Posted on 05/17/2006 10:55:50 AM PDT by A. Pole
Maybe......either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract.
True. But who is one of the largest and most-conspicuous of political donors and lobbyists for imports?
So it becomes a synergistic "snow-ball" effect, as the government becomes increasingly co-opted by the foreign interests.
In a pure market/capitalistic society, price is set by supply and demand. If prices rise because supply can't keep pace with demand, then demand will go down and prices will follow and/or we will explore for new sources of oil to increase supply, we will find new sources of energy to supplement oil and natural gas, and/or we will develop new technologises to use energy from all sources more efficiently. None of this will happen until the price of oil rises to the point where pursuing alternatives is economically profitable.
Economics pretty much is that rule.
Of course there's plenty of jobs.
I know more than one guy who has two or three of them.
"The last car I bought was built in Belgium"
What car is made in Belgium?
I would say that's true when all other things are equal.
For example, if an American telephone support worker could get a support job at Indian wages in an Indian cost of living area as easily as an Indian can, then your rule is a good and fair one.
Ever been accused of being cynical? Does Wal-Mart pay better than all those poor mom and pops they put out of business? You bet they do. By shopping at Wal-Mart, 100 million Americans every week are able to make their dollars buy more thereby increasing their standard of living. Many of them probably have a little extra cash leftover, thanks to Wal-Mart, to place into a 529 or an IRA so their kids get a better education and won't have to work at a lower wage job. The horror!
76% of all Wal-Mart's managers have come from the ranks of their hourly employees. Wal-Mart managers are well compensated for the retail industry. Wal-Mart employees are free to shop anywhere they like but why would anyone -- poor, middle class or wealthy -- want to pay more?
It already has.
Canada has enough oil sands to supply the world with oil for the next five hundred years, but at $30 a barrel it is not economically feasible to extract it with the steam technology required.
At $70 per barrel, however, it is quite economically feasible and production is being ramped up even as we whine about forcing people to use alternatives.
John Stoessel has an entire chapter on this in his new book Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity, where he debunks the myth that we are running out of oil.
"The biggest market penetration by Chinese made goods appears in the area of consumer electronics, followed by toys and small tools."
Yep. I see that as well.
I recently bought a Chinese accoustic guitar.
http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/names/blueridge-br-343-%22gospel%22-000-guitar--BR343.htm
It IS a high-quality instrument. All-solid-wood accoustic guitars are generally quite expensive. So, I get a soild-wood accoustic for about half the price of a comparable Martin or such. Prefect for my couch guitar.
Those third world people need to be kept in bare subsistence poverty so that HumanValues people can feel good that they are not being exploited by Big American Capitalists. ThirdWorlders' Harmony-with-Nature lives of famine and poverty should not be exposed to capitalist exploitation that forces them all to get fat and to live so long that they die of heart disease.
Maybe they should have stayed in school or studied harder.
Sure--and they should do it every ten years or so to being a new career all over again.
In engineering, the half-life of many job skills is 5-7 years. If you don't work to re-educate yourself, you will find yourself becoming a dinosaur after 10 years. I suspect many fields are similar - accounting, law, medicine, technology (even more so), and so on.
How does that work? "I'll pay you $5 if you sell product X to me for $100"? How is that different than paying $105?
Think about the PRC selling off organs of dissenters next time you are in malmart buying their cheap junk in a dirty store
To the extent that this is a legitimate concern, it applies to all Chinese products, which are found in far more places than just Walmart.
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