Free trade explained very very simply:

[g5000]

Low skilled, low tech manufacturing should be done by low skilled, low paid laborers. If you want to make big bucks, you need a big education and employment in high tech industries.

They are called "developing countries" for a reason. They do not have the infrastructure, education, or innovation skill set of advanced countries. But they have hordes of low skilled, low paid laborers. That's their only advantage and they will exploit it to the max. Seeing those hordes elevated out of an abject existence is not a bad thing.

We can't sit still. We have to constantly move ahead. What was the wiz-bang tech yesterday is low tech old hat tomorrow. Sooner or later, your job is going to move to those countries which have developed.

You have to stay ahead of the power curve, and that means education and research and the protection of patents.

The days of growing up to work in the same factory as your daddy are over, kids.

That leaves a lot of people who earned good livings in the manufacturing sector high and dry.

Yep. All those poor buggy whip laborers who earned a good living were tossed out on the street when the automobile was invented. Progress sucks!

 

[edthecynic]

Free trade means that American workers will ultimately make less money.

Not according to the Law Of Comparative advantage. If Americans specialize they will make more!

 

[g5000]

It's time for the 35 hour work week.

 

[Moonglow]

If China invents a flying car and does not export it, 128.2 percent of Americans will still have to travel to work on roads.

All the while, athletes must give 110%...

 

[edthecynic]

Free trade means that American workers will ultimately make less money.

It isn't that black and white; but yes, that happens lol

Only when countries impose tariffs rather than follow the Law of Comparative Advantage.

 

[g5000]

If China invents a flying car and does not export it, 128.2 percent of Americans will still have to travel to work on roads.

All the while, athletes must give 110%...

It took them a lot of work to whittle it down to 110%.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Free trade means that American workers will ultimately make less money.

when free trade allows us to buy cancer cures and other superior products from other countries we get richer not poorer. Can the stupid liberal imagine if countries assumed 200 years ago that trade made them poorer and so they made everything themselves how poor they would have been? Would stupid liberal have prevented new states from joining the union for fear of new competition??

 

[Missourian]

And stagnant or negative wages for how many years?

The collapse of the USSR woke up China and India. They realized the fatal flaw of centrally planned economies and started moving toward market-based economies.

What this meant is that about two billion people entered the world labor market almost simultaneously. Two billion new competitors for work. All at once.

The effect of that is some unavoidable, long term wage suppression on a global scale.

As those two countries develop, their economies will become less and less dependent on exports and more and more dependent on internal consumption. Then we will see wages start rising rapidly again.

A natural economic evolution. And it's fucking awesome.

I hope you are right, but my gut tells me you are wrong...or perhaps I am simply looking at a shorter term. I will be the first to admit my tendency toward tactical thinking over strategic.

I see wages reaching an equilibrium in the global economy. Workers in low wage countries will get a boast...workers in high wage countries will see a reduction...are already seeing a reduction, as cost of living increases while wages stagnate, or worse still...decline.

 

[emilynghiem]

If China invents a cure for cancer and does not practice free trade, 50% of Americans will continue to die of cancer.

Funny you should mention cure for cancer EdwardBaiamonte
My theory is that China could be first, before America, to do the scientific research and implement "spiritual healing" as a free, natural and effective way to reduce, prevent, correct and cure cancer and other diseases. Americans will lobby for medical research to prove that medical marijuana has benefits, but not to research spiritual healing that doesn't get them high!

So it's not because of free trade issues, since the solution is natural and free.
[Spiritual healing works by identifying physical and mental blockages to healing,
so that removing these by forgiveness and prayer therapy reopens the natural flow
for the mind and body to heal itself. And successful cases include cancer, RA, schizophrenia, and other mental and physical illnesses that western medicine can placate symptoms of but doesn't cure the causes.]

What is blocking America from accessing this knowledge and practice that could liberate health care, is the insistence on DEMONIZING and censoring anything Christian, not just "separating church and state" but denying and oppressing any practice of it as negative.

Anything that might prove Christian practices actually work, is NOT on the political
agenda of any group.

So Americans are allowing or enabling sickness to go untreated,
that Christian healing prayer has effectively cured,
due to FEAR and SELFISHNESS. People don't want to admit
that Christians could be right, so they attack and suppress this information.

And every day, lives, minds, health and resources are LOST
that could have been saved by spiritual healing which is free.

Damn shame, but that's what we get for thinking we are the best nation and don't check ourselves.
We think China is the most oppressive, but out of their sheer need to manage billions more people,
the Chinese govt may get smart, and go through the trouble to research spiritual healing,
find out it works for free, and then implement it as a standard part of health care,
to diagnose and go through the therapy to reduce the need and costs of medical procedures.

America boasts about religious freedom, but is too busy
blackballing and blaming Christians "out of fear of losing political control"
we can't even get the solutions out in public that are right under our noses.
This process of curing mental and physical illnesses from cancer to schizophrenia
has been practiced, written up in medical research journals, and proven to many people.

But the "liberal media" and people defending "secular agenda" promote
badmouthing and "discrediting" Christian teachings as false,
instead of focusing on lifesaving and lifechanging methods of healing
that science can be used to prove valid, natural and cost-effective. Because it's free.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

...workers in high wage countries will see a reduction..

reduction?? We just were able to afford the richest Christmas ever buying millions of toy drones, Apple watches, and hoverboards, average price $500.

 

[Missourian]

Low skilled, low tech manufacturing should be done by low skilled, low paid laborers. If you want to make big bucks, you need a big education and employment in high tech industries.

They are called "developing countries" for a reason. They do not have the infrastructure, education, or innovation skill set of advanced countries. But they have hordes of low skilled, low paid laborers. That's their only advantage and they will exploit it to the max. Seeing those hordes elevated out of an abject existence is not a bad thing.

We can't sit still. We have to constantly move ahead. What was the wiz-bang tech yesterday is low tech old hat tomorrow. Sooner or later, your job is going to move to those countries which have developed.

You have to stay ahead of the power curve, and that means education and research and the protection of patents.

The days of growing up to work in the same factory as your daddy are over, kids.

That leaves a lot of people who earned good livings in the manufacturing sector high and dry.

Yep. All those poor buggy whip laborers who earned a good living were tossed out on the street when the automobile was invented. Progress sucks!

I would say the buggy whip laborers went to work for the automobile manufactures and made even more income...that's not an option in this situation...

 

[TemplarKormac]

dear, we have 95% employment

No we don't.

 

[emilynghiem]

...workers in high wage countries will see a reduction..

reduction?? We just were able to afford the richest Christmas ever buying millions of toy drones, Apple watches, and hoverboards, average price $500.

How long can the slave labor go on that allows us to buy electronics "made in China"?
When are we going to start converting to local labor and production.
And what effect is that going to have on costs?

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Low skilled, low tech manufacturing should be done by low skilled, low paid laborers. If you want to make big bucks, you need a big education and employment in high tech industries.

They are called "developing countries" for a reason. They do not have the infrastructure, education, or innovation skill set of advanced countries. But they have hordes of low skilled, low paid laborers. That's their only advantage and they will exploit it to the max. Seeing those hordes elevated out of an abject existence is not a bad thing.

We can't sit still. We have to constantly move ahead. What was the wiz-bang tech yesterday is low tech old hat tomorrow. Sooner or later, your job is going to move to those countries which have developed.

You have to stay ahead of the power curve, and that means education and research and the protection of patents.

The days of growing up to work in the same factory as your daddy are over, kids.

That leaves a lot of people who earned good livings in the manufacturing sector high and dry.

Yep. All those poor buggy whip laborers who earned a good living were tossed out on the street when the automobile was invented. Progress sucks!

I would say the buggy whip laborers went to work for the automobile manufactures and made even more income...that's not an option in this situation...

dear, when farm equipment displaced 99% of the workers on earth they all found other jobs that we could not have imagined.

 

[g5000]

The guys who run the machines on the assembly line at Ye Olde Factory are practically scientists these days.

Low skilled, low tech manufacturing should be done by low skilled, low paid laborers. If you want to make big bucks, you need a big education and employment in high tech industries.

They are called "developing countries" for a reason. They do not have the infrastructure, education, or innovation skill set of advanced countries. But they have hordes of low skilled, low paid laborers. That's their only advantage and they will exploit it to the max. Seeing those hordes elevated out of an abject existence is not a bad thing.

We can't sit still. We have to constantly move ahead. What was the wiz-bang tech yesterday is low tech old hat tomorrow. Sooner or later, your job is going to move to those countries which have developed.

You have to stay ahead of the power curve, and that means education and research and the protection of patents.

The days of growing up to work in the same factory as your daddy are over, kids.

That leaves a lot of people who earned good livings in the manufacturing sector high and dry.

Yep. All those poor buggy whip laborers who earned a good living were tossed out on the street when the automobile was invented. Progress sucks!

I would say the buggy whip laborers went to work for the automobile manufactures and made even more income...that's not an option in this situation...

It most certainly is an option.

Do you think there was a skill set crossover between a buggy whip maker and a car maker?

Nope. No crossover.

I'll let you in on a little secret: Look at the jobs where unionization is almost unheard of.

 

[emilynghiem]

Free trade explained even more simply...if workers in Indonesia make $1 an hour doing the same job as an American worker making $20 per hour, all else being equal, which country produces the less expensive...and by extension, more desirable product.

dear, we have 95% employment even with Asians making 10% of what we make. Do you have the IQ to understand?

Where are you getting 95% employment?
And also, how long can we keep depending on slave labor?
Is this an acceptable factor in your equation, to keep relying on violating human rights to make goods affordable?

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

When are we going to start converting to local labor and production.

as soon as we don't want to buy a cancer cure from China or Israel. Do you have the IQ to understand??

 

[emilynghiem]

When are we going to start converting to local labor and production.

as soon as we don't want to buy a cancer cure from China or Israel. Do you have the IQ to understand??

The root cure for cancer is FREE.

Did you understand what I am referring to in my post on spiritual healing?
Do you understand how much we can cut medical costs and disease rates for FREE?

So that will change the entire equation if we stop corporate exploitation of
expensive medications, medical costs and treatments including for cancer.

What will change the dynamics of Chinese labor:
What if we take the Chinese debt owed by the US
and translate that into restitution for workers whose human rights were violated by slave labor.
So pay it back to the workers by investing in building sustainable
housing, schools, service facilities, etc. And pay the debt off that way,
by insisting it be used to "pay off damages" from Chinese human rights violations against their own people.

That way the money doesn't go into military.
It goes toward the victims and workers, into building infrastructure to sustain that population.

That's what is going to change the "trade and economic status"
What do you think of THAT idea?

 

[TNHarley]

It's time for the 35 hour work week.

I read some work from an economist that said that isn't the answer. Americans are lazy and entitled enough. Foreigners work harder and longer which means more production. Plus, I think we have enough govt overreach in our economy

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

It's time for the 35 hour work week.

I read some work from an economist that said that isn't the answer. Americans are lazy and entitled enough. Foreigners work harder and longer which means more production. Plus, I think we have enough govt overreach in our economy

very true, the less people work the less they invent and the further they fall behind.