Say goodbye to YOUR job going overseas!..

"That the Marketplace is the Great Arbiter is a Universal Truth. You don’t have to like it, but then, feelings don’t really have any place in business, do they?

Life is a steamroller, Babies. Climb aboard or be flattened.

I just adore all the simple-minded claptrap here about “American Made” products. Does no one here remember the 70’s, when General Motors gave the keys to Detroit to the Japanese auto makers? Don’t you remember those wretched, horrid, ugly cars GM tried to push on its consumer base?

As I recall, no one bought those pathetic excuses for cars, and Toyota became a household word. American auto makers became brutally acquainted with the stark reality that there are other countries in the world where cars could be built; and they have subsequently changed their attitude.

But that does not change the fact that corporations are ruthless.

What is so delectably delicious, though, is the other fact, that corporations are not ambiguous, mysterious entities to be talked about in hushed, ethereal tones. No. They are people, ordinary people, and that is to say, ruthless people.

You don’t like it? Don’t participate. Grow your own cotton and make your own cheap shirts.

Get a grip, would ya? Wal-Mart executives were beside themselves with joy on the day Sam Walton died. That afternoon all that malarkey about American made this and American made that went right out the corporate back door. Since then, Wal-Mart has flourished.

Why do you suppose that is? You ever shop at Wal-Mart? No? You’re lying. America shops at Wal-Mart because that’s where good products are available at low prices.

And please, desist with all that lachrymose belly-aching about the poor little kiddies in the sweat shops. People, i.e., ruthless people, don’t care about the plight of poor little brown boys and girls hoveled in adobe shacks in a date palm desert. They care about price tags, about how much bang they can get for their buck. In a word, they care about themselves.

There’s another Universal Truth for you to chew on.

Best regards,"

And prices go down, allowing us to own more than ever and people in third world countries find their wages increasing as skills and capital grow. What do you propose the poor of the world do instead of making us t-shirts? Why do you think they decided to work making t-shirts as opposed to doing what they did before? What would be the benefit of us wasting valuable resources creating overly expensive goods when we could be using them to create something else much more efficiently?

And prices go down, allowing us to own more than ever and people in third world countries find their wages increasing as skills and capital grow. What do you propose the poor of the world do instead of making us t-shirts? Why do you think they decided to work making t-shirts as opposed to doing what they did before? What would be the benefit of us wasting valuable resources creating overly expensive goods when we could be using them to create something else much more efficiently?

:::searches in vain for question to respond to:::

pretend I only posted that once.

Let me counter with a few questions for you.

Why are we responsible for foreign development and industry? Why is there the implicit assumption that they are incapable of doing for themselves, so we should give them the scraps from our table? Is that a fair assumption? And why should we not bite the bullet and pay more for our products that are made at home in order to preserve that industry and not depend upon other countries for our well being?

I mean, c’mon. Doesn’t anyone remember Japan and the shortages they had in the 1930s, and the disaster that resulted partially as a result of that? That’s the direction we’re going, and it will really suck when we have to reinvent all of these industries later for some cheap stuff today.

I’d just like to state (in contradiction to the rambling OP) that I’ve never bought anything at Wal-Mart. Of course, the closest one is about 18 miles from me, and I don’t see the point of schlepping down there to get stuff I can get at my local Target, but there you go.

What’s this, another Libertarian rant? Making a fuckin’ point, will ya?

I don’t like it that my job is in danger of being taken away from me and given to some nice bloke in Indonesia…

But I would like it less if my government had the power to prevent, by law, companies hiring abroad.

Trinopus

My question is why should we bite the bullet in order to preserve that industry and not depend on other countries for our well being? Does a country really need to be 100% self-sufficient? Is there some national security risk in having our tennis shoes and soccer balls manufactured in China? I posit that there’s enough competition between the various countries that no single nation would have enough market power to significantly control our supply of most goods, at least for any significant amount of time. The merits and costs of “hiring our own” (in terms of national employment levels) have already been beaten to death in these forums, of course.

**

My understanding was that Japan’s problem was inadequate natural resources such as ore, rubber, oil and so on, and not an issue of manufacturing capacity. Natural resources such as those, of course, can only be increased by “annexing” new territories, which is precisely what Japan was doing. I don’t recall any of it having to do with too much dependence on foreign manufacturing capacity.

What industries are you worried about us having to reinvent in the future, anyway? And considering how quickly these industries are being “reinvented” abroad, just how painful would it be to do so here in the States if we had to? Would it be less painful to “reinvent” television production in the United States right now than it would be 50 years into the future, or whenever it is you’re expecting the rest of the planet to halt exports to the U.S.?

The OP came from this thread copied verbatim (without attribution) from Rene’s post, close to the bottom of the page.

Perhaps a mod can take some action.

[Moderator Hat ON]

Rooves, do NOT steal other poster’s words without attribution. This thread is locked. Further examples of this will get you banned.

[Moderator Hat OFF]