(01-27-2009 01:17 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: (01-27-2009 12:31 PM)Artifice Wrote: (01-27-2009 11:29 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: (01-27-2009 10:16 AM)Artifice Wrote: America will be great again when we can pay every blue collar worker tha same $1.38/month that workers get in 3rd world countries!
So, what do you propose to do instead?
I don't have sweeping ideological answers to questions. If you have a specific question, I can & will share my ideas, but most of this discussion is occurring at the level of knee jerk ideology that grossly ignores reality.
I think the question posed is specific enough that if you have any useful ideas you can share them. The US is losing manufacturing jobs to other countries, at least some (but by no means all) of whom pay workers substantially less than we do. Paying US workers starvation wages is not an option (we agree on that). Losing our manufacturing base is not an option, as without any value-added components of our economy we will be unable to sustain any reasonable level of wealth. We can't deliver each other rich with Domino's or greet each other rich at the front door of Wal-Mart. So what do you do to attract value-added (primarily manufacturing) enterprises to the US?
Historically, we've relied on our cheap materials cost and immediate consumer base to attract manufacturing jobs. Though labor costs continued to rise, it was never here because of cheap labor. I don't see that situation as having changed much.
What has changed is the stimulation of the export of labor to foreign markets where labor costs are so trivial by comparison that there really is a "value add", at least to the capital holders & officers. As we've seen, the tide didn't rise to lift all boats, it rushed out and left many beached.
What I would do, from a high level approach, is to reverse the negative impacts of our free trade agreements, including NAFTA, that have driven down U.S. wages, and created the Maquiladora workers on the border that now comprise a third of Mexico's labor force. I would strongly curtail many US Ag subsidies that end up costing us jobs and have us dumping surplus ag product on the mexican market, detsroying their economy. I would end entitlements for and deport undocumented workers.
But, rather than eliminating corporate income taxes, which ultimately just puts more money back in the fat cats' hands, I would continue to push tax credit incentives for American job creation and retention. We cannot be protectionist and have a future either. We need to spur new growth such as foreign owned auto plants (Hyundai in 'Bama) that create valuable jobs. Despite what most think, I'd give even more credit for jobs that ultimately create a trade surplus for the country.
And the biggie? Investment in an entirely new, clean, renewable power grid for the country. Sources (wind, solar, etc), storage, and delivery systems. This is the single biggest investment we can make in this country's future. With modern farming techniques, barring war or distaster, we should always have the ability to feed ourselves, so our number one issue is the ability to be self sufficient energy producers, and dare we think it - supply surplus energy to friendly trade partners around the world. We need to be a world leader in this area. If you think a couple of desert-ridden countries with some backyard crude have power, imagine the U.S. as the major producer of renewable energy...
BTW, I also think that Canada will ultimately challenge us for dominance in this field, if they ever get their act together. They have so much untapped capacity...