Consumer of Last Resort

[william the wie]

With the energy, robot, additive manufacture, materials science, private space launch plus other minor fields both increasing output while decreasing product prices and manufacturing employment, services are expanding.

The switch to service employment tends to be most advanced in the US among the multi-trillion economies but the US is also the world's largest or second largest manufacturer in the world pretty much every year. We also do about as well in agriculture and extractive industries as in manufacturing relative to the rest of the world.

So, here are the problems:

The US is the third largest country in the world in population.

The fourth largest country in physical size and closely allied to the 2nd largest, Canada, and 6th largest, Australia, the US has highly secure access to more resources than any other place on the planet.

The US has spent the last 55 years as consumer of last resort to the rest of the world so, what happens to employment in the rest of the world when automation of say textiles goes below the hourly wage in say Bangladesh? Well Mali will set up a lot of automated factories for their huge cotton crops but employment will shrink there much less in Bangladesh. And the US will not be the major importer since the US has adequate cotton crops for the North American market what kind of employment will be available to these people when that happens?

This is not intended as a we're all going to die thread but more of a how are these other low wage economy people going to survive thread?

 

[Indeependent]

With the energy, robot, additive manufacture, materials science, private space launch plus other minor fields both increasing output while decreasing product prices and manufacturing employment, services are expanding.

The switch to service employment tends to be most advanced in the US among the multi-trillion economies but the US is also the world's largest or second largest manufacturer in the world pretty much every year. We also do about as well in agriculture and extractive industries as in manufacturing relative to the rest of the world.

So, here are the problems:

The US is the third largest country in the world in population.

The fourth largest country in physical size and closely allied to the 2nd largest, Canada, and 6th largest, Australia, the US has highly secure access to more resources than any other place on the planet.

The US has spent the last 55 years as consumer of last resort to the rest of the world so, what happens to employment in the rest of the world when automation of say textiles goes below the hourly wage in say Bangladesh? Well Mali will set up a lot of automated factories for their huge cotton crops but employment will shrink there much less in Bangladesh. And the US will not be the major importer since the US has adequate cotton crops for the North American market what kind of employment will be available to these people when that happens?

This is not intended as a we're all going to die thread but more of a how are these other low wage economy people going to survive thread?

The "leaders" of these low wage nations live pretty darned comfortably.
They are just as greedy as our own elite, regardless of ideology.
Most low wage nations have been granted our technology since the 80s and have used it to exploit their populations.
There is NOTHING the US can do to influence a nations "leaders" to advance the living condition of their "fellow" citizens.

 

[william the wie]

Definitely a core problem but people do vote with their feet with Africa, Latin America and much of Asia having much bigger illegal alien problems than even CT nativists in the US have nightmares about. Chile, Uruguay, Panama and Costa Rica are drowning in illegals.

 

[expat_panama]

...Panama and Costa Rica are drowning in illegals.

No they're not. The thing is those countries aren't ruled by unpopular regimes that need illegal votes to steal elections. Everywhere cops checking papers; illegals don't get welfare and drivers licensees, they get the boot.

 

[william the wie]

...Panama and Costa Rica are drowning in illegals.

No they're not. The thing is those countries aren't ruled by unpopular regimes that need illegal votes to steal elections. Everywhere cops checking papers; illegals don't get welfare and drivers licensees, they get the boot.

But Columbians and Nicas still find employment in the gray and black markets, particularly the sex trade, in large enough numbers that the cops spend more money proportionally on deportations than the US has ever dreamed of.

Your point that in this area Panama and Costa Rica are significantly less corrupt than the US, is certainly something I agree with, but it does not negate the official reports that more than 3.5% of the population is illegal at any given time. The cops can do very little to find, much less deport, all of the unlicensed hookers, sugarbabies, nannies, maids and whatnot that pour in. Also there is the US/Canada problem between Costa Rica and Panama where the safety play is to enter from the unguarded or at least less guarded border.

Or take the transient illegals headed for the US and Canada, mostly Cubans but also Nepalese and others who have no intent of staying in Panama. Admittedly Panama is famous for trying to stem the tide of even transient illegals but you do realize that only 126,000 illegals in border areas would put Panama at or above the US percentage totals and except for the Canal Zone which is the cash cow of the republic Panama cannot afford adequate enforcement.

 

[expat_panama]

...the cops spend more money proportionally on deportations than the US has ever dreamed of. Your point that in this area Panama and Costa Rica are significantly less corrupt than the US, is certainly something I agree with, but it does not negate the official reports that more than 3.5% of the population is illegal at any given time...

Please let me know where you got an 'official report' on illegals in Panama. This site has an official U.S. number from Homeland Security at 12 million (which comes out to 3.8%), unofficial estimates are double that.

We really don't want to call even a 4% level to be 'drowning in illegals'. I mean, when you're on a bus with a couple dozen poeple it's not the end of the world if you find out one of the passengers is a Canadian with an expired visa. What I do care about is that the reason Latin "cops spend more money proportionally on deportations than the US has ever dreamed of" --is because the U.S. has abandoned the rule of law.

 

[william the wie]

I agree with the last sentence.