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Post by TW on Nov 10, 2009 13:45:14 GMT -5
The free market, as it exists, is a joke.
It isn't free, in as much as it isn't really played on a level playing field.
We can thank Clinton for a great deal of that with NAFTA, but it was already coming when we started sleeping with the Japanese, and eventually the Chinese, and their cheap labor markets, which put American industry on notice that they could no longer pay a living wage to American workers for their services. Not if they wanted to compete price wise with products on the open market.
So, we allowed our manufacturing base to shift out of the US onto foreign soil, and now we've become an import nation.
If you look at the facts, this country cannot survive as an import nation, and still be a world power. We either take back control of our own destiny, and industry, or we're doomed to be nothing more than a shill for other governments.
It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you vote on, the facts are the facts.
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Post by amoeba15 on Nov 10, 2009 14:08:39 GMT -5
We can either revert back to the sweat shop factory days or be innovative, take pride in what we manufacture and receive a honest day's paid for a honest day of work.
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Post by TW on Nov 10, 2009 15:29:57 GMT -5
I'm not advocating the implementation of the Monroe doctrine. I'm suggesting that to make the playing field level, we need to insure that other nations pay their employees as well as here, or we need to put import taxes on their products, even if they are made by an American company overseas, to insure that someone manufacturing here in the US can compete, price-wise.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. We need to put that import tax money to work in this country, stabilizing smaller cities and communities, by making a commitment to getting them small industry that can compete in our national market, and employ people locally.
The small communities that are seeing dwindling populations, and the Mom & Pop farms that are being sucked up by the corporate farms, need help to survive, and we aren't giving them the help, we're handing it to the corporate giants by subsidizing their crops, and then allowing them to beat the small operator to death with their windfall deals with the government.
When a company like Boeing can get a government contract to design a "top secret plane" for the US, and they are allowed to go out and hire an engineering firm in Russia to do the engineering for them, because it's cheaper, and this will all be paid with American money, I come unglued, for obvious reasons. This should never have been an option, let alone a contract let, where this was going to happen.
When I see our government, and the White House, trying to hand over the rights to management of all our major ports to a foreign nation, which actually is a secular nation of Islam, I need to say something. And, it almost happened.
No. We've allowed our government, and our executive branch to sell us out, and I'm talking about both sides of the aisle.
Now this one ought to get you. At least one of tne of the major credit card companies here in the US has began a build up of call centers in the Philippines. Why? Cheaper labor. Do I see a problem with it? I sure do. Were any of you aware that the #1 credit card and stolen identification rings is actually run out of the Philippines, and their government doesn't even have a law enforcement division that thinks it's necessary to concentrate on cracking down on the problem.
Yeah! We have a problem. It's our own problem. We just don't seem to understand we have to protect our own interests.
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Post by amoeba15 on Nov 10, 2009 16:45:31 GMT -5
In order to pay HIGH salaries in the US and be competitive abroad, the US imposes such high tariffs on foreign cars, so that Americans will buy American automobiles.
Foreigners HATE the tariffs that the US imposes because it denies their products from being sold in the US. Imagine how many foreign cars would be purchased and how the US car industry would suffer IF tariffs in the US were completely removed.
The primary reason why foreign cars are less expensive, the labor costs involved.
Until Americans are able to work for less, while producing a product that is solely made in the US and desired by many around the world, foreigners will continue to have a HUGE competition advantage.
Everytime I go into Walmart, I am shocked at how inexpensive things are. Americans love a great deal and in a sense, are its own worst enemy. Perhaps, Americans do not need a FOREIGN tv, vcr, telephone...in every room.
Perhaps, Americans need to buy American products, even if they cost more. However, Americans are barely able to make ends meet and are forced to buy less expensive products.
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Post by amoeba15 on Nov 10, 2009 16:52:30 GMT -5
BTW, I totally agree that the US could and should help farmers. The US could feed the world.
FOOD should be considered more valuable and important then oil. Imagine farmers being more wealthy then oil execs.
"When a company like Boeing can get a government contract to design a "top secret plane" for the US, and they are allowed to go out and hire an engineering firm in Russia to do the engineering for them, because it's cheaper, and this will all be paid with American money, I come unglued, for obvious reasons. This should never have been an option, let alone a contract let, where this was going to happen."
I totally agree. Two things: One, Top secret projects should be a consideration by making it a requirement that ONLY Americans work on such projects and two, the overall costs involved between American vs. foreign labor.
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Post by packerconvert on Nov 10, 2009 17:59:45 GMT -5
One has to remember, we were the only major free-market system in the world.
Now we get some compeitition and we crumble. What a crock!
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Post by gopackgo2000 on Nov 12, 2009 17:47:27 GMT -5
The free market, as it exists, is a joke. It isn't free, in as much as it isn't really played on a level playing field. We can thank Clinton for a great deal of that with NAFTA, but it was already coming when we started sleeping with the Japanese, and eventually the Chinese, and their cheap labor markets, which put American industry on notice that they could no longer pay a living wage to American workers for their services. Not if they wanted to compete price wise with products on the open market. So, we allowed our manufacturing base to shift out of the US onto foreign soil, and now we've become an import nation. If you look at the facts, this country cannot survive as an import nation, and still be a world power. We either take back control of our own destiny, and industry, or we're doomed to be nothing more than a shill for other governments. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you vote on, the facts are the facts. I agree with you, but I do not agree that Bloom was referring to it that way. Anyway, the system is not the joke. The rules we have that it opperates under are unfair at best, and who put those laws there? You mentioned it...Clinton...wiht a Republican Congress I believe. Both sides suck in their own way! It is in my opinion that true conservatisim has the answers on how to fix the freem market rules to allow it to make us great once again!!!
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