The false promise of "buy American"

christiefan915 said:
How could there be jobs Americans won't fill? Maybe you mean the down and dirty jobs Americans think they're too good to do but immigrants appreciate. You have a problem with Americans picking grapes in the vineyard?

You're wrong about the newspaper too. If you want to reach the widest audience you advertise in the largest newspaper, maybe the Sun-Sentinal and not the local Patch.

And finally the statistics are from the Labor Dept., not CNN, you're shooting the messenger here. Not surprised.
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Exactly.....welfare pays more than picking grapes.....Citizens won't fill those jobs....California is a good example....the sanctuary for slave workers...

and your bs is from CNN...from your own post......"according to a CNN analysis of Labor Department filings"......the spin starts with them.
 
Althea said:
Which is why prices have to go up via import taxes. Jeans cost $45, not $19.99

It's very hard to compete with foreign labor, when we give health insurance and a much higher wage. But there has to be a way to create labor here, or we're just going to have to fund it with tax dollars via infrastructure, etc.

I tend to agree with you that it isn't coming back. If that's the case, then we have to raise taxes, and let the public sector create jobs.
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True econonic (and job) growth comes from the private sector and the largest share from small businesses. The public sector is not about job creation. It's suppose to be about providing services to the taxpayers.
 
NOVA said:
Exactly.....welfare pays more than picking grapes.....Citizens won't fill those jobs....California is a good example....the sanctuary for slave workers...

and your bs is from CNN...from your own post......"according to a CNN analysis of Labor Department filings"......the spin starts with them.
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:rolleyes: And your proof that anybody chooses welfare over picking grapes? You can't be honest for two seconds and just admit that many Americans don't want to do that kind of labor, especially under the poor conditions and lousy wages those jobs offer.

If you think CNN lied or cherry-picked data then prove it.

"Since 2010, nearly 300 U.S. residents applied or were referred for jobs at Mar-A-Lago,but only 17 were hired...

Federal labor records show Trump sought visas for hundreds of foreign workers to fill temporary positions at his Mar-A-Lago Club in recent years. Hundreds of U.S. applicants either applied or were referred for the jobs, but only a handful were hired. There is some debate about whether those applicants were qualified or not."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article76524527.html
 
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cawacko said:
In theory I totally support the idea of Buy American but as this shows a whole lot goes into it that we don't see on the surface and the overall results aren't always positive
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Uhhh.....yeah....

Just like the obamacare idiocy.

Remember "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it"?

That's the leadership the Dem's want.

We just need to swallow.
 
Wait.....so now we don't want to buy American??????????????????????????????????????????

Good grief.......the right has really done a number on some of you.
 
So in this thread we have people on the left saying people on the right are stupid for believing we should/can buy American and we have people on the left saying people on the right are stupid for saying we can't buy American. So which is it?

The OP lays out pretty well why manufacturing jobs aren't coming back and the global supply lines which contribute to making it difficult to produce here. If someone disagrees with the author I'd love to hear the argument why.
 
Pablo Martinez said:
People should be judged for driving a Nissan, in principle, regardless of where it's made. That being said, if I see someone driving a foreign car on the road (besides German cars), I will presume that they are inept drivers. If I see a VW I will presume that the driver is an asshole, and if it's a Beamer, I will know the driver is an asshole.
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Mercedes??
 
NAFTA?? How is that gonna work if we discourage Americans from buying stuff from a couple of our biggest trading partners??
 
cawacko said:
So in this thread we have people on the left saying people on the right are stupid for believing we should/can buy American and we have people on the left saying people on the right are stupid for saying we can't buy American. So which is it?

The OP lays out pretty well why manufacturing jobs aren't coming back and the global supply lines which contribute to making it difficult to produce here. If someone disagrees with the author I'd love to hear the argument why.
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I disagree. Why? Because it's not about jobs coming back, there's plenty of jobs President Obama saw to that. It's about employers not paying a decent living wage. They don't pay taxes, hoard profits, and pay slave wages.

That's the real problem.
 
TTQ64 said:
I disagree. Why? Because it's not about jobs coming back, there's plenty of jobs President Obama saw to that. It's about employers not paying a decent living wage. They don't pay taxes, hoard profits, and pay slave wages.

That's the real problem.
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Yes there's lots of low paying jobs. It's going to be that way going forward because automation, AI ect will continue to digitize certain positions out of human need. And in a global economy low skilled work that can be automated, shifted overseas or given to those here illegally isn't going to pay anything for Americans.
 
Yes there's lots of low paying jobs. It's going to be that way going forward because automation, AI ect will continue to digitize certain positions out of human need. And in a global economy low skilled work that can be automated, shifted overseas or given to those here illegally isn't going to pay anything for Americans." c #71

It's an interesting issue.

Hank Ford famously paid his own workers $5.oo, considered lavish at the time; not because he was a fool. But because Ford understood if he paid them that well, they'd be able to afford to buy his cars. Ford did not go broke because of this.
So who will be left to buy McDonald's food, if most of the workers there don't run on Big Macs & fries, but instead run on 120 VAC? Robots don't want fries with that.
 
cawacko said:
Yes there's lots of low paying jobs. It's going to be that way going forward because automation, AI ect will continue to digitize certain positions out of human need. And in a global economy low skilled work that can be automated, shifted overseas or given to those here illegally isn't going to pay anything for Americans.
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There's "low paying" jobs because CEO's don't want to pay a living wage.

What ever job you do is work. It's hard work, and at the end of the day, they should be paid a decent living wage to keep up with the cost of living.

Automation and low skilled workers is just propaganda spewed to the public to keep the CEO =pocket fat.
 
"There's "low paying" jobs because CEO's don't want to pay a living wage. " T6 #73

That's a conspicuous demonization.
It is a stereotype that employers pay just enough to prevent workers from quitting, and
workers do just enough work to avoid being fired.

The workers that work there are working there because it's worth it to them to work there. It's not rational to pay entry level restaurant workers enough to buy a fleet of Rolls Royces.

Interestingly, employers like Wal~Mart, by some reports the single largest private sector employer in the U.S., has opted to increase their lowest wage above the minimum the law requires.

"Most poor people are making more than the minimum wage, and most people making the minimum wage are not poor people, they're students and other part time workers." George Will
 
TTQ64 said:
There's "low paying" jobs because CEO's don't want to pay a living wage.

What ever job you do is work. It's hard work, and at the end of the day, they should be paid a decent living wage to keep up with the cost of living.

Automation and low skilled workers is just propaganda spewed to the public to keep the CEO =pocket fat.
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You're choosing to ignore how markets work. When multiple people want a 'low skill' job businesses aren't going to pay more than required for the positions.

Automation is pretty real. It's been occurring in our factories and businesses for decades. It's coming after white collar jobs now as well and isnt going away
 
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tsuke said:
you and i both know that there is none now. Leaving aside cost it seems like if any country could do it it would be america. Your main issue would be the rare raw material not available in the US
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So we essentially have no choice? The problem in the US is we have a market economy that is earning more in other markets than manufacturing. Look at the financial services industry in this nation, technology, healthcare, these industries combined employee far more people than manufacturing does. I mean don't get me wrong manufacturing is a big part of our economy but it's only about 12-15% of the total economy.

Part of the problem is the gods of Wallstreet can make better returns on investment in sectors with higher returns that don't create a lot of jobs. Burning a few summer estates used to stop that shit but you know how it is trying to get millennials to do anything these days. Right?
 
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MH #76

Yes.
The trade imbalance.
What's the solution for that?

No need to worry! President Trump is going to Make America Great Again!

- yea -
 
cawacko said:
Sorry, unable to copy and paste from phone but this article hits on why Trump's promises or hopes that we buy more 'Made in America' isn't a reality and the downsides to our econony that come with it.


https://www.cato.org/blog/false-promise-buy-american
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I do not even need to go to the link. The upside of free trade is the cheap goods low paid us consumers enjoy from the low cost foreign labor. Trump is intentionally increasing the cost to consumers of consumer spending in mere hope the jobs created by his jaw boning of our trading partners outweighs it. Nevermind that unemployment is already pretty low by historical measure. Meantime, he has promised compensation with beafgorded by extreme tax cuts precipitating growth to flush the revenue coffers expended by his building of a wall of southern hate, roads, Bahrain worthy airports etc.

Hopefully the Repuke deficit hawk congress will save him and more importantly us all from his total ignorance. More Reaganomics, especially when the spending component is targeted to krushnev worthy nonsense, will be a fail
 
Micawber said:
I do not even need to go to the link. The upside of free trade is the cheap goods low paid us consumers enjoy from the low cost foreign labor. Trump is intentionally increasing the cost to consumers of consumer spending in mere hope the jobs created by his jaw boning of our trading partners outweighs it. Nevermind that unemployment is already pretty low by historical measure. Meantime, he has promised compensation with beafgorded by extreme tax cuts precipitating growth to flush the revenue coffers expended by his building of a wall of southern hate, roads, Bahrain worthy airports etc.

Hopefully the Repuke deficit hawk congress will save him and more importantly us all from his total ignorance. More Reaganomics, especially when the spending component is targeted to krushnev worthy nonsense, will be a fail
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You have liberals ITT saying the right is crazy for saying we can't make things in America.
 
" we can't make things in America." c #79

We've already proved that wrong.

BUT !!

The landscape is fast evolving.
60 years ago "Made in Japan" was synonymous with junk. Low quality, cheaply made.
A half century later, and Japan is a world-class producer.

" we can't make things in America." c #79

OF COURSE we can.
The issue is, can we do so cost-competitively.

We used to out-produce our international competitors with automation.
Our workers earned twice as much per hour.

BUT !!

Our workers also produced five times as much; thus a net competitive advantage to the U.S.

We've lost that advantage.

So where do we take up the slack?

a) Pay our workers less than the Indonesians? Or

b) Produce products at a living wage that are not competitively priced?
 
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