alms
Banned
- Joined
- May 20, 2010
- Messages
- 157
- Reaction score
- 51
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
Well, do you want a product that is good and lasts for life, or do you want something that's designed to last at least as long as the warranty?
Something that lasts a lifetime won't do me any good if I can't afford to buy it.
Well, you have to examine the quality of the work area for these individuals. You should look up the conditions of the iPad's... after a series of 16 suicides from the people that worked somewhere around 16 hrs a day for 6-7 days a week, they now have a 'suicide clause' in the employment contract, where if they cause grief they are treated as though the might commit suicide.
Oh, and, also recently, the workers in China have started fighting to unionize (essentially, from my understanding)....
What's your point?
I only disagree in the sense that we no longer live in a 'free-market'... we live in a 'crony capitalist' state, which is teetering on the fascist (not as in hitlers germany, that was sold as socialism, I'm talking about the mix of government and corporate entities.)
You're disagreeing with an argument I never made. I understand perfectly well that we do not have a "free market". I was merely commenting on the theoretical aspects of Smith's economic philosophy, which Guy labeled as "irrelevant dogma".
You have to work to have a healthy economy, where the first 1000 books you might print will cost you 5000$, but if you print 10000 books it will cost you 8000$ (as an arbitrary illustration).
What we have to do before that can happen is to break up the monopolies, duopolies and oligolopolies in the economy, and rewrite the legistlation with teeth to prevent them from simply forming newer and more intricate crony systems, end the federal reserve, bring the US currency back to something in line with a hard currency, work to produce that hard currency, etc...
In other words, we need a hollistic fix for the economy... not a 'green jobs' that costs more jobs then it creates, and are short term jobs (as greece offers the cautionary tale).
We need jobs to have a healthy economy? Really?
DO YOU know just how much of a premium is put on chinese made goods??? You're Ipod / Ipad actually gets produced for about 20-30$ a piece + shipping overseas, storage expenses + markups. (If I remember they are several hundred dollars each).
Markups are not the same thing as a labor premium. A markup is simply a way to increase profit after the product comes to market; a labor premium, however, is built in to the cost of production and cannot be reduced like a markup.
So, I think I'd feel safe paying for a 75000$ car that'll snap those cheap arse foreign models like a twig if there's an accident... that'll run for 15 years if it's taken care of, and has balls so big they drage on the ground and make sparks.
1. Not everyone can afford to pay $75,000 for a gas-guzzling, steel monster.
2. Not everyone who can afford such a car even wants one.
3. Many of the cheap foreign models you're deriding are very reliable and cost-effective.
regardless though, that's besides the point, there needs to be COMPETITION with these other producers... and at the very least start reducing our trade deficit.
Why do you keep telling me things I already know? I understand that competition is necessary. It's a point I've made continually by highlighting the prohibitive cost of American labor.
As it stands, our standard of living is bloated and our labor is overpriced. Both of these factors serve to undermine our global competitiveness, and protectionist/populist economic policies will only exacerbate the situation.
Globalization is going to teach us Americans are very harsh lesson in the coming decades. We've become too soft and complacent. The emerging middle classes of India, China, and Brazil are going to crush us unless we lower taxes and relax our labor laws.
Ultimately if the trend was for protectionist BUYING habits, then american made products would eventually become cheaper as the REAL economy would be properly stimulated by internal production.
How would they become cheaper when the labor premium is built into the cost of production?
The way things are going now, if you were to use a baseball analogy , you would say that we are in 'inning 2' of a 9 inning collapse. Soon will be inning 3.
Lower taxes and relaxed labor laws; less government. That's the solution.