Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper
Originally posted by: JS80
It worked. All those food items that had been imported will now be sourced locally, and the 90 employees will keep their jobs. Win win.
Must have the Obama econ team consulting them.
Save 90 jobs that should be eliminated at the cost of 200.
Must have the Obama econ team consulting them.
If the U.S. trade deficit averages about $500 billion/year, by reducing the deficit to zero or by just eliminating international trade, the U.S. might add $500 billion/year to its economy. $500 billion/year = 10 million $50,000/year jobs. We could open up even more jobs by deporting illegal aliens and by ending the H-1B and L-1 visa programs.
Of course, free market dogmatists will continue to try to convince Americans that they can compete with Chinamen who earn fifty cents per hour in the absence of environmental and labor regulations. But wait! Americans can move on to higher-value added jobs like biotechnology, nanotechnology, and computer programming and Next Big Thing technology. <ERRRT!> Those jobs too can be performed in other countries like India for less than what it would cost to employ Americans or they could be performed by imported labor willing to work in the U.S. for less money.
But...but...because of international trade the prices for goods and services are lower than what they would be if Americans produced the good and services!
In reality, it's difficult if not impossible to consume more than you produce. This notion that the foreigners are giving us free value is thus ridiculous. We are paying for all of this not by exchanging American labor in the form of goods and services, but rather by selling them capital assets (real estate, business ownership) and also by issuing government IOUs; we are impoverishing ourselves. Also, the issue is not merely price but overall purchasing power and standard of living. What good is it if shoes cost 25% less when your compensation has decreased by 30%? Also, fixating on the front-end prices completely ignores the very expensive back-end costs in the form of unemployment, an increased need for welfare, increased criminal justice costs, less tax revenue for state and local governments, and increases in other social problems.
Deregulated international trade has done a wonder for the U.S. economy and the American middle class -- it's exporting our prosperity and importing third world poverty one lost middle class job at a time.
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