How did the North prosper despite ultra cheap labor in the south? You say that creep labor in Asia will destroy us, but historically, we’re able to thrive despite it.
Somehow I keep thinking that I have answered this question but for some reason you are not understanding. I'll try again, the north did not use the labor of the south directly, like todays corporations use out sourcing, yes they benefited indirectly with cheap cotton and cheap tobacco but that's about all. The northern states were not slave states and the people of the north would not "out source" to the south. They had a moral objection to slave labor. Remember in pre civil war America they were no corporations, no board of director to hide behind. No stock holders demanding higher returns on investment. In those days the owner of a business was the owner of a business and was held to the same code of conduct that was expected of ordinary citizens. Using slave labor to produce a product for sale in the north was unacceptable, and would get the individual that did it run out of business.
Everyone thinks they have a jewel. India thinks their refined English speaking middle class willing to work for $1000 a month is a jewel. We think our market is a jewel. And as people respecting liberty, we realize that two jewels left to their own, to work and trade in freedom find a way to become much more than just two.
"I want to use tariffs NOT the progressive income tax to fund government so for you and me this is a win/win/win. "
Surely you don’t think there would be income tax reductions proportional to any new tariffs. I’m sure government would use tariffs and the progressive income tax for funding. Oh great, another revenue source. Thanks!
"Using slave labor to produce a product for sale in the north was unacceptable, and would get the individual that did it run out of business. "
As much as I’d like to find a Clean answer like the one you suggest, this does not explain the labor imbalance.
There’s no evidence that business in the North refused to trade with the South. No evidence that widgets produced with cheap Southern labor were refused. Yet there it was, as you say, cheap labor just south of the border for more than half a decade. Not just cotton and tobacco, any crop could be produced by Slaves. Those were just the big money crops. Yet despite farming employing most of the population, cheap Southern labor did not ruin the economy of the North. And because both people were Americans, there were no tariffs. If cheap labor in the South was really dangerous to the North’s economy, the North would have failed. But the North’s economy surpassed that of the South. Why is that?
It’s because humanity is at its most productive when it is educated, cooperative and free. We’re not the strongest species. Horses make much better slaves. They pull a plow with much more endurance than us. India and China have many more people than us. Chinese suffer from fascist oppression, and Indians from a backward ignorant culture.
Both have billions who are willing to climb up a mountain of broken glass for a chance at a better life, for hope. But protectionists here want to deny them that. They deny them that through tariffs, with the objective of achieving some kind of wage equality. As if IBM, or Bell South would open an office in India if they had to pay them $15 per hour like here. Protectionist ensure that there will never be opportunity there.
We have an entrepreneurial culture, efficient utilities, advance cities, effective government, adjacent industry, universal education, rapid transportation and high technology right in the middle of the jewel that you speak of, the American market. We have the greatest advantage in the world, worth much more than some 20% labor rate on the opposite side of the world. Paying a programmer or accountant $1000 a month may be advantageous for some well defined tasks that require lots of people, but the cost of managing them far out way any cost saving when tasks change, relationships are strained, departments are interdependent, people float though positions, and cross training is necessary.
India may take a percent of our high tech, but nowhere near the majority. I read a recent report, by Gartner I think, that said that 10% of IT would be outsourced by the end of the decade. 10%. That’s not a threat. No telling how much more competitive that makes our businesses to those in other nations. Other nations who outsource their repetitive tasks. No telling how much we’ll sell to India. No telling how many barriers they’d put in our way if we prohibited them from doing business with us through high tariffs. But that’s the nature of freedom, liberty, and capitalism. Despite people’s attempts to regulate it, capitalism has a life of its own, and there’s no telling what it will produce.