What should the US do about the job drain?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Joseph
Put all of our CEO in Jail.

Commie!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Now there's an idea. Repealing tax cuts seems the ticket to me. Perfect stimulus to create jobs.

Why not? It worked for Clinton.

[Shi Huangdi]

It's not efficient over the long run to keep Americans working on things that can be done more efficently abroad.

[chequita guevara]

Efficiency is not the be al and end all of human existence.

[Arrian]

Not a goddamned thing.

-Arrian

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

For those of you who want to end the "job drain": You do realise that if companies make products in the US instead of in Asia, you're going to pay a lot more for those products.

That's what I said .

QUIET, you evil capitalist.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Efficiency is not the be al and end all of human existence.

Of course it is silly commie .

[pchang]

Things balance out on their own

Eventually, other nations will catch up to the US standard of living and the US may slip a bit. Then things will even out on their own. Besides, we workers can always move to where the jobs are (at least I speak more than 1 language).

[Cruddy]

Well, what the administration could do is start a war with a much smaller country, thus boosting defense spending and hence defence jobs.

Hang on a minute, that sounds familiar...

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Tingkai
For those of you who want to end the "job drain": You do realise that if companies make products in the US instead of in Asia, you're going to pay a lot more for those products.

Do you really want to pay $500 for a pair of American-made running shoes when you can buy Asian-made running shoes for $100?

The massive profits that American companies make by outsourcing manufacturing to Asia will disappear. That means more layoffs of American white collar workers.

you do realize, that considering that these countries don't buy anything from us, we will eventually not even be able to afford their cheap crap? We are going in to debt and selling US assets fast, eventually this is going to come crashing down on us. Economics lesson for you all, you don't have consumers without wages.

[Spiffor]

The only thingto do, which has been already done, and whichexplains the exceptional growth of the US in comparison with other rich countries, is an ambitious innovation policy, so that high-end products reained produced in the US rather than abroad.

It is impossibletocompete with low-wae countries when it comes to price. Rich countries must thus have an ambitious programe of high-quality production. Of course, good externalities, suchas a reliable transportation and power grid, or a well educated population does help.

[Impaler[WrG]]

pchang is right, the same thing basicaly happened with Mexico, the US (despire the fact that NAFTA has removed all the barriers) is not lossing jobs to Mexico anymore, the cost of labor their has incressed substantialy as the country has grown wealthier from trade. Its China and India that we worry about now. the same process of Equalization will inevitably occure

Another thing that many people dont realize. US companies DO NOT shut down PROFITABLE factories to start A REPLACMENT factory in another country! Doing that would be beyond idiotic, no one will incurre that kind of risk and just throw away a source of profit like that. They only shut down an American factory when it becomes UN-PROFITABLE. If the American factory is making a profit they might start up another one in China to make MORE profit ofcorse but their not going to shut down a profitable factory for ANY reason, not even if the chinesse offer to work for FREE, their are so many start up costs and risks involved. We are lossing jobs because our Factories are UNPROFITABLE not because their is cheap labor in forign countries, cheap labor only causes us to loose a portion of any expantion in capacity. The real problem is "how do we make our indusries more profitable"


For example the Factory I work at is soon going to have some new buisness, we will be making a totaly new product which consist of a thin sheet of plastic that snaps onto a CD to protect it from scratching. The nifty part is that you can play the CD with the thing on and thus is never has to come off the CD ever. Despite the fact that this is product is brand new and inteded for a global market they still wish to have HALF of it produced in the US simply for the convenience, reliability and proimity. Its an insurance policy incase anything unexpected happens, also the US factory will be used to test and refine improvments in the Product a very hard thing to do if your forced to fly halfway around the world and speak to people who dont know english. When you consider all the advantages we have it becomes obvious that the reson we are in trouble is the terrible mismanagment of US industries over the last several decades which have created an oportunity for savy 3rd world companies and goverments to explit.

We left the Front door wide open and tied up the guard dog then they came in and took the Stereo. Thouse cunning Asian burglers with their unfair tactics, how will we ever protect ourselves, whooo is us!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Why not? It worked for Clinton.

[typical conservative rant]

and thats what got us to a recession in the first place

[/typical conservative rant]

Tell you what Che, if your so enthralled with increasing taxes you can pay more. Feel free to pay my share as well. I'll still pay at current rate b/c Il'd rather have my money to invest and thus fuel future jobs creation in the efficient private sector.

Course if you want innefficient, jobs creation, entitlement, reduce the standard of living, increase the misery index, feel free to bloat the government even further. Lord knows it bloated enough by the Repubs in order to win the upcoming election.

As others so often put. The answer is do nothing. Jobs are the last indicator of recovery and are coming back.

Silly commie

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Efficiency is not the be al and end all of human existence.

Of course it is silly commie .

Maybe for you soulless robots. For us humans, happiness is more important than some arbitrary definition of efficiency.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]
occure

Another thing that many people dont realize. US companies DO NOT shut down PROFITABLE factories to start A REPLACMENT factory in another country! Doing that would be beyond idiotic, no one will incurre that kind of risk and just throw away a source of profit like that. They only shut down an American factory when it becomes UN-PROFITABLE. If the American factory is making a profit they might start up another one in China to make MORE profit ofcorse but their not going to shut down a profitable factory for ANY reason, not even if the chinesse offer to work for FREE, their are so many start up costs and risks involved. We are lossing jobs because our Factories are UNPROFITABLE not because their is cheap labor in forign countries, cheap labor only causes us to loose a portion of any expantion in capacity. The real problem is "how do we make our indusries more profitable"

Obviously that means increasing taxes