Is slump 'new normal'?

WEALTH: The net ownership of material possessions and productive resources. In other words, the difference between physical and financial assets that you own and the liabilities that you owe. Wealth includes all of the tangible consumer stuff that you possess, like cars, houses, clothes, jewelry, etc.; any financial assets, like stocks, bonds, bank accounts, that you lay claim to; and your ownership of resources, including labor, capital, and natural resources. Of course, you must deduct any debts you owe.
VALUE ADDED: The increase in the value of a good at each stage of the production process. The value that's being increased is specifically the ability of a good to satisfy wants and needs either directly as a consumption good or indirectly as a capital good. A good that provides greater satisfaction has greater value. In essence, the whole purpose of production is to transform raw materials and natural resources that have relatively little value into goods and services that have greater value.
SERVICE: An activity that provides direct satisfaction of wants and needs without the production of a tangible product or good. Examples include information, entertainment, and education. This term good should be contrasted with the term good, which involves the satisfaction of wants and needs with tangible items. You're likely to see the plural combination of these two into a single phrase, "goods and services," to indicate the wide assortment of economic production from the economy's scarce resources.

Wealth is created only by engaging in value-added activities. By the same token, Service sector activities do not create wealth, they merely transfer, redistribute and eventually dissipate wealth as consumption. Thus, as value-added activities move offshore and the U.S. labor force shifts to the Service Sector, wealth is dissipated, not created. And the U.S. standard of living declines as a result.

So Bangladesh is in a better position than Singapore?

So Bangladesh is in a better position than Singapore?

With greater natural resources, including arable land, Bengladesh certainly has the long term potential to be better off than Singapore.

Bangladesh is hampered by inefficient, state operated enterprises in the industrial sector, limiting industrial production to 18% of GDP (compared to Singapore's 30%). Additionally, monsoons/flooding generate periodic setbacks to the agricultural sector. Long term infrastructure development to ameliorate the devastating effects of these floods would do much to improve Bangladesh's overall economic condition.

But this time, the sluggishness is expected to linger at least through next year, a new forecast warns, stifling the type of growth that once defined this region.

Look at it this way. The economy is like the male sex organ, Sometimes it's down, sometimes it's up and at other times it's in between. One thing certain though which is that it won't be up all the time ;-)

"Wealth is created only by engaging in value-added activities. By the same token, Service sector activities do not create wealth, they merely transfer, redistribute and eventually dissipate wealth as consumption. Thus, as value-added activities move offshore and the U.S. labor force shifts to the Service Sector, wealth is dissipated, not created. And the U.S. standard of living declines as a result."

Unless, however, services provided by onshore entities (US companies) to off-shore ones (overseas companies and people) repatriate wealth (money) and onshore entities profit from those value-added activities that have moved offshore.

"By the same token, Service sector activities do not create wealth, they merely transfer, redistribute and eventually dissipate wealth as consumption."

Shipping/transportation of goods is a service, and adds value.

Shipping/transportation of goods is a service, and adds value. 8 posted on 9/8/02 6:43 PM Pacific by Tauzero

For that matter, what about software which increases the production of widgets from 8 widgets a minute to 10 widgets a minute?

It's not really a "tangible product or good" (it's just binary code, no?), but it's certainly value-added.

Here's an example of a city and region that was promised huge benefits from NAFTA (not to mention there's a lot of immigration which we're told somehow benefits the economy): Summit to look at education, poverty

Gary Scharrer
Austin Bureau

Statewide political candidates will hear a blunt message in Austin today from thousands of community activists worried that Texas is veering toward a deteriorating society because of low education achievement and the poverty it produces.

That's why they want candidates to discuss issues affecting education, job training, living wages, health care, immigration and water at the Industrial Areas Foundation convention, which is expected to draw 10,000 delegates.

"This will be an economic summit for working families," said Betty Lucero, a leader in the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, which will send at least 550 members.

Levels of education and income in El Paso have been declining for at least 30 years. In 1960, the average El Paso family income was higher than the state average and close to the national average. In 2000, El Paso's average family income of $33,410 was far below both the national average of $50,046 and the state average of $45,861, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Thirty years ago, the 11.4 percent of El Pasoans with a college education topped the national figure, 10.7 percent. Today, nationwide 24.4 percent of people have a college education, while El Paso lags behind at 16.6 percent. That's what the national average was 20 years ago.

Hispanics, African-Americans and other minorities are expected to make up the majority of the Texas population in about three years. It's a population makeup that is less likely to become college-educated, resulting in lower incomes.

"We think that El Paso is already becoming the poster child for Texas," Lucero said. Today's convention "is about changing all of that and having politicians listen to us and seeing what it is that they're going to do."

EPISO leaders and other delegates from their sister organizations want elected officials to pledge support for local option legislation allowing school districts to pay living wages on construction projects. They have pegged a living wage at $10.50 an hour in addition to benefits -- considerably higher than the $5.15 minimum wage.

The prevailing wage along the border is only slightly higher than the minimum wage, which guarantees "a poverty wage," EPISO leader Theodora "Teddy" Trujillo said. A living wage would produce an annual income of about $22,000, which barely keeps a family of four above the federal poverty threshold.

Most of the statewide candidates will attend the convention in the Frank Erwin Center. Republican Gov. Rick Perry will be a notable exception.

Perry cited schedule conflicts, and he also said that IAF leaders know his position on the issues.

"If it's really about the candidates' positions on the issues, they've got that. If it's, 'We're going to make candidates jump and skip' to their tune and be at a particular place at a particular time, then I think that's being disingenuous," Perry said.

Perry knew about the IAF convention one year ago, EPISO leader Eloiso DeAvila said.

"He's mistaking us for other groups in Texas in which he jumps and skips for their endorsements and money," DeAvila said.

The Republicans' U.S. Senate candidate, John Cornyn, initially declined his invitation but later decided to show up.

"We applaud that. That's very good. That means he's taking us seriously," DeAvila said.

Candidates will have three minutes to speak about the group's priority issues, ample time for anyone to clarify any opposition they may have, EPISO leaders said.

The statewide IAF delegates plan to spread the word about the candidates' stands on the IAF issues to 500,000 voters affected by the agenda -- and to deliver that many votes in the Nov. 5 election.

"We hope that the people who go to the convention will get so energized and angry about what's going on," DeAvila said. "In Spanish, we call it 'animo.' ''

The convention delegates will become the principal recruiters of new voters in targeted precincts. EPISO's assignment is to turn out an extra 30,000 voters in El Paso.

"We will tell them who is publicly supporting our agenda ... That's as far as we go," DeAvila said.

But the group won't take credit or blame for election results.

"If a candidate doesn't run a good campaign, we're not responsible for that," Trujillo said.

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20020908-19277.shtml

Texas doesn't PRODUCE poverty though, it IMPORTS it. The taxpayers are paying through the nose for all kinds of schools but what good does it do if third world illiterate immigrants are brought in faster than citizens can be educated.