The "Global Economy" is killing the American Economy

[tenthertoo]

The American consumer is quite able to support a vibrant and growing standard of living for all Americans.

Not so long ago if you could produce something that sold well in New York City you could make a fortune. If you could sell well (American) nationwide you could become super rich.

Why have we become slaves to the international economy? A crash in Greece (for heaven's sake) rocks our economy.

It's become a crock. We can do quite well (thank you) if we would go back to produce/buy/sell American.

Am I a xenophobe? Very Right! Am I a Radical Nationalist? Damn right!!

 

[KissMy]

Why go back. Now you no longer have to work. All you have to do is sign up with the government to enjoy life. Government will give you a debit card so you buy all the food you need. They even give you free housing & shit.

 

[itfitzme]

Why go back. Now you no longer have to work. All you have to do is sign up with the government to enjoy life. Government will give you a debit card so you buy all the food you need. They even give you free housing & shit.

Really? So you've done this?

Exactly how do I qualify for a debit card and free food and housing and shit? What do I have to do to qualify?

 

[itfitzme]

The American consumer is quite able to support a vibrant and growing standard of living for all Americans.

Not so long ago if you could produce something that sold well in New York City you could make a fortune. If you could sell well (American) nationwide you could become super rich.

Why have we become slaves to the international economy? A crash in Greece (for heaven's sake) rocks our economy.

It's become a crock. We can do quite well (thank you) if we would go back to produce/buy/sell American.

Am I a xenophobe? Very Right! Am I a Radical Nationalist? Damn right!!

The American consumer is quite able to support a vibrant and growing standard of living for all Americans.

Not so long ago if you could produce something that sold well in New York City you could make a fortune. If you could sell well (American) nationwide you could become super rich.

Why have we become slaves to the international economy? A crash in Greece (for heaven's sake) rocks our economy.

It's become a crock. We can do quite well (thank you) if we would go back to produce/buy/sell American.

Am I a xenophobe? Very Right! Am I a Radical Nationalist? Damn right!!

We have always been a "slave" to the international economy. The Great Depression was an international depression. There is every reason to conclude that WWI was the outcome of international instability. We can go all the way back to the founding of America and find that it has "always" been an international issue. Ever since mankind began trading with neighboring nations, especially since we learned to sail the ocean blue, it's been an international issue.

It's a "sword cuts both ways" issue. Trade accelerated growth and improves standard of living. Unfortunately, when it goes down, it goes down for everyone.

What I saw in the consumer product engineering/manufacturing industry is that the US is now a global competitive market place for jobs. India and China engineers compete for jobs in Silicon Valley. And the really shitty thing is that they get in because manufacturing gets shipped or tied in overseas, Chinese engineers working for overseas manufacturing then have an in to the parent company in the US. The result is it increases the labor pool of engineers with experience, pushing out opportunities for entry level engineering positions. There is limited growth opportunity for American graduates.

In terms of simple employment, it wasn't so bad through to 2006. We were runnning at nearly full labor utiliztation, at 48.8% pop, every possible person that could work was working.

I am not sure, though, except for my anecdotal global competative labor force comment, if trade restrictions would make anything different. Every time the economy receedes, imports drop off and the trade "imbalance" receedes. When the economy was good, it didn't matter.

And it's not like we can just ramp up production on products that are now imported. It just doesn't work that way, not quickly.

When we were produce/buy/sell American, we were at like 40% labor utilization.

Were we better of in the '73s, when we didn't have such a major import market? We were not employing everyone. We had recessions then too.

The idea that there are imports being purchased and people here that could make them makes some sense on initial inspection. But then lots of things do.

I'm not so sure it's that simple. If building American was a solution, then the markets would do that.

I don't think that's the thing. It's not what has or is happening that gets us. It's the changes that get us. But the trade of it, if we cap the change, we cap it in both directions, recession and growth.

And so far, I haven't seen any serious ideas of how to trade off growth for the sake of stability. And I'm not sure many would even go for it. They want to put the success for growth on capitalism then blame the recession on something else. I don't think it works that way. I think that it is the unrestricted growth that allows for unrestricted contraction when businesses decide to pay of debt, a balance sheet recession, because they don't see ROI in growth.

That is honestly what I'm seeing. It's like a formula one race car. Sure, it goes really fast, but when it gets out of control, it sucks.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Why have we become slaves to the international economy? !

1) if our goods are not world class we won't be a world class country

2) imagine you could trade with 0 people, or 5 people or 100 people or 300 million, or 7 billion? Which would you pick? If you have a Republican libertarian intelligence you pick 7 billion because you'd be a lot richer.

Any more questions about what is covered in Econ 101, class one, day one, minute one??