Le Jaci,
A tariff scheme won’t change economic basics. This will include the business cycle, so the demand for labor will vary with the general state of the economy.
If your scheme were implemented, and during a recession unemployment rose, how would you respond to critics who then said that that tariffs weren’t preventing unemployment and should therefore be repealed?
Actually it’s you who don’t get it. What we’re seeing in offshoring is labor arbitrage, not comparative advantage.
This is why none of you understand what comparative advantage is.
Under comparative advantage America would be theoretically moving workers into a knowledge-based economy while importing goods produced by other countries dabbling in lower industries (like, say, manufacturing).
The reality is, instead, global labor arbitrage. We are being reduced to an economy where growth is primarily occurring in nontradable domestic services that can’t be outsourced - which also just happens to be the lowest paying crap. Global growth in knowledge-based jobs to service the American market is going primarily to foreigners, not American workers.
Meanwhile, as Ian Fletcher pointed out, this is adding to our national debt. Eventually America will run out of jobs to export and at that point China and India, among others, will collapse. None of you have an answer for this. You’re happy to just close your eyes and hope for the best… but that’s how all pro-offshoring arguments go, anyway: betting on benefits that have never materialized.
You realise that the concept of global labor arbitage was developed by an American economist who now works in the asian branch of US investment bank, correct?
I’m not disputing that engaing in free trade where one country has an absolute advantage (as oposed to comparative) can be, in fact, a detriment to the wealthier nation - I just think it’s a bit ironic.
I also think that focusing on the losses caused by absolute advantage misses the point that they are sometimes necessary in order to gain the benefits of comparative advantage.
Benefits that, in fact, have not materialized.
In reality that’s called getting scammed.
America hasn’t gotten any benefits from free market trade, ever?
Lower prices for some things. That’s all.
In exchange we’ve had wages stagnate and fall behind inflation, job growth stagnated and fell behind working class population growth, the jobs that were created pay less, and our national debt is being directly affected by the trade deficits. We’re not allocating manufacturing workers to knowledge industry jobs, because there will never be enough knowledge industry or service jobs to match the number of manufacturing workers laid off. We’re reallocating them to the unemployment line - and we have been doing so since long before the recent crash. The recent crash was caused less by the subprime collapse, than because the economy was hollowed out in the middle. The subprime crash was merely the final straw that broke the economy’s back.
And… in light of the fact that wages haven’t keeping up with inflation for the last 10 years, you can’t even say offshoring has given us lower prices.
So, no, the reckless pursuit of free trade has given us no benefits. In fact it has been a net negative for America’s working class.
Except for the rich, that is.
But in your universe as long as the rich benefit, who cares if the working class flounders? That’s why you will never get the support of the working class behind offshoring. They will eventually defeat you… or the economy will simply collapse and put an end to offshoring.
It’s a minimum wage job. Quit your bullshitting. Now scurry along, little kid.
I’ll take Rhythmdvl’s word over yours as far as what he pays his gardener.
I see that Le Jac is still spouting complete nonsense and that the thread is still shuffling along, as he gives it just enough hydrogen to keep the fires burning.
[QUOTE=Le Jacquelope]
Lower prices for some things. That’s all.
[/QUOTE]
So, from free trade we’ve gotten some lower prices ‘for some things’ and that’s it? Except for the rich, of course. You are skipping back and forth across the shark (that you jumped on your second day on this board) at a rate that is too fast to follow. 
You aren’t even an amusing troll, since you are just so freaking stupid. It’s hard to take someone spouting your level of horseshit seriously enough to work up a good laugh over.
-XT
I saw a TV blurb on a new show. They went into a persons home and checked for anything made in America. When they got done removing all that was made outside, all that was left was a vase.
Then they replaced everything in the home with American made products. The products were as good and much of it was cheaper. It can be done. You can buy American made products.
The house afterward, had no TV though.
You’ll take the word of any troll that defends offshoring.
The fact of the matter is your backs are to the wall and you’ll drink any amount of purple kool-aid that you need to in order to stay immersed in your comparative advantage fantasy world.
But eventually you will be dragged out kicking and screaming into reality. The more kicking and the louder the screaming, the better.
Ouch. You know that stung this pro-offshoring crowd. That stung badly.
It’s true, he’s not that funny. I suggest this thread - Wow, Jaquelope. You are all kinds of nuts! - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board.
Much better.
STFU troll.
Dude, you’re the one who says Americans are better off working as minimum wage gardeners than $30/hour factory line workers.
You’re the one who believes Americans are better off unemployed than building iPods for $15/hour. Because being unemployed earns you a trip to Spain or some bullshit.
In your universe they’re better off being cashiers at Wal Mart for minimum wage than being a customer service rep which used to earn far better than minimum wage.
That’s the problem with you trolls - your ideas bring America’s standard of living down. You just don’t give a shit. It’s even odds as to whether you live here or China.
Let’s review the timeline because, as has been pointed out to you many times, people can actually go back and read what was written.
Rhythmdvl talks some about his gardener. He then goes on to describe his gardener’s background and education, and specifically says that it’s not a minimum wage job.
You then call him a liar and insist that it must be a minimum wage job. I said that I’m more willing to accept Rhythmdvl’s word on what he pays his gardener, and you call me a troll.
I won’t go into you swallowing gonzomax’s utterly stupid anecdote (for which he offers zero cites) that you immediately accept as truth because it fits your worldview.
I used to think you were a True Believer, and that you were actually discussing things honestly (or at least as honestly as you are capable of arguing), but now it’s clear. You’re a troll. Feel free to take my refusal to engage you any further as a victory if you wish, but nobody else will agree with you (except gonzomax).
That having been said, my only response to anything else you post will be as follows:
STFU troll.
The review is you’re an idiot and your breath smells like horseshit.
And my response to a chickenshit anti-American troll like you is ignore. Now you are utterly powerless.
I dunno, your mom sure didn’t complain last night.
Ignore is for pussies.
Lord Rashtard, would you rather America’s economy collapse under our mounting foreign debt, instead of tariffs being raised?
Your chances of there being any Option C are vacillating between Slim and None and Slim is getting offshored.
What good is the ignore feature if you keep reading my posts? Partial credit for adapting an Army of Darkness quote in your attempt to insult me.