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22 Stats That Show How The Emerging One World Economy Is Absolutely Killing American Workers

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For a lighter side to the main article, The Onion made a valid point the other day: Nation's Lower Class At Least Grateful It Not Part Of Nation's Middle Class

"CHAPEL HILL, NC—A survey released Wednesday by researchers at the University of North Carolina found that despite the many challenges they face, the nation's lowest-income individuals are nonetheless thankful they don't have to endure the unique hardships of the nation's long-suffering middle class.

 

According to the report, the 46 million Americans who fall below the federal poverty line, though struggling mightily, are at least glad they don't have to live up to some rapidly vanishing American dream of advancing in their career, making more money, and improving their lifestyle, the way their middle-income counterparts do."  Keep reading >

22 Stats That Show How The Emerging One World Economy Is Absolutely Killing American Workers

For decades our politicians have promised us that the "free trade" agenda would bring us greater prosperity than ever before. They insisted that merging our economy into the emerging one world economy would cause millions upon millions of new jobs to be added to the U.S. economy.  Unfortunately, it was all a giant lie. 

Trading with other countries is not a bad thing as long as the level of trade is fairly equal on both sides. When trade becomes very unequal, the consequences can be absolutely catastrophic. Since 1975, the United States has bought more than 8 trillion dollars more stuff from the rest of the world than they have bought from us. We are the only economy on earth that could have had 8 trillion dollars drained out of it and still be standing.  Instead of leaving the country, those 8 trillion dollars could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers. If we could go back and have a "do over," how much more prosperous would we be today if we had kept that 8 trillion dollars inside the country?

But instead of pursuing a balanced trade philosophy, our politicians were so enamored with the emerging one world economy that they threw all caution to the wind.

So we have lost tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of our national wealth.

And this emerging one world economy is absolutely killing American workers.  It lumps them into a global labor pool with workers in other countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.

Just think of it this way. Imagine that you are a giant corporation that makes "widgets".  You can make them in the United States, but you would have to pay your workers about $10 an hour, provide them with a whole bunch of benefits, pay very high taxes, and comply with a dizzying array of laws, rules and regulations.

Or, you could set up shop on the other side of the world where you could pay your workers a dollar an hour.  Those workers would receive no benefits and you would have to deal with very little red tape.

Which would you choose?

The "giant sucking sound" that Ross Perot once warned us about has become a reality.  Big employers are competing with one another to see who can outsource jobs the fastest, and American workers are the big losers in all of this.

As I wrote about the other day, right now there are some American workers that are actually personally training their replacements from overseas how to do their jobs.

If nothing is done about this, jobs are going to continue to pour out of high wage countries such as the United States and into low wage countries on the other side of the globe, and big corporations are going to keep laughing all the way to the bank as unemployment in America gets even worse.

The following are 22 stats that show how the emerging one world economy is absolutely killing American workers....

#1 One professor has estimated that cutting the U.S. trade deficit in half would create 5 million more jobs in the United States.

#2 The United States has a trade imbalance that is more than 7 times larger than any other nation on earth has.

#3 Overall, the United States has run a trade deficit of more than 8 trillion dollars with the rest of the globe since 1975.  That 8 trillion dollars could have gone to support U.S. businesses and pay the wages of U.S. workers.  Federal, state and local taxes would have been paid on that 8 trillion dollars if it had stayed in the United States.  This is one reason why our national debt is getting ready to cross the 16 trillion dollar mark.

#4 When NAFTA was passed in 1993, the United States had a trade surplus with Mexico of 1.6 billion dollars.  In 2010, we had a trade deficit with Mexico of 61.6 billion dollars.

#5 In 2001, American consumers spent 102 billion dollars on products made in China.  In 2011, American consumers spent 399 billion dollars on products made in China.

#6 The Chinese undervalue their currency by about 40 percent in order to gain a critical advantage over foreign competitors.  This means that many Chinese companies are able to absolutely thrive while their competition in the United States goes out of business.  The following is from a recent Fox News article....

To keep Chinese products artificially inexpensive on US store shelves, Beijing undervalues the yuan by 40 percent. It pirates US technology, subsidizes exports and imposes high tariffs on imports.

#7 According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

#8 The U.S. trade deficit with China during 2011 was 295.4 billion dollars.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.

#9 Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was only about 6 million dollars (million with an "m") for theentire year.

#10 U.S. consumers spend about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that Chinese consumers spend on goods and services from the United States.

#11 The United States has actually lost an average of about 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#12 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing about half a million jobs to China every single year.

#13 The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

#14 During 2010 alone, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities closed their doors in America every single day.

#15 Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the United States.

#16 As I have written about previously, 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were middle class jobs.

#17 According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.

#18 The percentage of working age Americans that are employed right now is actually smaller than it was at the end of the last recession.

#19 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is nearly three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.

#20 Due in part to the globalization of the labor pool, only about 24 percent of all jobs in the United States are "good jobs" at this point.

#21 Without enough good jobs, more Americans than ever before are falling into poverty.  Today, more than 100 million Americans are on welfare.

#22 In recent years the U.S. economy has embraced "free trade" and the emerging one world economy like never before. Instead of increasing the number of jobs in our economy, it has resulted in the worst stretch of job creation in the United States in modern history....

If any single number captures the state of the American economy over the last decade, it is zero. That was the net gain in jobs between 1999 and 2009—nada, nil, zip. By painful contrast, from the 1940s through the 1990s, recessions came and went, but no decade ended without at least a 20 percent increase in the number of jobs.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

You can get a really good idea of how nightmarish the manufacturing job losses have been in the United States over the past 40 years by checking out this map right here.

And if everything posted above was not bad enough, some U.S. companies even find themselves competing with slave labor here in the United States.

Seriously.

Prison labor is absolutely destroying some businesses here in America.  The following comes from a recent CNN article....

Unicor is a government-run enterprise that employs over 13,000 inmates -- at wages as low as 23 cents an hour -- to make goods for the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

 

With some exceptions, Unicor gets first dibs on federal contracts over private companies as long as its bid is comparable in price, quantity and delivery. In other words: If Unicor wants a contract, it gets it.

One company that tries to compete with Unicor has been forced to lay off 150 people over the years because they lose so many contracts to them....

Wilson has been competing with Unicor for 20 years. He's an executive at American Apparel Inc., an Alabama company that makes military uniforms. (It is not affiliated with the international retailer of the same name.) He has gone head-to-head with Unicor on just about every product his company makes -- and said he has laid off 150 people over the years as a result.

 

"We pay employees $9 on average," Wilson said. "They get full medical insurance, 401(k) plans and paid vacation. Yet we're competing against a federal program that doesn't pay any of that."

But this is also the kind of thing that U.S. companies are dealing with when they try to compete with big corporations that are exploiting cheap labor abroad.

If you are spending ten times as much on labor as your competitor is, it is going to be really hard to survive.

That is why it has become so hard to find products that are made in America.

Most of our jobs these days are low paying "service jobs", cushy government jobs or jobs where people push papers around all day.

But those kinds of jobs do not create lasting wealth for a country.

Did you know that there are more tax preparers in the United States than there are police officers and firefighters combined?

Our economy is a giant mirage. We consume way more wealth than we produce, but we are able to keep the party going because we are riding the biggest debt spiral the world has ever seen.

But at some point the debt spiral is going to end and the crash is going to come.

Until then, however, those at the very top are still really enjoying themselves.

For example, one of the latest trends is for rich kids to show off pictures of themselves enjoying their enormous wealth on Instagram.

Something has gone very, very wrong with this country.

So what do you think about all this?  Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below....

 

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Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:34 | 2712485 combatsnoopy
combatsnoopy's picture

US is also dead last in the world for private sector investments for developed countries.

http://world.bymap.org/Investments.html

Oh btw, Japan just bought more  US Treasuries, not private sector backed stocks.  I'm returning my crappy Camry, I'm sick of their horrid economic management...their stupid lost decade THEN they gave us Bernanke.

 

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:34 | 2712484 Conax
Conax's picture

Our industrial sector was shafted big time in honor of the planned de-industrialization of the US.  Pollution, energy consumption, and hard but productive work were being phased out in favor of a service industry economy.

We had the greatest industrial nation on earth, but the globalists wanted those dirty, polluting, bad old jobs over in the (cheaper) developing world, and we would sell them movies, cds and coca cola. It's beyond idiotic.

 

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 06:40 | 2713520 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

but the globalists wanted those dirty, polluting, bad old jobs over in the (cheaper) developing world, and we would sell them movies, cds and coca cola. It's beyond idiotic.

________________

'Americans' are by substance globalists. Globalism is a full part of 'Americanism'

Now, exchanging worthless 'American' cultural items, that conveys no essence, only void, against resources and tangible goods is a nice deal... if you are on the right side of it, that is issuing those substance less cultural items as 'American' cultural items have proven to be.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 20:16 | 2712747 JuicedGamma
JuicedGamma's picture

"Free" trade for the most part sucks, but I don't miss the pollution.

 

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:26 | 2712471 Henry Hub
Henry Hub's picture

WHAT! you dare to question "Free Trade" the bedrock of neo-liberalism. You can forget about an appearance on CNBC

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 12:17 | 2714351 Vendetta
Vendetta's picture

so true.   When is the last time anyone has heard a real debate about 'free trade' in MSM?  Excuse me, I need to take a dump, where is Milton Friedman buried?

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:13 | 2712427 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

Free trade would work if we didn't allow immigration, and restricted US property rights to US citizens, then nobody would ever have motive to run a "surplus" with us, of course "free trade" was never about "free trade" but more about "Global Socialism" and mass immigration to America,  essentially a liquidation and global nationalization of America's last resource, our sovereignty.  

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 12:20 | 2714364 Vendetta
Vendetta's picture

it has been more of a plan of global wage arbitrage for short term gains than any long term 'vision'.   I don't see central planners planning for anything other than the profit they make during their lifetime... thus fiat currencies live only 41 to 47 years.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 06:43 | 2713522 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Free trade would work if we didn't allow immigration, and restricted US property rights to US citizens, then nobody would ever have motive to run a "surplus" with us, of course "free trade" was never about "free trade" but more about "Global Socialism" and mass immigration to America,
________________

made me laugh.

The motive to run a surplus with the US is simple and mandatory: resources to sustain oneself are priced in USD (as US citizens residing in the US are running a business of extortion of the weak, farming of the poor) and therefore one has to get some USD from somewhere, preferably from the monopoly holder of the USD issuance, that is the US.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:53 | 2712378 linrom
linrom's picture

Unfortunately its even worse than you write. In order for global consumption boom to continue, US corporations continue to raise wages and benefits of their foreign employees, however, they are offsetting that by lowering US worker pay and benefits. As consumption rises in Asia, Asian employees are rewarded with higher pay, American workers received nothing in return, all the profits from wage arbitrage went to CEOs and Wall Street.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:48 | 2712362 Zeilschip
Zeilschip's picture

Somehow I don't think the ant armies in China have any sympathy for the sorrows of the American worker.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:47 | 2712357 Danielvr
Danielvr's picture

Strange.. I never heard anyone in the US complain while they were screwing the rest of the world out of those 8 trillion worth of goods.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:54 | 2712499 Revert_Back_to_...
Revert_Back_to_1792_Act's picture

Read this speech..I have excerpted a couple sentences below.

"The United States has been ransacked and pillaged. Our structures have been gutted and only the walls are left standing. While this crime was being perpetrated everything the world could rake up to sell us was brought in here at our own expense by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks until our markets were swamped with unneeded and unwanted imported goods priced far above their value and made to equal the dollar volume of our honest exports and to kill or reduce our favorable balance of trade."

Note the date below - this is from the public record;

"In 1930 we had over half a billion dollars outstanding daily to finance foreign goods stored in or shipped between countries. In its yearly total, this item amounts to several billion dollars. What goods are those on which the Federal Reserve banks yearly pledge several billions of dollars of the public credit of the United States? What goods are those which are hidden in European and Asiatic storehouses and which have never been seen by any officer of this Government, but which are being financed on the public credit of the United States Government? What goods are those upon which the United States Government is being obligated by the Federal Reserve banks to issue Federal Reserve notes to the extent of several billions of dollars a year?"

The Fed has branches in other nations;

"The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks have been international bankers from the beginning, with the United States Government as their enforced banker and supplier of currency. But it is none the less extraordinary to see those twelve private credit monopolies buying the debts of foreigners against foreigners in all parts of the world and asking the Government of the United States for new issues of Federal Reserve notes in exchange for them."

Read the rest here and stop bliaming the people just because the people can no longer support the thing.  To put it into other terms; Atlas is Shrugging.

http://www.afn.org/~govern/mcfadden_speech_1932.html

You can even go back to Jefferson's day.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bank-tj.asp

 

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 19:47 | 2712667 Danielvr
Danielvr's picture

That's from before Bretton-Woods and from well before the US unilaterally ended the convertability of the dollar into gold. Ithas no bearing whatsoever on the facts of today.

Those are that the US has printed 8 trillion inherently worthless dollars at no cost to itself, and has used those to import valuable raw materials and manufactured products from all over the world. When the foreigners who trusted this wealth to the USA come back to exchange their dollars for goods, chances are that they won't be getting any. In other words, the US has screwed the world out of $8 trillion of wealth -the greatest heist in human history- and yet, the author of this article has the audacity to paint America as the great victim here.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 06:48 | 2713524 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

the US has screwed the world out of $8 trillion of wealth -the greatest heist in human history- and yet, the author of this article has the audacity to paint America as the great victim here.
____________________

Victimhood is high among 'Americans' and the 'American' author knows that telling it as it is wont gain his article many clicks.

'Americans' are bullies and bullies want to depict themselves as victims.

As the greatest heist in human history, well, that might be relative, some of 'American' past deeds might overcome this one.

All in all, better to stick to the fact that 'Americans' are the greatest thieves in all human history...

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 03:15 | 2713374 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

+1, though the author correctly paints the American Workers of being the victims of both dollarization and globalization.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 04:10 | 2713372 Revert_Back_to_...
Revert_Back_to_1792_Act's picture

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Cp6Me26JA

What is being printed in the USA or 'created' in the case of electronic money is still Federal Reserve Notes. It is still bank credit.  In the old days, banks had to redeem their own notes for the stuff in their vaults. The Federal Reserve is not listed in the Government Pages of the phone book.  It is listed in the private listings. Let me ask you, how is it that a private bank got the authority to redeem it's notes against the American People's circulating coin and other wealth?

In 1900, we had billions of dollars of gold and silver coin circulating in this nation, there was no tax on labour, our treasury had a huge surplus and we made and exported over 50 percent of the worlds merchandise..

That circulating coin was the commonwealth of the American People. It is now gone. No longer in circulation.  Someone has it in a vault somewhere but the American People do not have it. What is more, most of the American People's property has liens against it, even if they own their property 'free and clear' - Their governments, County, State, and Federal all owe huge debts to the banks. Those debts are basically against the people and the property. Now ask on what basis was that 'credit' created?

Can you show how the American People got any real 'benefit' from this at all? I think you will find if you take a hard look that the wealth has been flowing out of America, not into it. It creates a further situation that the American People cannot even pay the debts if they wanted to. They have no way of 'creating' money or creating 'credit' themselves that I know of.  They can only borrow it. Debts can never really be paid, only discharged. Furthermore, there are a huge number of credit transactions that take place outside the jurisdiction of the United States. Please read and study and gain understanding.  Jefferson's opinion on the bank.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bank-tj.asp

If somebody stole your identity and went out and ran up a huge bill in your name, would you be responsible for that bill?

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 06:52 | 2713527 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Can you show how the American People got any real 'benefit' from this at all? I think you will find if you take a hard look that the wealth has been flowing out of America, not into it. It creates a further situation that the American People cannot even pay the debts if they wanted to.
__________________________

It takes one 'American' to outdo another 'American'.

Real benefit?

Ummmm, maybe one, being able to get into debt that you can not repay if you want to.

Once again, US citizens would like to sell the idea that a person who goes into debt but do not repay it has empoverished herself, and not enriched himself.

Wonderful. Victimhood is very, very high to make US citizens put out that kind of overtly cheap propaganda...

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 14:23 | 2714819 Revert_Back_to_...
Revert_Back_to_1792_Act's picture

lets reason together.

The debt is denominiated in 'dollars'.   Dollars of what?

Who created the debt?  Did the "US Citizens' you are always speaking of create the debt?

I can tell you that if I go to Harbor Freight right now and purchase a Chinese made tool (lets use a hammer for this example), I could pay for the hammer with "US Dollar Federal Reserve Notes".

The guy on the other end of the transaction in China also takes US Dollar Federal Reserve Notes for payment.

The American 'citizen'  worked for and earned the Federal Reserve Notes.

Does he still owe a debt to China?

The Chinese factory that made the tool willingly accepted the Federal Reserve Notes in trade as payment for the Chinese tool.

Who owes the debt here?

There is an old concept here in the USA called Script.   It originates from the American Coal Mines. 

Workers would be paid in 'script' that could be spent at the company store.

Do you want the US Citizens to pay the debt twice?  The worked for the scrip and then used it to buy the tool that was made in China.

What if someone in Africa pays the Chinese Factory owner in US Dollars for some tools?

Do you want the US Citizen to cover that debt too?

They could end up doing that because those dollars could be spent into the USA for USA tools.

The US Dollars are used internationally as money but you want to put the whole debt on the backs of the US Citizen. 

You want to charge him with the debt even though sometimes, he has nothing to do with the transaction.

How does that work?

 

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:00 | 2712397 Doug
Doug's picture

You haven't heard the complaints because WE HAVEN'T HAD TO ACTUALLY PAY FOR ANY OF IT YET.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 23:43 | 2713197 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

We paid by losing our jobs, our wages and our futures.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 19:11 | 2712582 Revert_Back_to_...
Revert_Back_to_1792_Act's picture

Jackson's warning from his farewell address;

"We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power, thus organized and with such a weapon in its hands, would be likely to use it. The distress and alarm which pervaded and agitated the whole country when the Bank of the United States waged war upon the people in order to compel them to submit to its demands can not yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing temper with which whole cities and communities were oppressed, individuals impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly changed into one of gloom and despondency ought to be indelibly impressed on the memory of the people of the United States. If such was its power in a time of peace, what would it not have been in a season of war, with an enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of the United States could have come out victorious from such a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the Government would have passed from the hands of the many to the hands of the few, and this organized money power from its secret conclave would have dictated the choice of your highest officers and compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited their own wishes. The forms of your Government might for a time have remained, but its living spirit would have departed from it.

The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy which is continually striving to enlarge the authority of the Federal Government beyond the limits fixed by the Constitution. The powers enumerated in that instrument do not confer on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the Bank of the United States, and the evil consequences which followed may warn us of the danger of departing from the true rule of construction and of permitting temporary circumstances or the hope of better promoting the public welfare to influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of the authority of the General Government. Let us abide by the Constitution as it is written, or amend it in the constitutional mode if it is found to be defective."

Rest here;

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=67087

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:35 | 2712313 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

I said American workers were fucked the day NAFTA was signed. All you need is some common sense to see that.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 20:18 | 2712758 AurorusBorealus
AurorusBorealus's picture

NAFTA did not hurt as bas as giving China most-favored-nation-status after the British hand-over of Hong Kong.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 01:25 | 2713261 sitenine
sitenine's picture

Most-favored-nation-status and now primary dealer to the US Fed.  It's also funny how Tiny Timmy doesn't talk about currency manipulation anymore, don't you think?  To be honest, who really needs to worry about a hard landing when the threat of mutually assured destruction still exists? - It seems to me that it's pretty good to be China right now...  Seriously though, there isn't any one specific reason that American workers are so fucking expensive compared to the 'emerging world'.  I believe it comes down to the fact that the U.S. was the only industrialized nation left standing on Earth after WWII along with the societal view that standards of living were 'earned' as apposed to 'expected', so peeps got lazy and now they have nothing but expectations without earning shit through hard work (we used to call that creating value, btw) - you know, good old fashioned greed.  Well, that and the fraud laced ponzi scheme of a money system that we all rely on to live.  Just my take anyway..

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 18:36 | 2712490 combatsnoopy
combatsnoopy's picture

wish I could've given you 10 "ups".  

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 19:55 | 2712687 Bindar Dundat
Bindar Dundat's picture

DROP THE BIG ONE!

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:34 | 2712309 max2205
max2205's picture

How's old Ross doing?!

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 19:30 | 2712630 bankruptcylawyer
bankruptcylawyer's picture

he got sucked out. or sucked off. or some other sucking sound. 

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:39 | 2712325 JohnG
JohnG's picture

 

 

Pretty good:

With an estimated net worth of about US$3.5 billion in 2012, he is ranked by Forbes as the 101st-richest person in the United States.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot

 

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 21:27 | 2712916 Kali
Kali's picture

EDS-sucking off the gov teat.  Company never made money til it started getting government contracts.

PS- I voted for him too, he was absolutely right about NAFTA.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 05:20 | 2713478 Gavrikon
Gavrikon's picture

I don't remember at what point he sold EDS, but I am pretty certain it was about the right time.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 22:43 | 2716025 Tapeworm
Tapeworm's picture

EDS was sold to Hewlett-Packard. HPQ just wrote it off last week.

 The Q is for CompaQ, which was another fabulous loss.

(forgive me if you already know all of this. I am not a pedant; it was a FYI for anyone bothering with my crap.)

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 17:22 | 2712269 Manthong
Manthong's picture

More so than the global labor pool with workers in other countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages, I am angry about the global money pool where it is legal to collectivize wealth and crush capital formation.

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 20:52 | 2712840 philipat
philipat's picture

It's an inevitable consequence of Globalisation. Workers wages will increase in the Third world over time and commensurately decrease in the developed world to the point that they eventually meet somewhere in the middle, but over several decades.

In the meantime, it's neither fair nor correct to blame China. China just wants to find jobs for 1.5 Billion people and the ones who have jobs are the lucky ones. Remember that very little of the manufacturing value added is retained in China, other than the direct labour costs (Wages). Most of the value added, aka profit, gets siphoned off OUT of China by US Multi-National Corporations which "transfer price" all the profits out of China through offshore tax havens, then leave the money there rarther than re-patriating the funds to the US and paying US taxes.

Globalisation has been very good for US Corporations but not so good for US workers.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 09:42 | 2713881 duo
duo's picture

BS.  Chins slaps a 100% tariff on anything imported, even if it is later assembled into a finished product in China.  If you want to build something there, you have to source all the parts in China, pay the tariff on what you have to import, AND give the government a complete set of drawings so that another factory across town can start copying your product.  If you're lucky, you will get 6 months to sell your product before the knockoff comes to market BELOW your COST.

In exchange for this, we get $6/hour jobs at an Amazon fullfillment center.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 12:03 | 2714298 pods
pods's picture

Mercantilism only benefits the Mercantilist in the end.  The system is self reinforcing too.  Low cost products destroy our manufacturing base, wages fall, which creates a need for lower cost products.

A race to the bottom.

pods

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 04:59 | 2713460 Kreditanstalt
Kreditanstalt's picture

Problem is, most "solutions" to this problem involve tariffs, minimum wage attempts, more regulation and higher prices/less consumer choice for Americans.  If you can think of a solution that DOESN'T require more government monkeying in the marketplace, I'd like to hear it.

The REAL solution is Lower American Living Standards (=greater productivity).  I'm serious.  Coming soon whether government tries to go back in time or not.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 08:35 | 2713681 csmith
csmith's picture

Deflation works.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 05:18 | 2713473 Gavrikon
Gavrikon's picture

Did you actually READ the column?  Things are dire and going more into the shitter each day.  Exactly what ELSE would work?  Dismantling all worker and environmental protections in the US while paying the workers 50 cents a day?

You might have swallowed the bullshit about tariffs being "bad," but America was never more prosperous than when we had tariffs.

Of course, I am not so dogmatic that I believe we need tariffs with all countries.  The countries that are not using slave labor, that pay their employees decently (like Germany and Japan) compete with us on a product differentiation/quality basis, not price.  No tarffs needed on Porsches, Inifinitis nor Mercedes.  American programmers having to compete against $10 a day sweatshop denizens in Mumbai is something far different. 

This is one of the very few situations where government has played a useful role in the past, and should in the future.

Disclaimer - I am an American Economic Nationalist who believes that the US government should be doing whatever is in the best interest of Americans.  (I know, I'm probably going full retard).  This includes defending the financial well being of its citizens as well as its borders and the culture that created the US. 

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 07:08 | 2713543 cranky-old-geezer
cranky-old-geezer's picture

 

 

You might have swallowed the bullshit about tariffs being "bad," but America was never more prosperous than when we had tariffs.

Forget tarriffs.   China has a trillion dollars of our treasuries hanging over our head like a sword. 

Those tarriffs you speak of were back when our government wasn't borrowing money from everybody on the planet. 

Our own government has sold us out.  The borrower is servant to the lender.  As long as our government is borrowing billions of dollars from other nations, forget any tarriffs, forget any action to safeguard American jobs.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 09:54 | 2713923 duo
duo's picture

Exactly.  Even Henry Ford enjoyed a market with sizeable tariffs on imported automobiles.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 05:26 | 2713481 Kreditanstalt
Kreditanstalt's picture

You're going to have to find some solution that doesn't involve telling people what they must buy, how much they have to pay, what can be imported and what can't, dictating wages or closing borders.  And some solution that allows a free market in labor.  Sounds like socialism - or some other form of centrally-"planned" economy...

I find it very offensive having government manipulating, skewing and interfering in people's private buying and selling.  What happened to the right of free contract between free people?

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 14:20 | 2714812 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

While you weren't looking, which may be most of the time, "the right of free contract between free people" has been rescinded by those very people you idolize.  They use government to do this to enrich themselves and enable grand theft without (personal) consequences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwKGNO59pqA&feature=youtu.be

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 10:40 | 2714074 Kayman
Kayman's picture

Kreditanstalt

And what free market Utopia do we have now ?  China's externalities- pollution- is not priced into their products- they have no EPA.

If you level the playing field, the U.S. would have a chance.

The "government" of China is manipulating the market before your very eyes, but you refuse to see. 

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 07:08 | 2713541 Everybodys All ...
Everybodys All American's picture

Keep it simple. If we can make the product or service in the US then support the US company with tariffs. Fair trade is not socialism. Not allowing companies to fail is socialism and causing them to fail is suicide.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 03:30 | 2713407 Gavrikon
Gavrikon's picture

All quite true.

It is also quite true that, as once prosperous workers are reduced to penury, they will become more interested in hanging those running "US" corporations (and from whom the globalist politicians who took their money and marching orders) from lamp posts.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 07:01 | 2713533 cranky-old-geezer
cranky-old-geezer's picture

 

 

Really?

Just how bad will it have to get before we start seeing some of these lynchings you speak of?

You're dreaming of course.  Americans are sheep.  They'll be reduced to 3rd world poverty and not one single lynching will occur.

What WILL happen is street war.  Neighbor against neighbor.  Hood against hood. 

Americans will fight each other in the streets, but not one of the "elite" will be touched.   They have their security forces, their mercenaries, to protect them. 

You won't get close enough to one of them to do anything. 

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 14:04 | 2714762 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

Not that much different from German, Japanese or Chinese sheep.

Fri, 08/17/2012 - 01:16 | 2713303 t0mmyBerg
t0mmyBerg's picture

"Most of the value added, aka profit, gets siphoned off OUT of China by US Multi-National Corporations which "transfer price" all the profits out of China through offshore tax havens, then leave the money there rarther than re-patriating the funds to the US and paying US taxes."

Well there is a simple solution to that that would result in the repatriation of lots of those offshore profits and the creation of lots of good domestic jobs.  Cut the worlds highest god damned corporate tax rate to something a little more reasonable such that corporations do not have the incentive and in fact the duty NOT to repatriate it.  For fucks sake it is so god damned easy and obvious.  Will our congress and our president ever do that?  I am not holding my breath.  And even if they did, some fucking ecotard from kalifornia whose only education was being told it is ok that your mommy and your daddy are both named johnny, would tie some corporation repatriating to build a new plant to create those jobs up in court because the fucking parking lot where the workers would park might divert a tiny rivulet that runs only on april 13th each year and only if 24-31 hours earlier more than 2.3 inches of rain had fallen and only in an el nino la nina transition year which would cause some species of rabbit parasite to have to move its burrow 5 inches to the left which might change its propagaiton pattern which might result in there being only 13 instead of 15 rabbit parasites in that location.  So the rest of the busoinesses in that circuit would put their raptriation plans on hold until the case made its way through the ninth circuit eventually to the supreme court where some idiot would call it a tax, not a penalty and why do rabbits fuck like rabbits anyway and this would take years and years and meanwhile all of the potential workers would have either died or moved to chile, assuming that they could get NFL ticket there and FUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!!

This article touches, somewhat mindlessly on some things that are real problems, but it is not a cogent argument, more of a post hoc ergo propter hoc kind of "See, jeez globalization bad bad bad".  I could come up with lots of things that have changed and then list the ills enumerated above in an attempt to link them causally.  That wouldnt make the linkage a good argument.

My head will just fucking explode one of these days.  Rational argument is for naught in a culture that has come to accept lying and cheating as just part of the normal way of doing things.  Who is the chump after all?

 

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