The US Labor Force: One Foot in the Third World

Discussion in 'Economics' started by K.C., Jun 14, 2005.

  1. 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!
     
    #11     Jun 14, 2005
  2. 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
     
    #12     Jun 14, 2005
  3. retail sales were fine. look at the retail stocks. most very strong today.
     
    #13     Jun 14, 2005
  4. taodr

    taodr

    #14     Jun 14, 2005
  5. K.C.

    K.C.

    BTW, wholesale price of that T-shirt in China is about $0.50
     
    #15     Jun 14, 2005
  6. 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. :)
     
    #16     Jun 14, 2005
  7. 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.
     
    #17     Jun 14, 2005
  8. 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.
     
    #18     Jun 14, 2005
  9. or "increased productivity" translation: slave labor
     
    #19     Jun 14, 2005
  10. 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."
     
    #20     Jun 14, 2005