Posted on 04/17/2006 5:46:17 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
it means our society devolves into a tiered structure - and once the tipping point is reached, and enough people either work for government directly, indirectly (healthcare employment for example), or feel they cannot provide for themselves through private sector wages for things like pensions and healthcare - they will elect people who will give those things to them through government.
Paul Craig Roberts is an idiot spinning myths that Neo Isolations Protectionist lap up with no critical thought.
Protectionism doesn't work. It limits mature markets, not protects them. Not one Communist style Autarckcy system has worked.
What we have in Roberts is the mouth piece for people who, based on narrow personal economic views, want to rationalize their rabidly nonsensical Economic views. So they make absolutely ridiculous statements "comparative Advantage fails in the modern age". Utter rot.
We have the best sustained economic growth rates since the 1980s, growing average wages across the board, highest level of new home owners ever and 4.7% Unemployment.
If Paul Craig nonsensical theories were real EVERYTHING would be being done is SE Asia or Central America. It nonsense. Education system, access to capital, low risk, closeness to markets, Rule of Law, Political Stability, Safety etc etc etc. There are thousands of things that give a nation like the USA a comparative advantage. What Roberts and the Protectionist do not ever grasp is cost of labor is but a single issue of thousands businesses struggle with. For example, Logistics costs. The bone head Roberts never bothers to consider how that effects the ability of manufacturers to produce elsewhere. Nope he is a monotone Labor Cost fool. Too bad Capitalism is much more complex an issue then Roberts seems able to grasp. He's an Economic Idiot.
What Paul Craig does is validate the Neo Isolationists dogma. They are on the losing side of Capitalism evolving. They cling to the notion that it is some how SOMEONE else fault for their inability to evolve with the Creative Destruction in Capitalism. Paul Craig Roberts and Company are merely dinosaurs screaming has they wallow in the tar pits of Capitalism. Evolve or die Protectionists.
Outsource the CEO's and you will see it stop.
A good read with some interesting responses.
we create service jobs in this country - and export technology and engineering jobs.
so semiconductors is a "buggywhip" industry, but someone who works at Applebees has a "21st century job"? really?
Roberts sees what is going on and acknowledges it, rather then put his head in the sand.
Funny you should mention cheap slogans when that is ALL you posted.
Sorry but your understanding of Economics seems stuck in the 1930s. Go read about a guy name Hoover. He and a Republican Congress passed the last major protectionist tariff. It was a complete economic disaster.
The "Statists" in question here are people such as yourself, Paul Craig Roberts etc who want to use the Govt to impose their personal economic dogma of extreme xenophobia on the Free Market. Sorry, History proves the Protectionists are on the wrong side of Capitalism.\
Seems the Conservative Principal of LIMITED GOVERMENT doesn't apply to the Economic Dinosaur wing of the movement.
Evolve or die Econmic Dinosaurs.
another myth.
Smoot Hawley did not cause the depression, monetary policy post-crash did. read some Milton Friedman.
yes, "prortectionists" like Reagan - who used import quotas and tariffs to save Harley Davidson, and to force Japanese car makers to build cars for the US market - here in the US.
Protectionism and communism are two different things, where you coming up with that? Besides, few people are calling for outright protectionism and it's a strawman argument to infer it's either that or free trade at all costs.
What you might hear people saying is let's get back to trading primarily with those countries that are on some sort of economic par with the US as we used to. This type of trade with third world countries where it's set in agreements is recent policy, starting in the 1990s.
Are you trying to tell us this country was a failure for 200 years prior to that? I hope not because nobody will believe you.
If a Japanese businessman uses the dollars he earns from exporting products to the US to buy stock in GE, how is any debt created for Americans?
We are selling our means of production and research to finance cheap foreign consumer goods.
Yet we produce and export more now than at any other time in our history.
Individual families are falling further into debt.
Then how has household net worth more than doubled (to an all time record) since 1994?
Paul Craig Roberts is an idiot on foreign affairs and has become unhinged in relation to the Bush administration, but he is quite right on economics
PCR is off his meds on all subjects these days including economics.
Yes, Evolve so the median(and mind you I said median not average) income of US workers continues to stagnate, while cost of living in things we need such as housing, medical, emergy and food continue to increase.
People of your ilk have little understand of economics, that it was not just the Smoot Hawley tariffs that started the depression, that the economy worked well with tariffs, especially after the WWII years, and that the only reason why the consumer in the US has not keeled over yet because they are extrecting equity out of their homes.
Anyways, the "leaders" of the GOP continue to push for "free" trade that is not really free, but bi directional, where US consumers send dollars in exchange for goods with the trade gap getting bigger, than the more and more likely that there will be an liberal Democratic president, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid. Keep that attitude up MnJohnnie, it certainly served you well with the Miers mess.
Also, Reagan in a brilliant move set uip the Plaza accord with Japan, Germany and the UK, where the dollar was devalued by about 20-25% against the Mark and Pound, and about 50% against the Yen, it took a few years, but it worked, and by 95, US industry, even heavy industry was in full recovery as US workers become competitive. These were de facto tariffs, but can we reasonably expect anyone who listens to talk radio for economic knowlege to know this?
Yes, the MSM like it when the public buys into this canard. Fact is, total compensation for workers has been growing because employers are picking up a larger portion of these increases. Americans rely less on wages for total income these days because more than 52% of all Americans are now invested in the stock market which is up from just 25% in 1980. More Americans own real estate that generates income today as well.
Real per-capita consumption has increased at an average annual rate of 2.3% over the past 30 years. Do you really think that just the top 10% of all earners are buying all these goods and services. Consumption is a much better indicator of rising incomes and there is no way we could be consuming like we are unless Americans were earning more.
There is NO rational reason to enslave American Consumers to defective, inefficient overpriced goods just to sooth the xenophobia of the Buchannites. All the nonsense about "sensitive military technology" is pure BS. The Military uses technology LONG beyond when the market does. They have to keep supply lines open for replacement parts on OLD technology. Some how the Protectionists have spun this Dept of the Military into a whole mythology about how we are shipping our Technological edge over seas. NO we are not.
Protectionism works in an INDUSTRIALIZING society like China or India where they have huge internal unmet economic demand. You can subsides you industry and cover the economic costs of Portectionims by the exploitation of the unmet demand in your economy. Protectionist polices are a disaster when ever tried in an mature economy. They simply protect inefficient or failed businesses from competition. All Protectionists do is enslave the consumer to corrupt unions, inefficient management and shoddy goods.
The Protectionists either need learn to live with the realities of Capitalism or admit their is NOTHING at all "Conservative" about their world view. The only difference between the Roberites and the Moveon.org Leftists is what they would use Big Govt to do.
Has anyone told you tariffs raise costs?
We must enact protectionist measures immediately to halt our productivity growth, GDP growth, employment growth and rapidly increasing household wealth! These things are proof that American industry cannot compete without more government protection.
...Free trade lead[s] to [a] globalized labor force (ie a world-wide proletariate)
Can't have too much freedom, no telling what might happen. LOL!
It's called Capitalism. Time for those Freepers who spend all their time ranting about Economics to actually take some basic Econ course. Manufactured data, rationalizations and sloganeering may make the Protectionist feel better about themselves, it does NOT change the facts. There are winners and loser in the Economy. The trick is to evolve with it, not cling to a failed past screaming for someone in Govt to ride to your rescue like the Protectionist demand
You read and cite Milton Friedman?
yeah, semiconductors are the "musket" of the modern economy.
walmart and dennys are the future.
in fact, DoD will (already does) maintain certain parts of the US tech industry as essentially a government funded cottage industry - if they still want to be able to source key weapons system with domestic tech and production.
but believe what you want, you are in another world devoid of reality.
on monetary policy during the 30s.
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