Posted on 02/18/2004 5:12:57 AM PST by beaureguard
Jobs .. and the economy. Those seem to be the issues that are driving many, if not most, of those who are supporting the Kerry candidacy.
First of all ... I'm going to repeat this simply because it makes the whiners so unbelievably angry. Listen up. They're not your jobs! The jobs belong to the employers .. not to you! You have job skills and, presumably, a willingness to work. Your task in a free economy is to get out there and find some employer with a job who needs your skills ... and strike a deal.
If you do not have the particular set of job skills that an employer needs, of if you have priced your labor out of the marketplace, guess what? It's not the employer's fault. The fault lies with you. Either develop a new set of job skills that are actually in demand, or adjust your pricing. The employer knows what he's looking for you. If you're not it .. it's your problem, not his.
Now ... you say you're going to vote for a Democrat this year because of jobs? You mean to tell me that you're going to vote against George Bush this year because you don't have a set of job skills that are in demand in our free marketplace? Yeah .. that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Tell me. Just what do you want the president to do? You information technology people out there .. just what are you demanding? Do you want companies to stop outsourcing IT jobs to India? OK ... tell me how to do that. These companies aren't shipping parts overseas and completed products back. All they do is ship information overseas by phone lines or the Internet. Then that information is modified and shipped back the same way. What do you want the government .. the president to do? Do you want some federal law that prohibits companies from transmitting information overseas by the Internet, having that information transformed or modified, and then shipped back? And tell me just how do you enforce that law? Does that law then apply to you also if you seek information from a company that is located overseas, thus depriving a domestic company of your business?
Ditto for manufacturing. I've already told you the story about the California company that makes computer mouses. (computer mice?) This company ships the components to China. The mouse is assembled in China and shipped back, then sold for around $40. Why? Because the assembly is cheaper in China than it would be in the US. So, you say you want the president to force this company to have that mouse assembled in the US? Fine .. then the price for the mouse goes up to about $70 a pop and sales drop. As the sales drop the jobs of the people in this country who manufacture the components for that mouse go away. Then the 100 marketing jobs this company supports in California also go away. You see, perhaps you can succeed in forcing this company to assemble these mouses in the US, but there just isn't any way you can force the American consumer to pay 80% more for the "made in America" version.
As Bruce Bartlett says in an article listed in my reading assignments, "No nation has ever gotten rich by forcing its citizens to pay more for domestic goods and services that could have been procured more cheaply abroad."
What we are seeing here is a demonstration of the "government owes me" mentality of far too many Americans. Every time you arrive at a speed bump in your life's journey you start screaming to the government for help. Sure, the speed bump is going to slow you down a bit ... but just keep moving forward and things inevitably pick up speed again. Americans are becoming helpless whiners. The more helpless you are, and the more you whine, the more likely it is you're going to vote for a Democrat. Democrats specialize in stroking the malcontent.
Congratulations, whiners. At a time when America if fighting World War IV, the war against Islamic terrorism ... you're going to vote for a candidate who wants to treat terrorism as a freaking law enforcement problem because you've made some pitiful jobs choices. Pitiful.
I was in business here till 9/11- after that insurance quadroupled and I couldn't afford to stay in business. I have to do something on my own.
Bullshyt there isn't!
In order to produce goods in any quantity, there must be proportionately sufficient available buyers with economic capacity to buy those goods. That means that the laboring force in industries must be paid wages sufficient to buy most of what they produce, or something comparable, in order for those industries to survive. As a practical matter, any industrialized market economy run with poorly paid workers will collapse or stagnate for lack of a market for the goods it produces. Mass production requires mass market requires mass decent wages.Learn something.
The economy (and humans) work based on incentives. Provide the right incentives and things will go the way you want. (Think about the consequences of the incentives of paying teenage girls if they have babies and aren't married.)
None of them got that way by "capitalism".
These economies reflect the lack of legal protection for private property, which means there is no incentive to build wealth, since it can be taken from you without due process. It is a LACK of legal protection FOR CAPITALISTS which creates the polarization of wealth and poverty. In a society where property is sacred, there is no need to redistribute the wealth, since wealth is naturally attracted to the highest rate of return, which means invested in new business.
Sheeeesh. Is this a conservative board, or a Marxist one?
The corporations? The elites? The majority of the people were still working during the depression --- so it won't hurt many of us. Many will be hurt --- maybe corporations most of all. There are worse things than depressions --- economies can collapse from the weight of Socialism --- like the Soviet Union. How much Socialism can we take? Someone has to pay for the living of all the permanent welfare class and unemployed. Plus we've got a million moving in from Mexico --- mostly impoverished and unskilled. Obviously we need to keep those families fed and given free health care.
One of the negatives of capitalism is that it doesnt demand loyalty to the country unless the countrymen stop buying their product. That how we have to get these companies to start employing more Americans.
Which leaves you several choices. Relocate, start your own business or complain.
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