I agree with @steamer that the only real option is tariffs if we want to maintain our standard of living. The current model of outsource every job we can and insource people for every job we can’t (legal or illegal) in the pursuit of the absolute lowest price for “the consumer” is the absolute essence of the phrase “race to the bottom”.
Tariffs should be proportional to what’s necessary to offset the higher cost of manufacturing an equivalent good in a US factory. Would it suck to pay more for the “stuff” that we have gotten so used to being so cheap and disposable? yup. Worth it though in the long run in my view. A return to quality over quantity would be a step in the right direction.
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By the way, as we look forward 10, 20, 50 years, this isn’t going to get any better. Even as places like China, Vietnam, HK, Taiwan, etc. (the capitalists’ previous countries of choice for cheap labor) have raised their standards of living to varying degrees, there is a whole continent of untapped impoverished people to exploit. China is on the leading edge of this by getting their hooks into Africa early on so they will have the advantage in that area.
My guess is that their plan is to replace the ‘China’s cheap labor feeds the hungry US middle class consumer’ with ‘Africa’s cheap labor feeds the hungry Chinese and European middle class’ model.
China is the millennial telling the US ‘ok boomer’ when we try to flex our “greatest consumer economy” muscle.
“Big Pharma” is probably a good example of how that race is run. Back in the 1970s they managed to purchase an indulgence in the form of a federal tax incentive called Section 936 which permiiied U.S. manufacturers to send all profits back to the mother corporaton without having to pay a dime in federal taxes.
When Section 936 expired they moved production to China. How’s that working for American people so far? I was in a pharmacy in Sint Maarten recently with a friend who purchased some EpiPens for his son who has a seriouis allergy to insect bites. He paid $50 for a two-pack. In the U.S. he pays over $700.
Who is winning this race?
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The US…normally winning a race is good, but not when the finish line is a cliff.
The Chinese were building infrastructure in Africa when I was there back in the 1970s. China was spending a fortune building roads and bridges. We were selling them sugar and draining them of around $400 million a year while the CIA was sending guns to keep the Angola war going.
awww maaaannn…you were doing so well
If all cheap consumer goods are to be produced in high wage countries (US,Europe,Japan etc.) will it create more high paying jobs for low skilled/blue collard workers in those countries?
More likely for robot designers and computer engineers.
What about mariners??
When there is no need for ocean transport of such items, who needs them?
OK raw material will still be needed to keep consumer goods producing robots and machinery busy. That will have to be transported by ships right??
Oh I forgot; those ships will be autonomous, (Designed and built by robots as well?)
The brave new world of the future for those who live through the Corona crises to see it.
F’ing incredible!!!
The depth of depravity and corruption in our so called “representatives” is beyond comprehension.
They’re our elected representatives
I for one will remember each and every one next election. I will vote for a tree before one of those scumbags gets a vote from me.
Of course that assumes we will still have the right to vote next time, there are no guarantees of that these days.
Pretty dark. It’s a myth that basic manufacturing can be returned. The robots pretty much have that one. I dunno about shipping. Some autonomous shipping seems inevitable.
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if a robot can do it then it can and should be done locally
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Yep and that’s just the money the Fed created for Wall St. Wait until congress showers more money down on them. If the Fed had distributed that 942 billion it created for Wall St to the 130 million families on Main St each family would have gotten $7,250 which they would have spent or paid down debt with thereby having a positive effect on the economy, Of course the Fed can’t by law send money to citizens only banks and financial institutions. But they can save the already wealthy form their gambling debts. Socialism for the wealthy.
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100% when they pump QE money it just goes to share price inflation or a bubble as it used to be called…
It doesnt help the economy
QE should be lower costs for the community, tax breaks to employ people etc etc
lower fuel, elec prices
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