[quote=SD Realtor]Well it makes some sense but breaks down on the jobs part.
Here is what I do not understand…. Everyone says bring the jobs back. Bring them back! Like it is no problem to do so… However if there are people who will do the same job for 1/10 of the cost of an American employee then how exactly does that work? If American union jobs benefit the american employee somewhat but a nice percentage of that salary goes to the union which then goes to lobbyists, then how does that work as well?
The crux of it is that “american jobs” carry so much overhead with the salary that the answer is that IT DOESNT WORK.
The big admission here is that a percentage of the American labor force has priced themselves out of jobs. The govt has compounded the problems by awarding corporations for outsourcing as well and all that infrastructure buildout did not happen in a year and you cannot throw a switch and expect it to be reversed in a year… or two…or five. Similarly the effort it will take to return those jobs is indescribeable and the bottom line it that it will hurt the companies it is aimed at which will hurt their bottom line and their stock price which will hurt Wall St which controls the govt…
savy?[/quote]
SDR,
Some would contend that it was never the unions that “priced us out of the market” because it was those unions that provided the *customers* of those businesses that had union labor. It was a virtuous cycle: well paying jobs produced wealthier employees who were customers of the companies who provided those well paying jobs. Once the corporations decided to get greedy and grow their profits at the expense of their workers and customers, they began the steady destruction of their customer base.
As of now, we are still the world’s #1 consumer powerhouse. We’ve only managed to stay there because Americans were convinced to take on debt to make up for their stagnating/declining wages. I fully believe that the housing bubble was intentionally designed to force people into more consumer debt. We were *encouraged at every step* to “take money out of our homes” and spend it. By using housing as the tool for expanding debt (credit levels were determined more by the “value” of the collateral instead of income/ability to pay back the debt), the amounts could be much larger than with unsecured debt that was strictly based on income.
We need to enact tariffs to offset the profit margins gained by exploiting cheap labor around the world. Otherwise, it is a race to the bottom, which should be clear to everyone by now (but for some reason, too many people refuse to see it!).
