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Yeah, I'd like to know how liberals were in favor of globalization. I seem to recall them complaining. Let's keep in mind that Bill Clinton was not from the liberal wing of the Democrats.
They have more people(about 500 million) and more jobs.
So did they lose millions of jobs to China, North Africa and ME countries??
To me it doesn't seem that way.
Never heard anybody from Europe complaining about this
Maybe because they don't have long borders with 3rd world??
Short answer - yes. I personally have outsourced some of those jobs. Things like PCB and microchip production has almost completely left the EU, Phones too. Remember Industries that don't adapt lose market share (i.e. Nokia building phones in the EU/Europe).
Things that make it harder to outsource:
Govt mandates and (sometimes onerous) rules about how and under what circumstances jobs can be outsourced
Worker councils (and unions) that have to approve any contracted deal
Government incentives to keep jobs in the country and the EU.
Most large industries have a full or partial employee and/or government ownership.
Sometimes the outsourcing happens after the business is sold so that smaller companies can manage the separation process.
Yeah, I'd like to know how liberals were in favor of globalization. I seem to recall them complaining. Let's keep in mind that Bill Clinton was not from the liberal wing of the Democrats.
The whole thing is a Kerry Flipflop.
Neither party has any real interest in the issue. They just blow whatever direction they get blown by the popular sentiment of their base. For a long time, the *******s were against globalization as they were the party of unions and globalization meant less union jobs. At that time the conservitards were for globalization as they were party of big business. That's shifting, a lot, recently with the conservitards and *******s not really being either particularly aligned for or against free trade. Today big business is increasingly having to compete with foreign companies for the lucrative US market. They actually have companies in those countries making stuff that they're selling to us now, whereas 20-30 years ago they were exclusively sweatshops for the big companies to manufacture goods at cheaply. Now that they increasingly are facing actual competition, the conservitards are much less rosey on free trade than they were. Likewise, no that there's less union interest in the issue, the *******s have gotten less anti-free trade than they once were. They're still all in all anti-free trade but much less so than they once were. TPP actually gets some support from the ******* side while it also gets less support than it would have just a few years ago from the conservitard side. It's probably the closest thing we'll see to a bipartisan bill that isn't "terrorists are bad, mm-kay" during Obama's administration.
That is another point I was going to make. Europeans stand up for themselves much more. Americans just roll over and take it.
I am not saying Europe is nirvana, just that there are a lot of things we Americans could learn from Europe.
I would say it's mutual. The lifestyle is better for most people in Europe, the job, career, business advancement opportunities are better for Americans. We do need to stop spending billions to protect Europe as they spend on their infrastructure and social benefits. I'm currently in Spain at a vacation condo I bought on the Mediterranean and I love it here and could see myself staying here if not for family....but it's a much tougher employment challenge here compared to the USA and especially compared to Seattle, close to where I live.
No, absolutely not. That is a complete misunderstanding. The vast majority of manufacturing in Germany is family owned and family operated. Such companies are strongly rooted in the city or region where they were founded. Manufacturing is highly specialised and companies need well trained employees. One major reason is the apprenticeship system in Germany. It has nothing to do with the war.
Germany also don't produce more consumer goods than the U.S. quite the opposite. The U.S. for example has still factories where shirts are sewn or rubber bathing pools are made. Germany has already lost all this kind of consumer goods manufacturing to China, other Asian countries or Eastern Europe.
Dude... what? Germany is one of the biggest outsourcing countries in the world, both for production and services like IT. Volkswagen, Siemens, Bosch, Epcos, Bayer, etc. Germany is everywhere.
Okay, looking at labor force participation rate, United States is higher than Germany, France, Italy, and Europe as a whole:
You should quote a source for your figures. It's quite obviously that your figures are absurd. Just look at the extremely difference between the labor participation rate in the UK and Germany. Or look at the labor participation in Spain vs. Germany. Unemployment in Spain is more than 20%, but they are still able to achieve a similar labor participatoin rate than Germany? Why do you haven't realised this absurdities? You should check the credibility of those figures before posting them.
The U.S. uses a questionable approach (for example they exclude all arrested persons). Are you able to comprehend that there are several different ways to measure labor participation rates?
That the labor participation rate in Germany is lower than in the U.S. is pretty absurd. Working population in Germany is about 43.2m and population is about 81.5m (ratio about 53%). Working population in the U.S. is about 149m, but population is about 320m (ratio about 46.5%).
Figures for 2014, working population among those 20-64 years old:
Yes Europe (Western Europe) has lost many, many manufacturing jobs to poorer countries as well. It's just unfortunately the only way businesses are able to stay afloat, they can't compete with companies who use outsourced labor if it costs 4 times as much to manufacture something in say the UK or Sweden than it does to manufacture it in China.
As someone else mentioned, look at the stuff you buy at IKEA- none of it is made in western Europe- all of it says it is made in places like Poland or even China. They have the same problem we have.
However, the US is still the world's #2 manufacturing country in the world- closely behind China. So even though we have lost a lot, we still have a huge manufacturing base here- it is not all "gone".
Quite a lot of the Ikea furnitures, they sold here in Germany, are made in Germany and Italy. The majority of Ikea furniture they sell here are made in Eastern Europe. Trinkets and accessories are mostly made in China, but normally not the furnitures.
It's almost impossible to compare the "amount" of manufacturing to other countries. They normally compare the $ value, but they are unable to compare the volume and the quality of produced products.
I wouldn't call the manufacturing base in the U.S. huge, but it's by far not as bad as many people claim.
Manufacturing starts with designers and engineers making a desirable product that people want to buy...Germany has been fantastic in this regard. Look at their car manufacturers Daimler, BMW, VW, Porsche....people want these cars. I drive a BMW 7 Series myself because it is a fantastic car. It's also very expensive to buy and maintain....I'm thinking of dropping to an American car next time due to the high price to buy and maintain my Beemer. BMW also outsources items in order to make their prices competitive
Still the biggest factor is productivity of labor together with capital. If you can't make it pencil out, it's not going to work in the long run. Germany has benefitted from the lower Euro as their productivity exceeds most Euro nations but all are using the Euro reducing its value. You take away the Euro, Germany currency would rise like the Mark did, and then they would have trouble in manufacturing unless they outsource.
The USA was on a significant upswing in manufacturing while the US dollar was lower but the recent uptick in the Dollar is hammering US manufacturing jobs.
BTW, doesn't seem like there's any sympathy for the poor laborers in China, Indonesia, etc. on this board.
I understand where you're coming from, but it should be noted that while BMW, VW, Mercedes, etc, manufacture cars in Germany, they also make them here, and in Mexico, and in South Africa, in Brazil, in Africa, India, China, etc...
People expect their 7 series to be made in Bavaria, just as they expect their Corvette to be made in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Their X3 SUV they'll let slide if it was made in South Carolina.
I believe we could solve a lot of our problems in the USA by instituting a set of countervailing tariffs that would eliminated the price differences between imported and domestic manufactures goods due to wages, employee benefits, environmental considerations, proximity to resources and government subsidy. With these tariffs imported goods would have to compete on quality and availability.
Another thing we could do is stop trying to protect citizens and companies that invest outside of our country. We should never have and should not use our military to protect American petroleum companies that invest in the Middle East or Asia. If the locals take over their investments too damn bad. Business is not without risk and out Military should not be mercenaries for hire. In addition we should leave the Middle East completely and reduce our military spending to reflect the decreased demand.
These measures would increase the rate of return on domestic investments as well as create more manufacturing businesses and jobs in the US. We would have employment for our STEM graduates instead of just offering them Mickey D's. The increased employment and reduced military spending along with the tariffs collected would provide the money to rebuild our domestic infrastructure and create even more jobs.
We should also revise our income tax so it is based on all income from all sources with a deductible set at the 90th percentile. that would provide 90% of the people with more money to spend on more things. This would increase demand and domestic investment to meet those demands. it would also place the burden of governing the country on the 10% that own it.
In essence we need to keep our economic activity and growth at home and stop squandering our resource on being the Cop of the World.
No, absolutely not. That is a complete misunderstanding. The vast majority of manufacturing in Germany is family owned and family operated. Such companies are strongly rooted in the city or region where they were founded. Manufacturing is highly specialised and companies need well trained employees. One major reason is the apprenticeship system in Germany. It has nothing to do with the war.
Germany also don't produce more consumer goods than the U.S. quite the opposite. The U.S. for example has still factories where shirts are sewn or rubber bathing pools are made. Germany has already lost all this kind of consumer goods manufacturing to China, other Asian countries or Eastern Europe.
Lukas are you from Germany??
And in which field are you working??
You know a lot about economy.
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