Replies

Let's start by realizing that by converting engineers to cashiers, we're depleting the tax base of this nation. So where is the money going to come from for some near-future big price-tag items, like social security for the baby boomers? Look in the mirror, pal. Yes, YOUR taxes and withholdings will go up as a result of diminished wages. So much for the comfort of sitting back and saying, "Well, it sucks being you".

And how many engineers went to public universities, or had student loans, again partially funded by taxpayers? Heck, you didn't need to send them to college, just teach them how to use a cash register! What a waste of public tax dollars.

This nation didn't get to the top by producing legions of ditch-diggers, nor will it stay on top if that's what we regress to.

Let's also look at the constraints placed on American manufacturers operating in the good 'old USA. Does your manufacturing process involve chemicals, noise from equipment, or otherwise less-than-pleasant operating conditions? Whoa! You'll have a legion of gov't agencies up your ass with track shoes. The place I work at uses small amounts of isopropyl alcohol for some processes. You'd think we were generating nuclear waste, the way the company has to deal with it. Meanwhile, plants and India and China dump huge amounts of raw waste containing heavy metals and other deadly contaminants into the nearest storm grating or river.

Do I need to go into gov't regs covering everything from the number of toilets, to handicap access? Nothing like setting up shop in an older building to try and save some green on floorspace, only to find out you have to widen most of the doorways and install elevators.

There simply is no "free trade" between the US and China, or India. Its all one sided, being led by globalist socialists bent on the Marxist dream of redistribution of the wealth, while keeping a healthy portion for themselves, and weakening the US economy to the point that we as a nation will become irrelevent.

Its a shame to see so many 'conservatives' following the Pied Piper. I'll be damned if I ever sell myself out, or this nation, for a few bucks. If that's what a conservative is all about, I'll call myself a patriot instead.

If we are truly converting engineers to cashiers, as you claim (and others have been claiming for years), then that substitution would show-up in real wage figures. That debate is far from settled, although protectionists accept "downward mobility" as an article of faith.

Furthermore, the solution for excessive governmental regulation is not more governmental regulation, just as it is counter-productive to argue "there's no such thing as free trade, so we must make it as unfree as possible."

Belief in efficient markets is not "selling-out," even though it comes with the understanding that the market will choose winners and losers. Finally, belief that the government can do better at choosing winners than the market can is downright dangerous, and the fundamental basis of many failed economic experiments.