Text 111, 72 rader
Skriven 2009-09-20 15:20:04 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
    Kommentar till text 102 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: (1/2) Down to the basics
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Bob Ackley wrote to Dan Ceppa on Saturday September 19 2009 at 06:22:

DC>> The prices are low because those countries employ child labor, for
DC>> one thing.

BA> Prison and slave labor for another.

Prison labor is only common in the States, Bob. As for "slave labor", you may
be thinking about miners in black Africa, but certainly not about the people
who make cheap products for the American market.

BA> But American consumers won't support companies that make their
BA> products *here*.

They won't pay more than they have to for a specific product, you mean. And
low-tech products "Made in U.S.A." have priced themnselves out of the market.

BA> Yet the left wing - including Obama - keeps caterwauling about
BA> creating "quality jobs" at "quality wages" - which ain't gonna happen
BA> until the people of this country start insisting on buying products
BA> that are made here - and they're not going to do that when price is
BA> the determining factor in their purchases.

Price is _always_ a determining factor, and always has been. The only way to
_force_ Americans to buy more expensive American low-tech goods is to close the
borders and/or increase import duties on them until the prices in the USA are
inflated so much that American-made goods can compete (and _then_ seal the
borders to prevent the inevitable smuggling).

The only question is then what is more important to Americans: buying cheap
goods or supporting American industry and paying dearly for the privilege.

The fact of the matter - and this is worldwide, not just in the States - is
that with a global economy and low trade barriers (things that also benefit the
USA), goods will be made where that can be done most cheaply.

That bodes ill for poorly-skilled workers and inefficient manufacturers,
particularly in relatively high-wage countries such as the USA and Germany.
Poorer people, those without an education or in low-tech jobs will sooner or
later lose their jobs to competition from places with lower wages and/or more
efficient production.

However, specialized, high-tech goods and qualified, well-educated workers will
generally end up with more benefits than disadvantages. You might observe
Switzerland - and the Swiss economy by no means revolves exclusively around the
banking industry - to see an example.

Germany used to export a lot of common steel products. It doesn't anymore,
since Indian and Chinese foundries are pretty good for the low-tech stuff. But
the upside is that Germany now exports a great deal of pricy, highly machined
and alloyed steels, including much stainless, that can't be made by the "bulk
manufacturers" in India and China. The export volume is lower, but the monetary
value is as high or even higher than for the crude stuff previously
manufactured here.

The bottom line is that technological leadership is the key to continued
prosperity - fall behind and there are plenty of people willing and able to
take your place - and even than you will always have a group of people too
poorly educated and trained, too old or unproductive, to keep up, and will have
to support them. That's no different in Germany than in the States. But to
support those who can't keep up, you have to earn the money: and again, that
means technological leadership.

The alternative (maybe for the USA, unpractical for other countries except
perhaps China) would be total isolation and internal markets only - but it's a
good question whether that is really possible in today's world - and whether
the American people would accept the inevitable disadvantages.

Cheers, Bob

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