Posted on 03/20/2005 8:11:01 AM PST by A. Pole
Seen this alot, especially in St. Louis. Have been trying to find a new career now that the IT industry fled. The big 3 employers in St. Louis are full of Hindu's and Pakastani's who work for next to nothing.
My new venture is as a Loan Officer and the outlook is not good. I spend 3 hours a day prospecting to Real Estate agents and this will be the next sector to see a dramatic downturn in housing prices. The jobs have been fleeing and the RE prices are about to take a downswing.
It goes to the old analogy - no bucks, no buck rodgers.
America is still the largest economy in the world so it is possible to do some corrections. The simplest would be to reinstate moderate tariffs. Large enough to stop the hemorrhaging but small enough to keep trade going.
Next step would be national debate on the creating intelligent long term national economical policy. We need to figure out what is the best without being blinded by the rigid free market doctrine.
Read my comments again. Maybe you read too quickly. I didn't say or imply living in a capitalist system is bad. I'm very much a contributing part of the system, as has my family for the past 150 years in the United States.However it needs to be monitored and tweaked in it's overall context. I'm more concerned about strategic and defense related matters affected by "free trade". By the way, your sense of humor is lame...and your comment on insight, well, show me some of yours and maybe I'll be impressed.
"So I'm getting sick and tired of these "service" jobs being demeaned by those who believe that we were better off when we were slaving away at some factory job."
I think one of the reasons this doesn't bother me much is that I pretty much have never really seen a factory, other than the one that makes Nissan vehicles over in Jackson, MS. None of my relatives, friends or friend's relatives gave worked in a factory.
Somehow, everybody I know managed to survive, and some of them even thrive, without ever setting foot in a factory or manufacturing anything. There was simply no alternative. I live in the South and it has NEVER had a manufacturing base but somehow, the people here manage to actually earn livings (gasp!) in the service industry, among others.
I, for one, just don't see how we can set record home sales, boast of some of the lowest unemployment in the world and fixate on the material items that we do if outsourcing is killing our economy.
Agreed. Excellent points. Again, business people (I am one) need to also understand they don't operate in a vacuum; their activities also impact a society's freedom and moral character.
American economy cannot and should not be based on 250 millions clones of Mr. Greenspan.
That's right -- that's real free trade as we have production in their countries and we sell in their countries.
I've asked and asked and asked again on thread after thread.
Maybe you can answer.
How come foreigners can outsource to us and do well selling here at the same time that many American corporations say that they must move production off shore and import the goods to remain competitive? IMO that's not real free trade that's "free trade."
I am not trying to be confrontational. I really want to know.
Yes because overseas they dont have to pay AFL-CIO level wages and benefits. US Cars would cost a heck of a lot less if we werent paying for the healthcare of guys who retired off the production line at 45 or 50.
Should we abolish American health care system in order to compete with China or India?
Capitalism is not crippled by greed because capitalism is regulated by the free market. When people are free to buy and sell as they wish on any mutually agreed terms greed gets its come-uppance. There are numerous examples of greedy companies and individuals who are no longer around because the free market (not the government) weeded them out. You say capitalism ignores greed and darwinism but greed is just another factor that darwinism punishes in a free consumer society.
"Economies and civilizations change. Before manufacturing, agriculture was the backbone of our economy."
My feelings, exactly. Adapt and overcome. And Americans have always been good at doing just that.
I do miss my local candlemaker, though. And my horse is still really mad that he's been replaced with an auto-mo-beel. ;)
I'm currently "unemployed" by today's definition (my job was outsourced to Iowa of all places!) but I still have "income" because I can produce things and provide services and goods to others less skilled than myself. 'Tain't Rocket Science.
You mean the 20th century. Prior to World War I, some ninety percent of the US workforce was involved in farming.
I don't "despise" manufacturing. It was the center of the American economy at one time and now that time is passing. There will be other transitions in the future, this isn't the last. As for our population growth, I'd say it's a blessing. Other industrialized countries are facing low, or negative growth rates, and eventual extinction. More people doesn't mean a "burden" on our system, unless you live in socialism. Look, we don't know what exactly the future economy will consist of. But we do know that factory jobs don't cut it any more. There will be new industries and new jobs. The economy will adjust, as it always has in the past.
Exactly. Somehow we are able to afford these huge home prices and buy a car or two to boot. Then cable TV, home computers, video games, books, music, movies, and on and on and on. Shopping malls and restaurants are absolutely mobbed. You just can't build them fast enough. Traffic is a nightmare in every big city because everybody's got the bucks to go out on the town and do things.
Yet some would have us believe that the sky is falling because some "Laverne and Shirley" bottle-capping jobs are going to Mexico or someplace. Give me a break.
Thank you. You provided some insight for a question I asked in #48.
No offense, Budd, but that is the stupidest thing I have read from a long list of stupid things written by those supporting so-called "Free Trade".
NO but I see no reason that when I buy an American made car a large percentage of my payment should be going to pay for the healthcare of people that have been retired for years. Current employees okay but retirees, no way. If they feel generous have them pay for that out of their profits. If they want GM or Ford to pay for their healthcare then they should continue to work there.
We never had Mao-era communist "factories."
These worthless state owned enterprises area being shut down or coverted with western technology and FDI. Tens of millions more "who pretend to work for the state that pretends to pay them for their work" would lose their "jobs" if were not for the Chi-coms' fear of revolution.
IMO it does not make sense to compare our real, privately-owned free market enterprises to communist crap.
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