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Originally Posted by Pleasurepays
"everyone wants Capitalism when they think it works and Socialism when they think it doesn't"
1) credit card companies dont just arbitrarily raise rates (double them) "just because they feel like it" .... only a moron would make a remark like that to make a point about broader economic issues.
2) jobs offshore? its a global economy. adapt or die. you can't subsidize buggy whips just because you are losing to cars. the choice is to remain competitive or lose. end of story.
3) losing their houses? really? did something happen that they didn't agree to in a massively long contract and process that takes days to go through?
God forbid the United States of America look to free markets and the ingenuity of people to solve problems.... and please... please... lets not hold individuals accountable for buying homes they couldn't afford and the fact that no one feels they can live without absurd amounts of debt.
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I agree with a lot of what you have said here but I think you are off on one point.
First,
Quote:
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2) jobs offshore? its a global economy. adapt or die. you can't subsidize buggy whips just because you are losing to cars. the choice is to remain competitive or lose. end of story.
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The major flaw with that is that most of the places that our jobs are moving to we can't compete with. American's can't live in our economy on $2 a day. So what does that mean? Well, it means we have to get other types of jobs, the problem is the job market is shrinking fast.
The middle class in America was built on manufacturing jobs. These were jobs that anyone with a high school diploma could get, work for several years and start making enough money to buy a house, have a few kids and live a decent middle class life. Those jobs are now going offshore. Why pay some dude $20 an hour when you can pay some guy in a third world country .50 cents an hour and you don't have to pay him overtime, give him benefits or provide a safe work environment? This leaves all these people that build their lives around these manufacturing jobs to adapt or die. They basically have two options. They can get another job which most likely will be paying them less or they can go back to school and learn to do something else. I guess they could get into a company and try to work their way up too.
I saw the other day on the news that most of the new jobs being created in the US are in the service and retail industry. They said the reason for this is that 70% of our economy is now based on consumer spending. We don't make anything to sell to other people/countries anymore, we make most of our money because our people spend their money on a bunch of shit they don't need. When they stop doing that we are in trouble. Since these are the only industries that are booming (meaning sales/retail and service waiters, gardener etc) most of the new jobs are in those lower paying worlds. Even many of our higher paying tech jobs are going out of the country. Big companies are moving offshore where labor, even very skilled labor, is very cheap. Without some kind of help it will be harder and harder to keep good paying jobs in this country. It isn't impossible, it is just getting harder and harder.
I agree that people should work to remain competitive, but our economy is changing and with the globalization of the labor force it is getting harder and harder for our workers to get jobs where they make a good living. Remaining competitive is one thing, but you can't compete against certain things. I don't look to the government to subsidize insdustries and just give them money to stay here, but maybe they should stop giving money to them when they move their jobs offshore and maybe they should help (in the form of tariffs or some kind of taxes) those that are staying here. Make it a little harder for companies to build a product offshore then sell it here. If you have ever been a third world shithole country something you will notice is that most of the people there make their living by either selling stuff to each other or by providing services to each other. With nothing being exported they have no outside money coming in so they just keep passing the same money back and forth. I fear we are quickly heading that way and the phrase will no longer be adapt or die, but just die.
sorry for the long post