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Excellent and concise. This is it in a nutshell. It's a kind of corruption that's legal.
Corruption is legal in the US. It reminds me of how lawmakers continuously refer to the NSA spying programs are moral because they're legal, conflating the two. In my city a tax assessor can become a lobbyist and lobby the same department he worked for to get tax appeals on assessments for clients. They call them tax agents here but we know they're lobbyists. All they have to do is wait one full year after public service to become a tax "consultant" to private clients. It's really all a revolving door, even at the local level.
But that is beyond the point, and while I am a left wing true believer, I also don't think a stricter tax increase on the rich is going to solve all problems nor would increased social services, or the liberal pet issue of more education. I think we need fundamental structural change. I mean we saw the roll backs of the Golden Age post WWII and the ascent of neo-liberalism. That wasn't some happenstance occurrence that just came about because the economy was going global, hell the economy was more "global" in 1919 then in 1955. It was a calculated roll back of the gains of the 20th century in order to achieve neo-liberalism. This means you can champion all the reform you want but it can and most assuredly will be rolled back. The problem is systemic, not one of "cronyism", "corporatism" (the new buzzword), or a few bad apples.
The reality is when former Chinese and Indian peasants can do your skill and have the facilities to do so; they have climbed and you have dropped in demand. That is 1/4 of the worlds population in two countries. Its bound to have deep effects as they get more and more competitive.
The reality is when former Chinese and Indian peasants can do your skill
and have the facilities to do so they have climbed and you have dropped in demand.
Only when that "you" is someone who can only do what a Chinese or Indian peasant can.
Quote:
Its bound to have deep effects as they get more and more competitive.
Let's hope so. The better they can do there the fewer that will come here.
(of course doing something about the 14th is still needed)
The key is in making things they can't or making them at a better value so that we can continue to sell
into their market until we can finish moderating our production levels to align with a moderated population level.
Last edited by MrRational; 07-21-2013 at 05:52 PM..
Actually I've heard the problem lies squarely with those employers hiring the labor in India and china.
Supposedly, that labor is as much unskilled as migrant labor in the construction field. A fiend of mine from China said that he doesn't understand, except of course because they're cheap, why employers in engineering and tech firms search out Chinese and Indian college grads. He said that, and this isn't the case for all, the universities in both nations are not as good as American ones. Some of his colleagues graduated with degrees in engineering and have barely the skill of a mechanic when it comes to application. The schools are rife with corruption and filled with students that didn't want to major in that field but felt it was necessary. With so many jobs for so many people many end up working in fields unrelated to the major and many others are so bad at what they were hired to do they drop out of the field.
So the largely hyped fear of Chinese and Indian tech workers is unfounded.
I think it depends what industry you are in. I am in healthcare and have my own business, which was thriving for 16 years. The last five years it has been declining. By the end of this year, I will probably be out of business. Thanks, Obama!
We are in the midst of an economically dominant “Debt Supercycle” – for more background on this, read the article, “What is the Debt Supercycle?.” Here are the 7 phases I am expecting:
Bust (In progress): Debt decreases; asset prices drop (housing, stocks); banks fail; and economic growth slows.
Government spending (in progress in US, Europe, Japan): Public debt increases; an economic “boomlet” due to spending (in progress).
Bond crisis (in progress in Southern Europe): interest rates rise as creditors lose confidence; rising interest rates cause stocks and bonds to fall; inflation begins; government budget crisis as borrowing costs rise.
Currency crisis (soon): governments try to solve crisis by printing money, currencies plummet; interest rates rise; inflation soars.
Austerity (In progress in Europe): governments restructure debts and entitlements, cut spending, raise taxes and head toward balanced budgets.
Normalization (not yet): economic rebuilding and prosperity.
Normalization after austerity does not mean prosperity. It means people have accepted the lower standard of living.
Yup, and they have no choice in doing otherwise.
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