Posted on 09/18/2005 9:19:51 AM PDT by Willie Green
A factor you are not comprehending is that people will not pay $500 for a DVD player that used to cost $50.
Fact it. The US cannot afford many products if businesses are forced to pay UAW wages for jobs that require the skill of any Burger King worker.
I'll give it a look.
You may be wrong, 1rudeboy? You are ridiculously wrong. England was free trade all the way since the end of the Corn Laws.
And obviously the decline of blue collar living standards since 1980 has everything in the world to do with the deindustrialization of America because of free trade. As superiorslots so wisely saw the symptoms of moral collapse (crystal meth, the profusion of "gentlemen's clubs") come from economic decline, just as heroin skyrocketed among urban blacks as the light industrial jobs they did were exported in the 60's.
I can't speak for England, but shouldn't you be able to show the decline in "blue collar living standards" here in the U.S., especially if the decline is as dramatic as you claim?
later read
Just because the family may no longer be directly involved doesn't mean that long-time vendor/supplier relationships don't still exist. Heck even the Maytag Appliance company timeline states: "1941-45 Maytag discontinued washer manufacturing and made parts for military aircraft."
So how do YOU know that Maytag appliance isn't still supplying components to Maytag Aircraft and Mercury Air Group???
Neither do I, but there's a consensus on this thread that uses "traitor" to describe anyone who wants lower import taxes. Maybe those guys are old fashioned Tories that didn't want the colonies fighting King George's import taxes. The Brits used hang as traitor anyone who spoke out against import taxes. Perhaps neutrino, superiorslots, and Willie Green really are more 'conservative' then we are after all.
Easily. You assert it as fact.
You denied any relationship whatsoever.
I proved that a relationship DOES exist.
We're deep within the entangled interdependency of our industrial infrastructure.
Exotic high-tech industries can only exist at the pinnacle, they are the icing on the cake.
But if you constantly demonize and outsource the more "mudane" and so-called "buggywhip" industries, the whole house of cards collapses. That's what you really want, isn't it??? You can't stand America's industrial prowess, so you advocate "free" trade policies that will undermine the very foundation of our technological superiority.
". . . there is no relation between Maytag Aircraft and Maytag."
Companies don't abandon close relationships with their vendors simply because the stuffed shirts in the executive suites play musical chairs.
How about a little proof? Wages going down? Link?
People can't afford to buy anything.
How about a little proof? Consumer spending dropping? Link?
Your grandson goes off and forms Green Aircraft. He sells it. More than twenty years later some guy using Google claims that Green Aircraft is related to the company you founded much earlier. C'mon.
Why don't you check? You made the assertion that service jobs have few or no benefits. How many employees does Starbucks have? Is it close to the 140 million Americans that have jobs? Or is it a tiny fraction of 140 million? I'll repeat myself, I work in the service sector and my benefits are great. As long as we're just going to use anecdotes, mine proves that all service sector benefits are great.
Also, Mexican workers have really lowered the salaries in many of these industries-double edged sword-immigration and free trade.
I agree, we need to close the border and send the illegals back.
That's known as Willie logic. Cheap foreign steel will drive expensive US steel out of business. Foreigners will then raise prices. So to avoid higher priced foreign steel in the future we need to make all steel more expensive, NOW!!!
Willie logic!!
My sin was to take a definition of "capitalism" out of a dictionary. That's wrong because "capitalism" is not a term that needs a definition, it's a concept that needs an understanding. My Econ 1A prof used to describe communism as "state capitalism" because the capitalist market mechanisms of supply and demand were being used to allocate resources, it was just that the state (and not the individual) was setting the prices.
Just like the protectionists that want the state to control prices with import taxes in order to decide who gets what.
It tells me consumers now have more choices.
And since Green Appliance happens to make aircraft components, guess who's going to be one of my preferred vendors...
Yep, that's right! Try to keep it "all in the family".... one hand washes the other...
And after twenty years or so, the relationship becomes deeply rooted in the corporate culture, whether I remain at the helm or not.
All the peon salesman/buyers/engineers have been thoroughly indoctrinated in the relationship.
Oh, it may eventually fade with time, but generally the more senior employees will continue to train the newbies before they retire. It's called "networking". Probably still going on at Maytag Appliance and Maytag Aircraft. Perhaps not as much as in "the good old days" but I bet it's still there. It's kind of like dandelions... once established, it's darn near impossible to get rid of!!!
It tells me consumers now have more choices.
Frankly, that made no rational sense whatsoever. If the car loan has to be stretched because the consumer can no longer afford to buy a new car in 3 years, and the price of the car is the same adjusted for inflation, obviously the buying power of the purchaser has dropped considerable from 1970.
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