, cut taxes, cut the lawsuits and liability, and hit China with tariffs for cheating, and then our companies will be free to compete. Whether they do a good job is up to them.
'Cut the lawsuits' doesn't happen because the ability to 'Call Saul' is one of the few things that people on the left and the right both really really like to do. I seriously think that 20% of the economy in Alabama comes from lawsuits over car crashes. So no matter how much people talk up tort reform, it's DOA because all citizens value their right to an Erin Brockovich moment too much. And as long as the lawsuits are there, you could get rid of the EPA entirely and companies would still say the lawsuit climate makes factory production in so many sectors uncompetitive here.
And protectionist trade practices get you Brazil's economy. I do not want to live in Brazil. I did no sign up for that kind of scenario where the cost of keeping manufacturing goods in house creates huge inefficiencies and the whole thing is the economic equivalent of a hog waste lagoon.
Neither of those were viral epidemics. They had different triggers. That’s why I don’t get the foaming at the mouth doom and gloom. Yes we’re getting punched by Iron Mike Tyson the size of a hair follicle. But we’re fighting back. They are already battling this with drugs and people are responding. To the point where these drugs are already being allowed as treatment. Are there mistakes and shortages ? Yup. Panic? Yup. Uncertainty in many sectors? Yup. But this crazed panic and we’re all gonna die attitude is no different than the people who ran out to buy truckloads of toilet paper.
We put the world on pause in some areas. When we hit play it’s gonna start back up.
This will not cause a depression, it will cause a technical recession. That is to say, the economic statistics will look recessionary.
But the difference of this situation is important. Depressions and recessions are caused by widely practiced bad economic practices that have been embedded and intertwined into the system, and often when the depression or recession hits, nobody even knows for sure what those practices all were.
In this case, the problem is not the economic system itself (although weak portions of the economic system are going to wither away--mostly in the service sector), but a known external factor. The economy doesn't have to be diagnosed and repaired, it just has to be restarted.
As an analogy, it's like the difference between having millions of cars conking out from some unknown common electrical subcontractor manufacturing defect compared to having to stop at a train crossing for a ten-mile-long train. Now, some drivers' cars are going to overheat while stopped for the train, but for the most part, when the safety arms go up, most people are going to get started and continue on their way.
OTOH, if cars are conking out from some unknown common electrical subcontractor manufacturing defect, that's going to take diagnosis, recalls, repairs, and much more consternation.
Depression, recession, it really doesn’t matter at this point right now what you call it. Nothing of this magnitude has ever happened before in US history. There will be thesis’s written and the worlds smartest economists will be measuring for years to come the dynamics and consequences this brought to the world both to society and economically.
The economy like a perfectly spinning top is slowly winding down and like a top that begins to lose its momentum it begins to wobble as it slows.
Depressions and recessions produce layoffs, business closings, and many other attributes.
This virus is shutting down the country and the US economy in ways we have never seen and if you really step out of the box and take a good look around you will realize all Americans are affected in some way.
Over two million fly in the US each day, we are down to 150k a day, the consequences and trickle down of this for sixty days is unfathomable. Taxi’s, Ubers airline workers, etc. MGM and Disney are going to wind up shutting down for close to sixty days, not seeing reduced travelers but closed. Junior lawyers, paralegals are getting laid off due to courts closing. These are just a few examples of the thousands of industries and small businesses that are affected. It is endless!
We are seeing close to 10 million Americans losing their jobs. Most of these weren’t gradual acknowledgement that the economy was getting worse as in the past but now it’s lights out we are closed, doors locked indefinitely!
We will eventually recover economically but not everyone’s going back to work right away. Travel, tourism, automakers, etc. are going to reopen their doors but the rate at which Americans return to spending is going to to determine how quickly we can go back to the pre virus unemployment numbers if we can even ever get there. That’s another by product of this virus, my insurance company, tax office, bank and even auto parts stores have nudged the American public to drive through, pickup and online servicing, showing it can be done and works which reduces bottom line (live workers).
My three cents. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy.
Email every company whose products you buy. I own a lot of Black & Decker tools & appliances, and I recently emailed them to "kindly build more of your stuff in the U.S. as you used to". I have a 30-year-old B&D drill that's better than the new crap made in China.
As for iPhones -- all of them are made at a giant Foxconn factory in China (owned by a Taiwan guy). Apple's tried moving some manufacturing to the U.S., for example an LCD factory in Arizona, and they still assemble iMac's in Texas. But these plants are slow, inefficient, and expensive compared to China's. It's just a basic fact of life that American factories can't compete.
China has no lawsuits, no strikes, no environmental regulations. Anyone goes on strike is arrested and taken to some reeducation camp. I'm not trying to defend them, but this is what we're up against. In my opinion, we should take Trump's lead on this and cut EPA, cut taxes, cut the lawsuits and liability, and hit China with tariffs for cheating, and then our companies will be free to compete. Whether they do a good job is up to them.
LOL, what most of you don’t understand we are in a global economy unless you are willing to work for the same pay and working conditions as a third world country, learn to live with it. What makes you think you deserve more than the worker in China or India that can out produce you? You are very lucky to be born here, enjoy the benefits.
LOL, what most of you don’t understand we are in a global economy unless you are willing to work for the same pay and working conditions as a third world country, learn to live with it. What makes you think you deserve more than the worker in China or India that can out produce you? You are very lucky to be born here, enjoy the benefits.
It's not just pay/working conditions. It's the tax structure and regulations that kill businesses. Manufacturers say the wage component is less than 5% of overhead on average (obviously more for very labor intensive products such as hand-stitched clothes, less for automated products like robotic assembly lines that just have a few technicians overseeing.
It's not just pay/working conditions. It's the tax structure and regulations that kill businesses. Manufacturers say the wage component is less than 5% of overhead on average (obviously more for very labor intensive products such as hand-stitched clothes, less for automated products like robotic assembly lines that just have a few technicians overseeing.
Taxes are as low as they have ever been, and l like to breath clean air and drink clean water as most people that I know. Are you willing to give up your benefits such as vacation, health insurance, sick pay, or 401K and in some cases retirement? I’m for more robotics but it also means fewer jobs. I’m a capitalist, what I witness now is that even the alt right-wing sounds more like whining baby's wanting handouts and protection.
Location: Unlike most on CD, I'm not afraid to give my location: Milwaukee, WI.
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Originally Posted by beachmouse
Someone I love dearly is in the ICU with this right now. The terms of service of this site prevent me from saying how I really feel about people with this attitude at this point.
And just because you have someone you love in ICU does not makes the case that the country should shut down, the economy and markets wrecked, and young people put in a precarious position vis-a-vis jobs and security, possibly for years.
Thousands of loved people die every day from one thing or another. Babies, old people, and everyone in-between. Damn, put things in perspective.
And just because you have someone you love in ICU does not makes the case that the country should shut down, the economy and markets wrecked, and young people put in a precarious position vis-a-vis jobs and security, possibly for years.
Thousands of loved people die every day from one thing or another. Babies, old people, and everyone in-between. Damn, put things in perspective.
So the answer is to let the young people be filthy filthy disease vectors and kill a not only grandma but also their sedentary peers that vape too much?
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