Wednesday, April 28, 2004
EMAILS FROM AN AMERICA FIRST TYPE DUDE...
Sentimentality will only get you so far in the battle for logic and critical thinking when it comes to the issues of outsourcing, trade deficits, and the shrimping industry here in South Carolina. While I understand the beautiful visions of someone going to work and being "protected" by the government from ever having to do anything different to earn their living, it's unsettling to me when you consider the advancement of the United States and how we got to where we are today. See if you can follow the logic of young Karl here:
Please explain to me why you are willing to sell out American economic advantage to the WTO? Why not sell out American military advantage to the UN and International Criminal Court while you are at it? You pretend like Iraq is a threat and ignore repeated attacks by China. I don't understand your hypocrisy. Imported drugs are dangerous but imported food is fine?
Seriously you don't know what you are talking about. Aquaculture has the ability to grow shrimp indoors. Indoors we can manipulate the temperature and photoperiod (daylength) to any "season" we want. We can have local shrimp whenever we decide. But not if shrimp dumping keeps prices artificially low.
Don't trust the seafood suppliers. They are making record profits by buying the low priced foreign shrimp and selling at normal or increased menu prices.
As soon as the American shrimp industry collapses, the price of foreign shrimp will soar. Look at the steel industry. Rebar costs are up 300% and Toyota Tundras now cost LESS than F-150s. That is unconscionable. Foreign substitutes should always be priced above homegrown alternatives.
My reply:
Indoor shrimp? Why isn’t anyone investing in an operation to do that in SC? That’s a great idea. I’m sure the shrimpers on Shem Creek would love to compete against that. They’d gladly give up their boats to sit in an office and monitor a pool.
The argument is being conducted with a lot of sentimental baloney. They are advocating preserving a way of life when the market for production and distribution is changing...they don’t want to keep up with change. We can compete economically – but it will have to be after some changing of habits...more work, better products, and better value...and there are far too many factors that play into those aspects than simply trade restrictions and tariffs. Had we not had Japanese car dumping in the US in the 80’s, we’d still be driving piece of crap K-cars instead of the much improved American vehicles of today (which I still avoid because they’re still not good enough).
Then, there's this:
Why do we have an Army? To protect what, if not the American way of life? And what is the American way of life but the way we make a LIVING! For what the free traders are suggesting, we might as well just go ahead and outsource our government and be done with it already! Because that is what we are doing with the HUGE trade deficits. The American people are buying on credit and selling off industry at every turn with no end in sight. At some point soon it will become obvious that the SS, Federal, Trade, and personal debt we are carrying cannot ever be repayed. And then what? The boom and bust of the capitalist system? At least we should defend against such economic attacks by countries like China, I think. They are trying to get control of the food supply.
Finally, I move in for the KILL:
The way you make a living is being protected...just not guaranteed to be the same forever.
More examples: Typesetters outsourced by laser printers; Typists outsourced by word processing; Secretaries outsourced by Outlook and Office software; bad local radio shows outsourced by satellites; Operators outsourced by computer switching; Magnetic tape outsourced by digital hard drives...
I could go on. The point not being considered by people like yourself are the jobs being created in the evolution of those kinds of jobs.
And by the way...The trade deficit is a somewhat bogus issue...as shown (graph photo), since 1997, the growth in GDP has been proportional to the growth in the trade deficit.
Read the book, The Tariff History of the United States, economist Frank Taussig concluded that high tariffs did little to stimulate domestic production. This is evident in the fact that the U.S. ran a trade deficit almost continuously from 1790 to 1875.
A key reason for the trade deficit is that the U.S. was the China of its day: a place where cheap land greatly reduced production costs, just as cheap labor reduces costs in China. This led to a flood of foreign investment into the U.S., especially in transportation technology like railroads, which were the Internet of their day. It is a simple matter of accounting: When a nation is a net capital importer, it must run a trade deficit.
Thus when a nation has good economic prospects and attracts foreign investment, it tends to run deficits. Conversely, when its prospects are bleak and capital is trying to escape the country, it will tend to run surpluses. Therefore, the existence of a surplus or deficit may tell us exactly the opposite of what a lot of people believe. Deficits may be a sign of strength, while surpluses are a sign of weakness.
Feel better? Good...
Sentimentality will only get you so far in the battle for logic and critical thinking when it comes to the issues of outsourcing, trade deficits, and the shrimping industry here in South Carolina. While I understand the beautiful visions of someone going to work and being "protected" by the government from ever having to do anything different to earn their living, it's unsettling to me when you consider the advancement of the United States and how we got to where we are today. See if you can follow the logic of young Karl here:
Please explain to me why you are willing to sell out American economic advantage to the WTO? Why not sell out American military advantage to the UN and International Criminal Court while you are at it? You pretend like Iraq is a threat and ignore repeated attacks by China. I don't understand your hypocrisy. Imported drugs are dangerous but imported food is fine?
Seriously you don't know what you are talking about. Aquaculture has the ability to grow shrimp indoors. Indoors we can manipulate the temperature and photoperiod (daylength) to any "season" we want. We can have local shrimp whenever we decide. But not if shrimp dumping keeps prices artificially low.
Don't trust the seafood suppliers. They are making record profits by buying the low priced foreign shrimp and selling at normal or increased menu prices.
As soon as the American shrimp industry collapses, the price of foreign shrimp will soar. Look at the steel industry. Rebar costs are up 300% and Toyota Tundras now cost LESS than F-150s. That is unconscionable. Foreign substitutes should always be priced above homegrown alternatives.
My reply:
Indoor shrimp? Why isn’t anyone investing in an operation to do that in SC? That’s a great idea. I’m sure the shrimpers on Shem Creek would love to compete against that. They’d gladly give up their boats to sit in an office and monitor a pool.
The argument is being conducted with a lot of sentimental baloney. They are advocating preserving a way of life when the market for production and distribution is changing...they don’t want to keep up with change. We can compete economically – but it will have to be after some changing of habits...more work, better products, and better value...and there are far too many factors that play into those aspects than simply trade restrictions and tariffs. Had we not had Japanese car dumping in the US in the 80’s, we’d still be driving piece of crap K-cars instead of the much improved American vehicles of today (which I still avoid because they’re still not good enough).
Then, there's this:
Why do we have an Army? To protect what, if not the American way of life? And what is the American way of life but the way we make a LIVING! For what the free traders are suggesting, we might as well just go ahead and outsource our government and be done with it already! Because that is what we are doing with the HUGE trade deficits. The American people are buying on credit and selling off industry at every turn with no end in sight. At some point soon it will become obvious that the SS, Federal, Trade, and personal debt we are carrying cannot ever be repayed. And then what? The boom and bust of the capitalist system? At least we should defend against such economic attacks by countries like China, I think. They are trying to get control of the food supply.
Finally, I move in for the KILL:
The way you make a living is being protected...just not guaranteed to be the same forever.
More examples: Typesetters outsourced by laser printers; Typists outsourced by word processing; Secretaries outsourced by Outlook and Office software; bad local radio shows outsourced by satellites; Operators outsourced by computer switching; Magnetic tape outsourced by digital hard drives...
I could go on. The point not being considered by people like yourself are the jobs being created in the evolution of those kinds of jobs.
And by the way...The trade deficit is a somewhat bogus issue...as shown (graph photo), since 1997, the growth in GDP has been proportional to the growth in the trade deficit.
Read the book, The Tariff History of the United States, economist Frank Taussig concluded that high tariffs did little to stimulate domestic production. This is evident in the fact that the U.S. ran a trade deficit almost continuously from 1790 to 1875.
A key reason for the trade deficit is that the U.S. was the China of its day: a place where cheap land greatly reduced production costs, just as cheap labor reduces costs in China. This led to a flood of foreign investment into the U.S., especially in transportation technology like railroads, which were the Internet of their day. It is a simple matter of accounting: When a nation is a net capital importer, it must run a trade deficit.
Thus when a nation has good economic prospects and attracts foreign investment, it tends to run deficits. Conversely, when its prospects are bleak and capital is trying to escape the country, it will tend to run surpluses. Therefore, the existence of a surplus or deficit may tell us exactly the opposite of what a lot of people believe. Deficits may be a sign of strength, while surpluses are a sign of weakness.
Feel better? Good...
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