Posted on 01/03/2014 6:43:55 PM PST by SeekAndFind
People who find themselves unemployed today are no more lazy or unworthy than you or I. They've just fallen on hard times — as a lot of people have in recent years, and as more are sure to in the years to come. They don't want to go on unemployment benefits, which in most cases pay much less than nearly any job.
But that doesn't mean it's a good idea to maintain a permanent unemployment benefits regime that goes on for a year or even two.
As the new year began, Congress allowed its extended unemployment benefit program to expire. Depending on what state you're in, tens of thousands of people will probably lose benefits immediately, and many more will see them run out in the next few months. Depending on the state, benefits for the newly unemployed will go back to roughly 26 weeks.
Legislators may revisit the issue, and if they do, they should first look at what happened in North Carolina, a state that cut off extended benefits already and found that it doesn't end the world — it just hastens the inevitable.
In July, North Carolina became the first state to end extended unemployment benefits altogether. As John Hood notes in the Carolina Journal, the number of employed in the state jumped by 39,000 between July 1 and Nov. 30, after standing still for the entire first half of the year. The state's unemployment rate had taken more than two years to come down by 1.5 points to where it was in June (8.8 percent). Between July 1 and Nov. 30, it declined by roughly that amount (to 7.4 percent). During that same period, about 26 percent fewer workers were dropping out of the workforce each month than had been previously.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
RE: I did so. In the next post.
Well, where is it in this thread?
(waiting...)
Ok here is a longer post I made on another thread. This is my proposal:
-
America needs import tariffs. We have exported far, far too much “American” industry to China.
This is a huge problem, because China has five times our population, and an average wage a fraction of our own.
America needs to bring back true American industry. How to do this?
I say, we need import tariffs.
After thinking long and hard on this subject however, the only way I can think of to introduce import tariffs such that they don’t become a tool of Democrats, is a universal import tariff on EVERYTHING imported to America.
Oil. Food. Manufactured goods. All of it.
One. Universal. Flat charge on everything imported.
We however need to get started. America is in danger.
Don’t allow China to become stronger than America. (which is happening right now)
America has never, ever faced a competitor in the globe of China’s potential power. A billion people, all of whom will work (quite hard)
That will be the end. Period.
I like China. Quite a bit in fact.
But China is a very real, increasingly immediate threat to America.
I like China.
But I support America first.
Ok, so you’re flirting with protectionism. In my mind, the idea of tariffs sound simple, but the end result is not really as beneficial was one might think.
Tit-for-tat retaliation could ignite a global trade war. If United States and China do it, why shouldn’t everyone else? Limits on tires, auto parts, chicken — or whatever — might inspire similar measures from other countries to prevent diversion of goods into their markets.
Let’s look at what happened when GW Bush actually imposed tariffs on STEEL in the early 2000’s.
The clear beneficiaries of the Bush steel tariffs were steel industry executives, stockholders and the approximately 1,700 steelworker jobs that were saved.
Tariff policy beneficiaries are always visible but its victims are mostly invisible. Politicians love this. The reason is simple. The beneficiaries know for whom to cast their ballots and the victims don’t know whom to blame for their calamity.
According to a study cited by Professor Walter Williams, a study by the Institute for International Economics, saving those 1,700 jobs in the steel industry cost American consumers $800,000 in the form of higher prices for each steelworker job saved. That’s just the monetary side of the picture. According to a study commissioned by the Consuming Industries Trade Action Association, higher steel prices have caused at least 4,500 job losses in no fewer than 16 states - over 19,000 jobs in California, 16,000 in Texas and 10,000 in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. In other words, industries that use steel are forced to pay higher prices and the products they produce become less competitive and they must lay off workers.
The number of jobs in the steel industry is exceeded many times over in industries making steel products, from automobiles to oil rigs, refrigerators, locomotives, etc., etc. Tariffs that save jobs in the steel industry resulted in higher steel prices, which in turn resulted in fewer sales of American steel products around the world and losses of far more jobs than are saved.
After a few years of this steel tariffs... guess what happened? IT WAS LIFTED.
However what we are doing now, is simply selling out America.
America.
Our home nation. The foremost force for good in history.
We need to make America stronger, not weaker. We are currently making our very own nation, weaker - and the nation we are making stronger represents a threat to everything we stand for.
We need to do something.
I say we need one, universal (no exceptions) import tariff.
You don’t seem to agree.
But what we’re doing now eventually represents America’s end.
We need a new plan.
RE: I say we need one, universal (no exceptions) import tariff.
You don’t seem to agree.
______________________________________
How’s that going to help if the cost of employing someone in the USA is over 10 times that of countries like China and even worse, Bangladesh?
How much tariffs do you have to raise to make it attractive for some business to make things in America?
And if you do, how much do you think the cost of a computer, TV or Smart phone would be?
The relative costs of America vs foreign labor are moving together.
I’m just saying we need to open our eyes and start to pay attention to this.
China is massively moving forward.
Almost everything, in every store is now made there. Meaning China is making (oodles) of money, and progressing very fast.
China is a developed country.
It is a nuclear superpower, and now has sent a mission to the moon.
We have to change our view, and also our way of behavior toward China.
At some point they start to become a threat.
I’m not saying they are yet. But their momentum is quite remarkable.
They will be before we are ready to even start considering what that means.
America needs jobs.
Bring back American jobs.
Now.
RE: We have to change our view, and also our way of behavior toward China.
OK, let’s say I agree with the above — HOW IS RAISING TARIFFS ON THEM GOING TO CREATE AMERICAN JOBS?
If as you say, they are fast becoming a developed country, doesn’t it follow that their salaries GO UP? And if it does, doesn;t it follow that their comparative labor advantage goes down? Heck, many of their factories are already moving to Vietnam and Bangladesh, and with the advent of the technology of 3-D printing, even the advantage of cheap manual labor is in danger.
Look at Taiwan for instance, I was there in the late 1970’s for 3 years. It was considered then, the cheap labor capital of the world. Almost everything was made in Taiwan.
Something happened along the way — Their population become more rapidly technology savy ( many coming to the USA for their graduate degrees — MOSTLY IN Science and Engineering ).
By the late 1980’s, their average salaries caught up with Europe such that many of the manufacturing firms had to (guess what) MOVE TO CHINA. Sounds familiar?
Today, Taiwan has moved from manual manufacturing to doing such esoteric stuff as chip design, integrated circuit fabrication ( they are called Silicon Island ), and Smart Phone design.
So, changing one’s behavior about China and other countries should be SMARTLY DONE. Simply slapping a tax on the goods they manufacture isn’t going to achieve the goal of bringing American jobs back.
The problem is RIGHT HERE AT HOME — REGULATORY, LABOR, PENSION AND TAX POLICIES. America’s policies in these regards are MOVING LEFTWARDS.
Who, for instance is going to think of creating jobs in America with Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, the world’s highest corporate taxes, and a tax burden used to pay the fat pensions of our Federal, State and Municipal employees?
Fix that first and let’s talk.
I disagree.
What we have here, is what we have here.
We need jobs in America right now. We have already sent far too many jobs, overseas.
Bring them back now. Sure we have things to fix at home, but de-industrializing what was once the greatest economy in the entire globe is beyond irresponsible.
America needs industry.
Bring it back. Now.
The way to do that, is to make imports more expensive.
Sorry, but that’s that.
We obviously are on completely opposite sides of this issue.
I am fine with that.
I am for re-industrializing America.
You seem to be for making other countries tougher, and America weaker.
I do not support those things.
I just read you last post above... you haven’t actually proposed anything. You’re simply telling me you disagree with me and then repeating what you said.
Well, let me modify what you said — What we have here is what we have here AND IT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE HAVE HERE TODAY THAT’s PREVENTING MORE JOBS FROM BEING CREATED.
Fix what we have here and let’s talk but not until.
Well this is where we disagree.
You see nothing wrong with America running a one-country trade deficit with China of 300 billion dollars in 2014.
I say we have lost control, and need to bring control back to America.
You say more of the same.
I say tariffs.
So we disagree.
The momentum is increasingly on my side if this issue, however.
America cannot sell out, to China.
That cannot happen. So whatever else does, we need to bring back US jobs.
I’m sorry, but America needs jobs.
RE: You see nothing wrong with America running a one-country trade deficit with China of 300 billion dollars in 2014.
OK, explain to me how slapping a large tariff on China is going to suddenly encourage companies to bring back American jobs...
Explain to me why that DID NOT WORK when GW Bush did exatly what you proposed in the early 2000’s.
Start by reading this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tariff
At the risk of alienating you during this fascinating discussion.
I think George W Bush is part of the globalism problem.
That is just me however. :D
RE: You say more of the same.
Nope, I never said that. If any I said that we need to look at our regulatory, pension, tax and labor policies.
That is NOT more of the same. That is a demand for CHANGE.
RE: I think George W Bush is part of the globalism problem.
But he did WHAT YOU PROPOSED. You’re not alienating me, you’re making me wait for an explanation as to why his trying to protect our inefficient steel industry not only did not create jobs, it BACKFIRED.
Yes, It protected the inefficient industry and its jobs, but it ended up doing more harm to the economy AT LARGE - affecting the steel USING industries.
Well all I know is our national trade deficit went up signifcantly, during Bush’s time in office.
I consider Bush an enthusiastic globalist.
Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with globalism, except that is sells American down the river.
I do not believe anything which happened during Bush’s regime really counts, toward validating or invalidating aspects of global commerce.
Bush was a great president in a lot of ways, but in other ways he was a bit of a flop.
I do not consider his national communications to have helped him or the GOP on balance.
I also do not consider what happened with steel during his time in office to be representative of anything other than an experience with failed globalism. I don’t see America currently running a huge successful steel industry.
America was just one generation ago, the undisputed king of global commerce.
Now China is the world’s chief exporter, and that is rapidly growing.
We need to bring back industry right here to America again.
You are saying we should keep working to make America more deserving of business, before bringing home our industry.
I say China is rapidly growing stronger.
And is becoming a bigger concern.
We are on the same side basically, but I think China’s growth at some point, becomes more critical for America to start to focus on, that our “free market”.
I say we have run our current experiment to its logical extreme.
We need to change the rules.
America needs a national industrial base.
America needs industry.
America needs growing tax revenues, and a balanced budget.
All of those things are currently out of reach.
I believe it is time for America to change the way we do business with the globe.
America must compete once again.
RE: We need to bring back industry right here to America again.
Seeesh, such a long response and everything is essentially distilled in that one above line.
You still have not answered the question -— HOW? other than to propose tariffs.... which did not work under Bush ( and did not work under Hoover either ).
tariffs protect inefficient domestic producers from more efficient foreign rivals. Take steel manufacturers. American firms that buy domestic steel are forced to charge consumers more. So retail sales decline, and thousands of jobs are then lost in countless industries that use steel as raw material.
And as American consumers and companies are forced to pay higher prices for products with domestic steel, they have less money to spend on other purchases. That’s billions of dollars in sales lost to other industries, resulting in lower production and even fewer jobs.
Protectionism also provokes retaliation. Not so long ago, representatives of Canadian cities, upset with the “Buy American” rules, voted for “Buy Canadian” policies that could block American companies from bidding on city contracts. The inevitable result will be a decline in trade with our largest trading partner, and a loss of yet more American jobs.
Luckily, we did away with that tack too.
Let’s take another example other than GW Bush’s steel tariffs....
Consider what happened in 1930 when the U.S. raised tariffs on 20,000 foreign goods despite the protests of more than 1,000 economists. Our trading partners fought back, and U.S. exports and imports fell by 70 percent, causing huge job losses here and around the world. In fact, some would argue that it was protectionism that helped to make The Great Depression so “Great.”
I agree with the headline.
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