It may not be patriotic but it sure as hell is the intelligent thing to do since American wages and worker entitlements have pretty much gone sky high that they are uncompetitive.
Exactly.
We can thank China for the formaldehyde in our flooring and drywall that is sickening Americans.
There is an alternative impact for any decision.
With all international trade there are both benefits and costs - the trick is to be the "winning" nation.
You can't be the winning nation by dismantling your manufacturing base and sending it overseas. It ruins the economy because it destroys the middle class, and it is facilitating the rise of Chinese military might.
Full-size truck buyers may be surprised that the Toyota Tundra uses more domestic parts than any of its rivals. With 80 percent of its parts from the U.S. and Canada, the Tundra is 10 percent more American than its closest domestic rival, the Dodge Ram, and significantly more American than the Ford F-Series, which gets 40 percent of its parts from other countries.
With all international trade there are both benefits and costs - the trick is to be the "winning" nation. Obviously, that depends heavily upon who gets to decide the rules of the international trade game. As an example look at the, very messy, US/Canada softwood lumber trade situation.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–United_States_softwood_lumber_dispute
You can't be the winning nation by dismantling your manufacturing base and sending it overseas. It ruins the economy because it destroys the middle class, and it is facilitating the rise of Chinese military might.
God bless the political intervention to screw up any situation.
Why would our standard of living crash?
If we stopped outsourcing as many jobs, then more people in the US would have jobs, which means we would produce more wealth right here in the USA.
Now maybe that would cause a few percent inflation, but like it or not, the Federal Reserve has determined that a few percent of inflation is stimulative to our economy and they strive to achieve such. So if we had a few percent of inflation due to cost push pressure, it would simply help to achieve the Feds goal, without the fed having to intervene by pumping more money into the system - so most likely there would be no additional inflation than what would have occurred without more jobs.
In the mean time, our wages would naturally tend to rise as employers have to compete harder and harder for workers, consumption increases as more people get jobs, production increases as businesses strive to meet demand, and the GDP increases. None of that is a bad thing, it's basically what happens when we have a strong economy.
You think that a strong economy = crash?
That's right - leave the production here, increase the prices of the goods, and see how quickly that will pummel the middle class, who then cannot afford the more expensive domestic goods.
Not to mention the lower market for US exports once we start a (union led?) trade war.
Reciprocity in action - excellent point!
While Nascar often trumpets the high visibility enjoyed by its sponsors, whose logos festoon cars, as well as fans’ fidelity to brands that bankroll drivers, one of the highest returns for companies’ investments actually comes not from consumers but from other companies. The biggest fish some advertisers are reeling in, it turns out, are other advertisers.
Excellent read.
Makes sense since NASCAR attendance is down due to their middle / lower middle class target market.
Working man's sport my ass - most drivers fly in luxury and exclusivity to the races.
I never understood why fans accepted such hypocrisy.
You also cannot be a winning nation if the labor unions are permitted to run the show. US cars (and motorcycles), for example, were grossly overpriced primarily because US labor rates were artificially inflated by unions and "to compete" the US auto industry started to import many parts, eventually making a "US" car out of mostly imported parts. Note that we now count Canadian parts as basically domestic (US) parts when denoting the imported content of a "US" car.
We now here calls that the U.S. must confront the rise of China. However, China's rise has been facilitated by the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing to places like China, and selling those cheap goods to U.S. consumers. As such, is the outsourcing of jobs overseas patriotic?
Labor unions while very powerful at one time, have never "run the show." Workers have a right to form unions to negotiate in their interests. If what they demand cannot be met, then close the business. If their demands are not realistic, they will not be able to find work and then they will have to settle for what is realistic. It does not mean that you pack up the whole show, dismantle the manufacturing base, go to another country, build up China, and then say "Oh look! They are a military threat to us now!"
Personally, I think this is a foolish question. It would be just as foolish to put up a poll asking if demands for a $15 minimum wage are unpatriotic because we know that many goods manufactured these days could not be profitable if the labour costs were $15/hr or more. As a result, a $15 minimum wage may force outsourcing of many low lever manufacturing and entry level service jobs as well as promote illegal immigration/labour in agriculture and property maintenance, etc.
No it isn't foolish for the reason that dismantling the manufacturing base erodes the middle class and those ruins the economy. The only damn thing it has done is made it such that the economy depends on the ability of the system to provide credit, which has led to the enormous amount of indebtedness of the U.S. today. It's totally stupid, brain dead, foolish, and myopic. Over and above that it is unsustainable, and did, in fact, contribute to the 2008 financial crisis.
Your (bolded above) scenario is not what happened to GM or Chrysler. Too big to fail, yet just right to bail.
Bailout debate: How the Big 3 came apart and how to fix them - Nov. 17, 2008
We now here calls that the U.S. must confront the rise of China. However, China's rise has been facilitated by the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing to places like China, and selling those cheap goods to U.S. consumers. As such, is the outsourcing of jobs overseas patriotic?
There should have been higher tariffs on imported cars from the beginning.
Full-size truck buyers may be surprised that the Toyota Tundra uses more domestic parts than any of its rivals. With 80 percent of its parts from the U.S. and Canada, the Tundra is 10 percent more American than its closest domestic rival, the Dodge Ram, and significantly more American than the Ford F-Series, which gets 40 percent of its parts from other countries.
Wow - who knew? Is it responsible for climate change too?
It can only be answered with a question:
How much more are you willing to pay for your gadgets to have them made in the US?
You can't have cheap **** and a higher minimum wage, income 'equality" etc.
Nonsense - tariffs (if any) should apply to CONTENT regardless of the point of final assembly. Many "foreign" vehicles have more domestic parts than "US" vehicles and both are assembled here.
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