Just say no to unions

[Genx87]

Drug reimportation is actually a very complex issue and the savings are unclear:

Here's a good NIH overview on it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1936287/

I dont think it is as complex as the govt wants us to believe. They claim they ban the use of US manufactured drugs from being reimported due to safety concerns. And the economists they reference claim the economic benefits may not be as good as believed. But they also claim US manufactured drugs being purchased in Canada for 20-80% less than the cost in the United States. It doesn't take an economist to see the economic benefit for those purchasing that drug.

Anyway my point is we have a protected market that bans a free market on prescription drugs. The result is very high cost of drugs compared to the world.

 

[fskimospy]

Anyway my point is we have a protected market that bans a free market on prescription drugs. The result is very high cost of drugs compared to the world.

I agree that we don't have a free market on drugs, but in my opinion it is due to a lot of other factors as well. Quite a lot of those countries have such low medication costs because their national health systems bargain for low prices, which is only kind of the free market, as those government backed systems wield extreme pricing power. One of the big reasons things are so expensive here is that our national systems aren't allowed to do that.

Regardless, I agree with you that trade protectionism is generally a bad idea. Sure it helps prop up wages for select industries, but it is long term foolish.

 

[michal1980]

I own such a home (built in 1949). One thing I have noticed is that actual QUALITY of the older building is VASTLY superior to modern homes.

Finish material is usually much higher quality. Mine has a beatiful patina now.

Have lots of interesting features that are rarely seen anymore like whole-house fans and pier and beam foundations

Much more character and do not have the cookie cutter feel that the new homes have.

Usually smaller and cosier. McMansions actually degrade quality of life IMHO.

Come on over to my house Bober, I will grill you a politcally correct meal and you can marvel at how the unwashed masses live. Not all of us live in McMansions like yourself. We are none the worse off for it!!

there are somethings better built on older homes, but there are just as many cookie cutter houses built 50 years ago as today.

There are some things that are built in far better today then decades ago, ie insulation, waterproofing, etc.

 

[BoberFett]

I own such a home (built in 1949). One thing I have noticed is that actual QUALITY of the older building is VASTLY superior to modern homes.

Finish material is usually much higher quality. Mine has a beatiful patina now.

Have lots of interesting features that are rarely seen anymore like whole-house fans and pier and beam foundations

Much more character and do not have the cookie cutter feel that the new homes have.

Usually smaller and cosier. McMansions actually degrade quality of life IMHO.

Come on over to my house Bober, I will grill you a politcally correct meal and you can marvel at how the unwashed masses live. Not all of us live in McMansions like yourself. We are none the worse off for it!!

I owned a 1920s home for years. If you believe everything was higher quality, you're deluded. Shredded newspaper insulation. Poor fitting, leaky windows and doors. Uneven studs. Lathe and plaster is a pain to repair or make modifications. Character and coziness is not quantifiable. Besides, fact is everyone wants those fancy new homes, which is why they're being built that way. If people wanted small, cozy homes, builders would oblige.

Don't worry, I wouldn't set foot in your house. I fear your stupidity is communicable.

 

[werepossum]

That ignores comparative advantage.

How do you figure? Even if the rails cost twice as much, that money stays in our economy.

...whereas everyone not employed in the protected industry was forced to pay higher prices to keep this industry artificially afloat. Screw over millions of consumers to keep thousands of people in a job which pays arbitrarily high. Brilliant.

Everybody made better money though. Manufacturing made a lot of good jobs, but it also removed a lot of people from the labor market, driving service sector wages up as well.

Have you ever been in an old house? Bedrooms were tiny. Closets were 4 sqft because people owned a couple sets of clothes. Single car garages because families only had one car. There was one small family/living room. Kitchens were small, with barely enough room for two people to help prepare a meal.

Now we all have massive bedroom suites, with huge master bathrooms and gigantic walk in closets to hold hundreds of outfits. Three car garages are the norm because there are at least two cars and probably a couple toys like motorcycles, campers or snowmobiles. Now we have homes with a living room, family room, and maybe a separate theater room, all filled with expensive furniture and gadgets of all kinds. Kitchens are grand affairs with granite countertops as far as the eye can see.

If you want things to be like the good ol' days, then start living like people did back then. You'll find it's very affordable. It's amazing how much "liberals" sound like "conservatives" when they pine for the good ol' days that never really existed.

Pretty much, although my cousins lived in a 100+ year old two story with huge rooms, my ex-sister-in-law lived in a huge old three story with huge rooms, and I've lived with my aunt in two different old houses with large rooms. None of them had much in the way of closets though. But I certainly get your point. Growing up I had maybe three or four decent pairs of jeans, not enough to get through a week without washing a load. Now I have about forty pairs plus a dozen or so dress slacks. (I'm actually the farthest thing from a clothes hound, but I get them for Christmas and birthdays and once you reach critical mass, you don't wear any given pair enough to wear them out.) My own house is pretty modest, 1,700+ square feet including basement, but is still larger than any I lived in prior to moving in with my aunt to attend college.

 

[fskimospy]

How do you figure? Even if the rails cost twice as much, that money stays in our economy.

People in different countries are better at creating some goods than others, much like some people in the US specialize in different goods and services and specialization often creates pretty amazing increases in quality and efficiency. Sure all that money might stay in the economy, but if those rails cost twice as much time and effort to make here as somewhere else that person could have probably been employed in an industry where his work was much more productive.

Say a normal pace for making widget A and widget B is 1 hour. If I'm twice as fast as normal at making widget A and you're twice as fast as normal at making widget B and we both need 10 of each we could both work 10 hours and then trade widgets. If we made them all ourselves we would have to work twice as long. Sure I'm employed for 20 hours instead of 10, but that's not much of a positive.

 

[Matt1970]

I own such a home (built in 1949). One thing I have noticed is that actual QUALITY of the older building is VASTLY superior to modern homes.

Finish material is usually much higher quality. Mine has a beatiful patina now.

Have lots of interesting features that are rarely seen anymore like whole-house fans and pier and beam foundations

Much more character and do not have the cookie cutter feel that the new homes have.

Usually smaller and cosier. McMansions actually degrade quality of life IMHO.

Come on over to my house Bober, I will grill you a politcally correct meal and you can marvel at how the unwashed masses live. Not all of us live in McMansions like yourself. We are none the worse off for it!!

Once again the millionaire thinks he is common folk. BTW, he is not talking about quality of construction. The subdivision I live in was built in the 1940's. Out of the 100 or so houses in my subdivision, there are really only two styles they built. Very much cookie cutter with one common theme in all these houses. Very basic. They are small 2 and 3 bedroom houses with basically the bare essentials. 1 car garage, 1 bathroom and a cozy living room. No great room, no office, and closets barely wider than 3 feet. There were the working class homes and still are. These were built well but after spending many years in the trades, and I still do to supplement my business income, I can tell you that "quality of construction" knows no era or lifestyle. I have seen small cheap houses built 80 years ago and I have seen mansions built less than 20 years ago falling apart due to contractors cutting corners and piss-poor designs.

 

[werepossum]

People in different countries are better at creating some goods than others, much like some people in the US specialize in different goods and services and specialization often creates pretty amazing increases in quality and efficiency. Sure all that money might stay in the economy, but if those rails cost twice as much time and effort to make here as somewhere else that person could have probably been employed in an industry where his work was much more productive.

Say a normal pace for making widget A and widget B is 1 hour. If I'm twice as fast as normal at making widget A and you're twice as fast as normal at making widget B and we both need 10 of each we could both work 10 hours and then trade widgets. If we made them all ourselves we would have to work twice as long. Sure I'm employed for 20 hours instead of 10, but that's not much of a positive.

I'd buy that explanation IF we were able to have a net zero trade balance.

 

[marincounty]

That's awesome, I'm so happy for you. I'm sure the incomes in SanFran where tiny shacks cost $1M is totally comparable to Texas.

Is that why people are starting to protest tech company employees pricing regular people out of their homes?

Sounds like everything is coming up roses out there in Nuttyvale, keep up the good work...

Yeah, any home here is comparable to Texas, not.
People here protest everything, which is healthy, not just taking it in the ass like sheeple in other areas.
Yes things are beautiful here, about 65 degrees out. Still frozen where you are?
Nuttvale? Isn't that where you live, with your Congressperson Michelle Bachmann?

 

[fskimospy]

I'd buy that explanation IF we were able to have a net zero trade balance.

We don't need a net zero trade balance for us to feel the benefits of freer trade. The economics literature pretty conclusively shows that free trade drives GDP growth around the world.

 

[werepossum]

We don't need a net zero trade balance for us to feel the benefits of freer trade. The economics literature pretty conclusively shows that free trade drives GDP growth around the world.

Drives debt growth for us. Yes, we can all afford a lot of stuff and I like stuff just fine, but the stuff typically wears out before we collectively get it paid off. If we had kept our technological secrets squirreled away we'd be better off, but under Clinton we dropped virtually all our technology transfer restrictions. Consequently there is virtually nothing we can make more cheaply than everyone else, and while selling it to each other may drive up GDP, we still hemorrhage money buying the imported stuff before we can sell it to each other.

 

[fskimospy]

Drives debt growth for us. Yes, we can all afford a lot of stuff and I like stuff just fine, but the stuff typically wears out before we collectively get it paid off. If we had kept our technological secrets squirreled away we'd be better off, but under Clinton we dropped virtually all our technology transfer restrictions. Consequently there is virtually nothing we can make more cheaply than everyone else, and while selling it to each other may drive up GDP, we still hemorrhage money buying the imported stuff before we can sell it to each other.

That's really not accurate; the US is one of the world's largest exporters, second only to China. (we exported about $1.5 trillion worth last year). If we aren't making things cheaper or better than other countries then why are they buying so much of it? I remember a famous quote which goes something like "protectionists try to do to you in peace what your enemies try to do to you in war". ie: blockade your ability to import goods.

While the US will probably eventually need to correct our trade imbalance, free trade is still a big net positive for the US and the rest of the world.

 

[Matt1970]

We don't need a net zero trade balance for us to feel the benefits of freer trade. The economics literature pretty conclusively shows that free trade drives GDP growth around the world.

Maybe not zero, but we hit almost $800 Billion in 2007.

 

[fskimospy]

Maybe not zero, but we hit almost $800 Billion in 2007.

It's shrunk by about 40% since then, btw.

 

[BoberFett]

People in different countries are better at creating some goods than others, much like some people in the US specialize in different goods and services and specialization often creates pretty amazing increases in quality and efficiency. Sure all that money might stay in the economy, but if those rails cost twice as much time and effort to make here as somewhere else that person could have probably been employed in an industry where his work was much more productive.

Say a normal pace for making widget A and widget B is 1 hour. If I'm twice as fast as normal at making widget A and you're twice as fast as normal at making widget B and we both need 10 of each we could both work 10 hours and then trade widgets. If we made them all ourselves we would have to work twice as long. Sure I'm employed for 20 hours instead of 10, but that's not much of a positive.

You already know this but for the education of others, you're describing comparative advantage.

And maybe I'm missing something but are you actually making the case for offshoring here?

 

[Matt1970]

It's shrunk by about 40% since then, btw.

That was due to the recession. Exports shrank proportionally. It's right on it's way back up.

 

[BoberFett]

Yeah, any home here is comparable to Texas, not.
People here protest everything, which is healthy, not just taking it in the ass like sheeple in other areas.
Yes things are beautiful here, about 65 degrees out. Still frozen where you are?
Nuttvale? Isn't that where you live, with your Congressperson Michelle Bachmann?

Hmmm, I thought San Franciscans were famous for taking in the ass... :hmm:

It was 75 yesterday, but thanks for asking.

And do you really want to claim Dianne Feinstein is less nutty than Bachmann?

 

[hal2kilo]

Hmmm, I thought San Franciscans were famous for taking in the ass... :hmm:

It was 75 yesterday, but thanks for asking.

And do you really want to claim Dianne Feinstein is less nutty than Bachmann?

No fan of Feinstein due to her 4th ammendment issues, but in the nutty category Michelle wins by a long shot.

 

[Zorba]

I dont think it is as complex as the govt wants us to believe. They claim they ban the use of US manufactured drugs from being reimported due to safety concerns. And the economists they reference claim the economic benefits may not be as good as believed. But they also claim US manufactured drugs being purchased in Canada for 20-80% less than the cost in the United States. It doesn't take an economist to see the economic benefit for those purchasing that drug.

Anyway my point is we have a protected market that bans a free market on prescription drugs. The result is very high cost of drugs compared to the world.

Nothing to do with import tariffs or unions, though. Has to do with a lot of laws that were lobbied for and won by the drug companies.

 

[Zorba]

People in different countries are better at creating some goods than others, much like some people in the US specialize in different goods and services and specialization often creates pretty amazing increases in quality and efficiency. Sure all that money might stay in the economy, but if those rails cost twice as much time and effort to make here as somewhere else that person could have probably been employed in an industry where his work was much more productive.

Say a normal pace for making widget A and widget B is 1 hour. If I'm twice as fast as normal at making widget A and you're twice as fast as normal at making widget B and we both need 10 of each we could both work 10 hours and then trade widgets. If we made them all ourselves we would have to work twice as long. Sure I'm employed for 20 hours instead of 10, but that's not much of a positive.

This argument is used all the time for outsourcing and free trade. It would make sense if instead of doing A that either you aren't good at or isn't high value, you did B which you are good at or higher value than A. Instead we outsource A, and lay everyone off, we don't do B instead. Unless you think our comparative advantage is in manufacturing hamburgers at McDonald's.

 

[TerryMathews]

Do Non-Profit organizations ever Unionize?

Why would the structure of the business impact whether it's employees should collectively bargain?

 

[bshole]

This argument is used all the time for outsourcing and free trade. It would make sense if instead of doing A that either you aren't good at or isn't high value, you did B which you are good at or higher value than A. Instead we outsource A, and lay everyone off, we don't do B instead. Unless you think our comparative advantage is in manufacturing hamburgers at McDonald's.

Imma gonna to listen to Zorba. He knows what he is talking about.

 

[fskimospy]

This argument is used all the time for outsourcing and free trade. It would make sense if instead of doing A that either you aren't good at or isn't high value, you did B which you are good at or higher value than A. Instead we outsource A, and lay everyone off, we don't do B instead. Unless you think our comparative advantage is in manufacturing hamburgers at McDonald's.

How do you explain the $1.5 trillion in US exports? If we don't have an advantage over their products, why are people buying them?

 

[Matt1970]

How do you explain the $1.5 trillion in US exports? If we don't have an advantage over their products, why are people buying them?

That sounds awesome until you consider how much we import.

 

[fskimospy]

That sounds awesome until you consider how much we import.

What does that have to do with the obvious presence of US comparative advantage in certain sectors as evidenced by our exports?