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.
Would you vote for or against say an 80% tax hike on imported goods?
Vote against. It's not in my interest to pay for for more expensive goods so that unskilled union workers can get paid the equivalent of skilled wages.
american manufacturers would rather off shore. why face a million anti biz rules and a lazy work force when you can manufacture overseas?america has become business hostile. they can only consume and eventually creatures that only consume-- after they consume all ---they begin to devour each other.
Vote against. It's not in my interest to pay for for more expensive goods so that unskilled union workers can get paid the equivalent of skilled wages.
I don't understand that statement, could you clarify? Was that more of a political statement or a gripe against right to work states or what?
Sorry your family isn't participating as many others are. I'm not grasping the information out of thin air and have as much exposure their their culture as do you.
Manufacturing jobs are cheap most places these days. Get into the professional fields and there are a lot of Chinese people making a boatload of money. They are getting wealthy.
Citing Japanese companies in China isn't the way to go. Try comparing to most companies from other countries like Germany, France, England and so on. They are paying very well.
People working at car manufacturing plants aren't known for making big money so citing the lower levels of the pay food chain isn't a true picture of what is going on. Who do you think is buying all the properties in California and elsewhere...for cash? They aren't paying with Chinese currency, they are paying with dollars. It isn't just some of them either, that money was flooding in and still does.
Comparing the professional worker to the manual labor worker presents an artificial picture of what people are earning.
Guangzhou is an industrial city, one of the special economic zones created there.
Instead, compare what the professional workers make in contrast to the manual labor, the difference is amazing. They are buying homes, own rentals and so on. Checked the prices of real estate in China? It isn't foreign investors buying those properties, it is the Chinese and it isn't cheap.
Sure there still exists the sweat shops, they are producing for those who want the lest expensive products. That is everywhere including the USA, take a trip to LA and you can find the same thing.
All of those Chinese people buying properties in California and getting "rich" are as we call the same types here in the US, "the 1%". Those are the rich- every country has rich people, they are not the norm. It just happens that 1% there is a big number due to the very large population, so it seems like a ton of people making that kind of money. The fact is average pay in each of the cities is still quite low by our own standards- so sure there may be some upper crust jobs paying well for locals, but when you take the entire population of each city you still have people earning far less across the spectrum than they do here. After all, that is why those foreign companies set up shop in China for manufacturing and such- because it's cheaper there due to lower labor costs than in the home countries.
And your average professional "office" jobs there do pay better than manufacturing, but still nowhere near what they get for similar jobs here. Housing costs are sky high, higher than many areas of the US, and that is why China is experiencing the beginning of a housing crisis. When most new condos are running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and yet average pay is still less than $1,000 per month in most of those cities, the issue is obvious. People are stretching themselves very thin on mortgages and getting large gifts or loans from parents to help pay for them. This is the reality for the average middle class folks there. Sure there are lots of people making big $$ there living lives of luxury, but those are not the norm- they are the the top percentage, just as those same types are here in the US.
Getting back to the core issue RVT, we should tax China? Then they come visit us with 1 billion soldiers and iphone modified laser beams (sorry that was silly and over the top, but catch my drift?) I think this is the solution, tax imports more and subsidize manufacturing. It's the only possible way I see us getting it done.
It's an awful idea. Tariffs, quotas and other controls just distort markets. It will just make those manufactured goods' prices artificially higher, hurting consumers. Also, remember that some American companies export goods and they would become targets for tariffs in retaliation.
So we offset that the way China does, by lying and artificially inflating our dollar, while subsidizing labor costs to the manufacturing sector?
How about non-profit, learn a trade as you work apprenticeships that pay little or nothing, that people could volunteer for, go work for a couple of months to learn a trade, allow the manufacturer to sell the good they are making at a much more competitive rate?
We give tax breaks to manufacturers now, so why not give those tax breaks to the employees? Subsidize labor instead of income and property tax, or hell, subsidize all three.
Just give our workers a chance at a job, even if it's for less money, and I bet many would sign on... It's better to have a low paying job than no job at all...
I'm at a loss, I'm certainly no expert, it's just a broken part of our system that we let our Government destroy, and I would really love to stop supporting China's amazing wealth growth while our cities sit vacant and crumbling....
I don't understand that statement, could you clarify? Was that more of a political statement or a gripe against right to work states or what?
I would rather pay for cheaply made Chinese goods than American-made goods that are overpriced because of American workers that expect to be paid more than they are worth. Goods that are manufactured in the non-union, right-to-work states will be more expensive than Chinese goods, and the stuff manufactured in the union states will be more expensive still due to the higher wages and lavish benefits the unions extract.
In other words, the US no longer has a comparative advantage in the manufacturing of most goods. Other countries can do it for much less money (which results in lower prices) because of their cheaper labor market. Granted, some of it depends on whether we are talking about cheap chotchkies or more elaborate goods, but GM and Chrysler certainly haven't boosted the American workers' reputation for quality manufacturing.
I would rather pay for cheaply made Chinese goods than American-made goods that are overpriced because of American workers that expect to be paid more than they are worth. Goods that are manufactured in the non-union, right-to-work states will be more expensive than Chinese goods, and the stuff manufactured in the union states will be more expensive still due to the higher wages and lavish benefits the unions extract.
In other words, the US no longer has a comparative advantage in the manufacturing of most goods. Other countries can do it for much less money (which results in lower prices) because of their cheaper labor market. Granted, some of it depends on whether we are talking about cheap chotchkies or more elaborate goods, but GM and Chrysler certainly haven't boosted the American workers' reputation for quality manufacturing.
Agree with your statement, again addressing the problem.... What's a solution?
Everyone who has posted has had the "problem" worked out nicely, wouldn't it be great to brainstorm and find a solution?
There's gotta be a panel somewhere in the US, at a University or somewhere that's trying to fix this.
President Clinton was told very strongly what would happen if he signed NAFTA. Considering he came from a Right to Work State he is very anti Union and would love nothing more to bring U.S.A. wages down to third world country which was his main goal.
Vote against. It's not in my interest to pay for for more expensive goods so that unskilled union workers can get paid the equivalent of skilled wages.
During the GM bailout I saw an interview on the news with a man who drove a small truck around a GM campus delivering parts. Even he admitted it was ridiculous how much money he made - a little over $70,000 a year plus benefits. I have a master's degree in a scientific field and was barely making more than that + benefits myself, after years of higher education in a field with enough demand that I've always been able to find a job in it. I also read once that health care costs alone added over $1300 per vehicle to a GM product, and that was many years ago. Considering that welding robots don't get ill, that's pretty steep.
I don't know what the answers are, but I know they aren't as simple as adding taxes. First, our manufactured products have to have reasonable labor costs behind them. $35 a hour to drive a little parts truck around is too much. I'm all for unions when they protect the health and working conditions of the employees, but when they continually push for higher wages, eventually it can come back to bite them. Witness the downfall of the US steel industry, and the financial precipice California is teetering on due to overly generous state employee retirement and health care costs.
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.
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.
I'm at a loss, I'm certainly no expert, it's just a broken part of our system that we let our Government destroy, and I would really love to stop supporting China's amazing wealth growth while our cities sit vacant and crumbling....
