Quote:
Originally Posted by malamute
And what's more -- they continue to export jobs and import cheap labor. Everything that was done to destroy the middle class is still being done. That's why Obama expanded NAFTA and is promising all great things for anyone who gets here illegally. It's all about ever cheaper labor.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by padcrasher
The GOP has greased the skids to make it more easier to export jobs. They are the ones stopping the IRS from reforming the tax rules to curb this process. Also, the GOP is anti-union. And your GOP corporations love cheap labor.
So you don't know what you are talking about.
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That's rich.
Please, demonstrate to everyone that
you know what you're talking about.
An American at Procter & Gamble makes $22.50/hour (starting wages -- with benefits).
A Romanian worker at Proctor & Gamble's Timisoara facility earns $3.80/hour.
A Filipino worker at the Lever Bros Plant in Manila makes $1.60/hour.
They all use the same packaging/bottling machines made in Germany or Italy, and the machines all run at the same speed. Let's say they package 100 tubes of toothpaste each hour.
In the US one hour is 11 * $22.50 = $247.50
In Romania one hour is 11 * $3.80 = $41.80
In the Philippines one hour is 11 * $1.60 = $17.60
Since you're the least competent economist, I'll break it down for you:
Philippines $17.60 / 100 = $0.17 per tube of toothpaste
Romania $41.80 / 100 = $0.42 per tube "" """"
United States $247.50 / 100 = $2.48 per tube "" """"
So, what you're saying Americans will flock to Wal*Mart to buy the cheapest goods, but the rest of the world will voluntarily pay higher prices for American-made goods?
Really? What kind of fantasy world do you live in?
I'll sit back and laugh while you attempt to explain to everyone on the forum how people in other countries can afford to buy American-made goods. That should be an amusing for everyone, young and old.
You do understand that Americans are not globally competitive, right?
Well, gosh, now you have something new to ponder.
Laughing at the superior intellect....
Mircea
Quote:
Originally Posted by TempesT68
Most everything is because of the GOP.
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No, it was the Democrats. Democrats ran US Foreign Policy for decades, preferring to murder heads-of-State in cold blood rather than split profits 50-50 and help the poor people of the world develop their countries.
Democrat Harry Truman and his Democrat-controlled House & Senate illegally over-threw the Greek government, and then rammed $Billions in military hardware down the throats of the Greek people, even though the Greeks didn't need any military hardware.
Who do you think paid for that? Oh, that's right, you're a Liberal, you think money falls out of the sky. Well, money didn't fall out of the sky and the Greek people paid for it by being taxed to death and having services and benefits cut.
And then when the Greek puppet-dictatorship set up by Truman started to become less right-wing, Democrat LBJ and his Democrat-controlled House & Senate illegally over-threw that government in 1967 and set up the Regime of Colonels as puppet-dictators, and then dumped $Billions more in military hardware down the throats of the Greek people.
Who do you think paid for all of those Phantom F-4s, and Vought A-7 Corsairs, and destroyers and M48 Patton tanks?
Oh, that's right, you're a Liberal. You think money grows on trees. Um, the Greek people paid for that through higher taxes, fewer benefits and less services.
So why don't you ask a really stupid question like, "
Why do Greeks have an entitlement mentality?"
That's because the wonderful Democrats -- the Party of the Common Man -- set up puppet-governments that denied the Greek people freedoms, and then taxed them to death to pay for Greece's military-state.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TempesT68
The offshoring went into insanity mode under W.
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That's because one of the greatest human beings who ever lived, Vladimir Putin set up the Moscow Exchange -- and so for the first time since WWII the Ruble was traded on the world market, and there was nothing the US could do to stop it.
And then a few years later, BRIC started rapidly developing countries -- countries which the US had either brutally repressed, harassed, coerced, threatened or intimated into giving away their wealth to the US.
Even if the Gorebot had been president, nothing would have changed. There is no way you can stop BRIC from developing countries and it is the development of countries that is causing you so much grief.
You cannot compete against developing-States.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TempesT68
Obama and the dems have tried to stop it...
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Yes, by attacking Libya and harassing Syria and Iran.
So much for the anti-war party.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TempesT68
The middle class is being destroyed all in the name of more profits for the elitists.
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Yes, how terrible, the poor widdle Middle Class was so pathetic they couldn't save money for 3 months to pay cash for a 42" Plasma TV, and instead, put the $1,700 TV on their credit card, and then voluntarily gave $1,789 in interest to the "elitists."
You know, because a McMansion without a Plasma TV just isn't a McMansion.
Debunking....
Mircea
Quote:
Originally Posted by padcrasher
Krugman list three reason why the middle class is falling behind and shrinking.
1) Attacks on union power by State legislators.
2) Less progressive taxation.
3) Effects of the Global economy.
The GOP has led the effort to harm workers in the first two categories.
And still these idiots vote them?
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Oh, yes Krugman the Idiot who is almost as clueless as you are.
US Foreign Policy resulted in a glaring difference in wages between Americans and the rest of the world. WW II, the Bretton Woods Agreement, the Petro-Dollar all played a role, too. So did unions, but coercing and intimidating employers to pay above Market wages, which made the wage-gap between the US and the rest of the world even greater.
And now that US power and hegemony is weakening, and BRIC is developing countries, Americans cannot compete globally, due to the wage-gap that their own greed helped create.
And so the answer is raise the wages of Americans even more, so that Americans are even less competitive globally.
Well, gosh, that's just absolutely brilliant.
Maybe you should get a Nobel Prize like Krugman.
Why didn't Krugman list Middle Class Stupidity as one of the causes?
We all know that putting 0% down on a $250,000 McMansion so that you can pay $250,000 for the house and then $318,000 in interest -- to the stinky rich ---- is much more intelligent than putting down 25%--45%, paying only $79,000 in interest, and banking the difference...
...$239,000....
...to create wealth.
I mean, why would anyone in the right mind want to create or have wealth? That's just stupid, and Krugman said so, and Padcrasher agrees.....so it must be true.
Why would any person with half-a-brain save money for 4 months and pay cash for a $1,700 plasma TV, when you can put it on your credit card and enjoy the TV
now? And the $1,789 in interest handed over to the "elite?" You don't need $1,789. That's just chump change, not even worth bothering with.
The Middle Class is the cause of their own suffering.
Prove to me that 40 years ago, people bought cars with no money down and financed them for 72 months....you can't. I guess it never donned on you that those unnecessary car payments represent wealth thrown away.
Embarrassing Krugman....
Mircea
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goodnight
This really goes back 3 decades but the last decade has been the worst for the middle class, the race to the bottom using economies such as China where they have cheap labor and poor working conditions.
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And pray tell, why do they have "cheap" labor?
And who says the labor is "cheap?"
You know, in Tajikstan, the average hourly wage is $1.31/hour.
Did you think that Tajiks were all homeless, or did you think that they lived in card-board boxes?
They live in apartments. So do Romanians who make $2.50/hour. And in addition to living in their apartments, they have cell-phones, and cell-phone service plans and wear nice clothes and shoes, and party at
Strandul Neptun and go on holiday at the Black Sea.
So how pathetic are you that you cannot live on $2.50/hour?
You'd have to be really, really pathetic......or you'd have to be intelligent and understand that there is a perfectly rational, logical, mathematical, economical reason...
....the cost-of-living.
Yes, the cost-of-living...it varies all over the world....and it even varies in the US.
This might come as shock to you, but sometimes $1,200 is the same as $2,300 and sometimes it is the same as $4,000 but sometimes it is the same as $650.
Economically...
Mircea