The US Labor Force: One Foot in the Third World

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

Clearly our trade authorities must redouble their efforts to lower trade barriers to trade in entertainment. I have enormous faith in the ability of our entertainment industry to destroy the educational aspsirations of Chinese and Indian youth, just as they have done to our own. Congress should also look into setting up a foundation to export liberalism to these countries. Certainly we know of no greater force to destroy the competitiveness of the industrial sector and undermine education, family values and the rule of law.
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Shhhh.

It'll make it easier for my kids to compete in the future as the liberals disempower their own kids. English as a second language, the crap they have to learn at the college level (Google this name: Ward Churchill). It's like a trojan horse in their midst, that they can't see!
 
We will get back all those outsourced jobs eventually. Soon as those chinese start striking for more pay, the big companies will come back. But its really a double edged sword when you think about it. You want to keep american jobs but you dont want to pay 40 bucks for a t-shirt that right now costs 5 or 6 dollars at walmart or pay 350 dollars for a computer program that costs only 50 today. It will be like japan was some years back how they were able to produce hondas cheaper and sell them to us for cheap...but now look at them...a honda costs as much as any american made car now, plus japan outsourced one of their honda factories to us. (more jobs for us) It also makes them hate us less if the other countries got a little coin in their pocket. We havent seen a japanese suicide bomber in quite a while. Just my 2 cents
 
Quote from dddooo:

Yet retail sales were down today. One store's success means nothing. Besides the article adresses this point - we're spending 600 billion more than we're producing, with refinancing money and houses used as ATMs it may feel "prosperous" for as long as the money lasts.
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retail sales were fine. look at the retail stocks. most very strong today.
 
Quote from peilthetraveler:

You want to keep american jobs but you dont want to pay 40 bucks for a t-shirt that right now costs 5 or 6 dollars at walmart
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BTW, wholesale price of that T-shirt in China is about $0.50
 
Quote from vhehn:

we get the best end of that deal. we send them little green pieces of paper and they send us valuable computers and other consumer goods.
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Oh I see, that's just like when I am using a credit card. They give me computers, food and consumer goods and I let them hold a piece of plastic for 30 seconds. :)
 
Quote from peilthetraveler:

You want to keep american jobs but you dont want to pay 40 bucks for a t-shirt that right now costs 5 or 6 dollars
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What makes you think its $40. Did it cost $40 in the 50s or 60s where there was no chinese or indian labor competition. Did computer software drop in price in the last 5 years? I don't think so.

Labor cost is a small fraction of total cost besides how do you know that it's even passed to the consumer. I see no reason to believe that a t-shirt manufactured in this country would cost more than $7-$9, but don't forget, americans would all (traders excluded) be making more money if we did not have to compete with cheap foreign labor so we'd have no problem to afford it.


BTW good luck waiting until wages in China and India reach american wages, it's not going to happen in our lifetime. More likely the equilibrium will be found at about $5 - $15 hour.
 
Quote from wilburbear:

Shhhh.

It'll make it easier for my kids to compete in the future as the liberals disempower their own kids. English as a second language, the crap they have to learn at the college level (Google this name: Ward Churchill). It's like a trojan horse in their midst, that they can't see!
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outsourcing has little to do with the education levels of foreigners, they don't care if the worker is illiterate or has a PhD.

"competitiveness" is a euphemism for willingness/need to work for 50 cents a day without any labor laws, pensions, social security, health care coverage, workers comp, union backing, OSHA protection, or sexual harassment liability, and with minimal government services.

notice, of course, that despite all this "competitiveness" the US multinationals retain their US incorporation, and the associated legal benefits -- and that the executives benefitting from all this "competitiveness" don't care to actually reside where their workers do, even with the morally bankrupt, liberal-infested US education system. wonder why that is.
 
Quote from Madison:

"competitiveness" is a euphemism for willingness/need to work for 50 cents a day without any labor laws, pensions, social security, health care coverage, workers comp, union backing, OSHA protection, or sexual harassment liability, and with minimal government services.
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or "increased productivity" translation: slave labor
 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...0/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-0012822-0207049

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century


Those events created an environment where products, services, and labor are cheaper. However, the West is now losing its strong-hold on economic dominance. Depending on if viewed from the eyes of a consumer or a producer - that's either good or bad, or a combination of both.

What is more sobering is Friedman's elaboration on Bill Gates' statement, "When I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow. In math and science, our fourth graders are among the top students in the world. By eighth grade, they're in the middle of the pack. By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations. . . . The percentage of a population with a college degree is important, but so are sheer numbers. In 2001, India graduated almost a million more students from college than the United States did. China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S., and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind."

Friedman sounds the alarm with a call for diligence and fortitude - academically, politically, and economically. He sees a dangerous complacency, from Washington down through the public school system. Students are no longer motivated. "In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears -- and that is our problem."
 
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