Text 137, 50 rader
Skriven 2009-09-21 06:24:32 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
    Kommentar till text 111 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: (1/2) Down to the basics
================================
Replying to a message of Robert Bashe to Bob Ackley:

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

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

Nails?

IMO it isn't just wages, it's government regulatory interference that drives
jobs
out of the country.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an open house held at a nearby museum of old,
perfectly functional farm equipment.  The volunteers at the museum conducted 
several demonstrations of how things used to be done on US farms.  If OSHA
ever found out about that it would have conniption fits - all those exposed
belts,
pulleys, chains and other moving fittings and parts.  Still, it was interesting
watching
a 1920 vintage wheat thresher - among other things - in operation.

 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.

 RB> Price is _always_ a determining factor, and always has been.

In this country it is *the* determining factor.

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

Half a century ago that might have worked.  The US has always had a huge export
market for farm products and there wasn't much competition in the international
grain markets.  Today the US farm surplus isn't nearly as big as it once was,
and Brazil and Argentina are both competing in the international market.  If
the
US decides to start a tariff war it will lose what international markets it
still has.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)