CDZ Help me chaise the wasted money

[Toronado3800]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

 

[Vastator]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

Psst. A healthy chunk of that "government spending" is the enemy economy...

 

[Dekster]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

A good chunk of the cost of electronics is in the licensing fees for all the intellectual property on board. Let us say that $200 of that $600 goes to Silicone Valley. Silicone Valley doesn't spend that money, so why not take a chunk of it to provide your prostitute health insurance?

 

[usmbguest5318]

Help me chaise the wasted money...There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Why do you want to put wasted money into a sofa? That you do may well be the problem with your reasoning. LOL

 

[usmbguest5318]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

What do I need to know or think about?

• Macro and micro economics
• Pricing strategy
• Retail supply chain business processes
• Internal control procedures
• Sound reasoning

 

[flacaltenn]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad. Most of the laptop money goes to Lenovo and the component suppliers. Who are largely western companies. The parts however are largely now made in Asia. What goes to "enemy economies is the labor to MAKE all those thousands of components..

The decision to manufacture in Asia caused massive ripples in the whole supply chain that USED to feed the production of goods. We no longer HAVE a supply chain to make such things. It was poorly executed.

OTH -- you cannot have a major modern economy and "service" each other to death. Changing America into a service economy (hookers, drugs, rehabs, govt) is also a death trap. You NEED trade. But you need have companies retain CONTROL of the action. If you're not MAKING GOODS, you're doomed.

Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary. What America SHOULD have been doing is designing towards 21st century manufacturing. So they could KEEP their production close to home.

Those that innovate but don't MAKE -- soon forget how their products work. We learned that in 60s/70s with Japan. And we're stupid enough to keep making the same mistakes. We were supposed to be the brains -- THEY got their hands dirty. However, Japan didn't NEED us after a couple decades. Because THEY KNEW more about the products than the owners of the Intellectual property.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore. We're pretty much doomed with that attitude.

 

[fncceo]

Chaise the money.

 

[usmbguest5318]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad. Most of the laptop money goes to Lenovo and the component suppliers. Who are largely western companies. The parts however are largely now made in Asia. What goes to "enemy economies is the labor to MAKE all those thousands of components..

The decision to manufacture in Asia caused massive ripples in the whole supply chain that USED to feed the production of goods. We no longer HAVE a supply chain to make such things. It was poorly executed.

OTH -- you cannot have a major modern economy and "service" each other to death. Changing America into a service economy (hookers, drugs, rehabs, govt) is also a death trap. You NEED trade. But you need have companies retain CONTROL of the action. If you're not MAKING GOODS, you're doomed.

Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary. What America SHOULD have been doing is designing towards 21st century manufacturing. So they could KEEP their production close to home.

Those that innovate but don't MAKE -- soon forget how their products work. We learned that in 60s/70s with Japan. And we're stupid enough to keep making the same mistakes. We were supposed to be the brains -- THEY got their hands dirty. However, Japan didn't NEED us after a couple decades. Because THEY KNEW more about the products than the owners of the Intellectual property.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore. We're pretty much doomed with that attitude.

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad.....Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary.

??? What? There is and must necessarily be some place that wants good and services and other places where the labor cost of producing/providing those things is lower than in the places where those goods/services are demanded. What changes over time is the location of the lower cost laborers and the magnitude of difference in high labor cost areas and low labor cost areas. "Cheap labor" is, after all, a qualitatively relative term not a precise quantitative one.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore.

That's not so at all. What the U.S. dominates in selling these days is innovation and ideas, intellectual capital, rather than the results of rote physical labor, human physical labor.

 

[Toronado3800]

Help me chaise the wasted money...There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Why do you want to put wasted money into a sofa? That you do may well be the problem with your reasoning. LOL

It may show I was thinking about work. That was probably a unique mistake

 

[task0778]

Start up a pot farm, marry a chinese stripper whose sister is a whore. Win-win-win.

 

[flacaltenn]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad. Most of the laptop money goes to Lenovo and the component suppliers. Who are largely western companies. The parts however are largely now made in Asia. What goes to "enemy economies is the labor to MAKE all those thousands of components..

The decision to manufacture in Asia caused massive ripples in the whole supply chain that USED to feed the production of goods. We no longer HAVE a supply chain to make such things. It was poorly executed.

OTH -- you cannot have a major modern economy and "service" each other to death. Changing America into a service economy (hookers, drugs, rehabs, govt) is also a death trap. You NEED trade. But you need have companies retain CONTROL of the action. If you're not MAKING GOODS, you're doomed.

Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary. What America SHOULD have been doing is designing towards 21st century manufacturing. So they could KEEP their production close to home.

Those that innovate but don't MAKE -- soon forget how their products work. We learned that in 60s/70s with Japan. And we're stupid enough to keep making the same mistakes. We were supposed to be the brains -- THEY got their hands dirty. However, Japan didn't NEED us after a couple decades. Because THEY KNEW more about the products than the owners of the Intellectual property.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore. We're pretty much doomed with that attitude.

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad.....Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary.

??? What? There is and must necessarily be some place that wants good and services and other places where the labor cost of producing/providing those things is lower than in the places where those goods/services are demanded. What changes over time is the location of the lower cost laborers and the magnitude of difference in high labor cost areas and low labor cost areas. "Cheap labor" is, after all, a qualitatively relative term not a precise quantitative one.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore.

That's not so at all. What the U.S. dominates in selling these days is innovation and ideas, intellectual capital, rather than the results of rote physical labor, human physical labor.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital. It dominates in CONSUMER gimmicks. Not scientific innovation. Our STEM graduate schools are DOMINATED by other worlders coming here to do the innovation. We can't GET our kids to do it. THEY want to be MBAs and public policy specialists. THAT'S where the money and fame is after 4 DECADES of selling off our high tech domestic vertical infrastructure.

Cheap labor is dead. Chinese know that. THEY are investing BILLIONS into automated manufacturing. They're tired of MOVING laborers from the country to the new cities and building dormitory housing for their factories. And it's not all that efficient. The 21st Century goods production will be done robotically and with AI.

 

[usmbguest5318]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad. Most of the laptop money goes to Lenovo and the component suppliers. Who are largely western companies. The parts however are largely now made in Asia. What goes to "enemy economies is the labor to MAKE all those thousands of components..

The decision to manufacture in Asia caused massive ripples in the whole supply chain that USED to feed the production of goods. We no longer HAVE a supply chain to make such things. It was poorly executed.

OTH -- you cannot have a major modern economy and "service" each other to death. Changing America into a service economy (hookers, drugs, rehabs, govt) is also a death trap. You NEED trade. But you need have companies retain CONTROL of the action. If you're not MAKING GOODS, you're doomed.

Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary. What America SHOULD have been doing is designing towards 21st century manufacturing. So they could KEEP their production close to home.

Those that innovate but don't MAKE -- soon forget how their products work. We learned that in 60s/70s with Japan. And we're stupid enough to keep making the same mistakes. We were supposed to be the brains -- THEY got their hands dirty. However, Japan didn't NEED us after a couple decades. Because THEY KNEW more about the products than the owners of the Intellectual property.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore. We're pretty much doomed with that attitude.

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad.....Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary.

??? What? There is and must necessarily be some place that wants good and services and other places where the labor cost of producing/providing those things is lower than in the places where those goods/services are demanded. What changes over time is the location of the lower cost laborers and the magnitude of difference in high labor cost areas and low labor cost areas. "Cheap labor" is, after all, a qualitatively relative term not a precise quantitative one.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore.

That's not so at all. What the U.S. dominates in selling these days is innovation and ideas, intellectual capital, rather than the results of rote physical labor, human physical labor.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital. It dominates in CONSUMER gimmicks. Not scientific innovation. Our STEM graduate schools are DOMINATED by other worlders coming here to do the innovation. We can't GET our kids to do it. THEY want to be MBAs and public policy specialists. THAT'S where the money and fame is after 4 DECADES of selling off our high tech domestic vertical infrastructure.

Cheap labor is dead. Chinese know that. THEY are investing BILLIONS into automated manufacturing. They're tired of MOVING laborers from the country to the new cities and building dormitory housing for their factories. And it's not all that efficient. The 21st Century goods production will be done robotically and with AI.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital.

F*ck me. Yet another literalist....You literalists are really beginning to bore and exhaust me....For how long are y'all going to put absolutely no real thought into your comments here? Will you never tire of trite responses and retorts?

• Comparative Advantage, Economics by Topic | Library of Economics and Liberty

 

[flacaltenn]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad. Most of the laptop money goes to Lenovo and the component suppliers. Who are largely western companies. The parts however are largely now made in Asia. What goes to "enemy economies is the labor to MAKE all those thousands of components..

The decision to manufacture in Asia caused massive ripples in the whole supply chain that USED to feed the production of goods. We no longer HAVE a supply chain to make such things. It was poorly executed.

OTH -- you cannot have a major modern economy and "service" each other to death. Changing America into a service economy (hookers, drugs, rehabs, govt) is also a death trap. You NEED trade. But you need have companies retain CONTROL of the action. If you're not MAKING GOODS, you're doomed.

Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary. What America SHOULD have been doing is designing towards 21st century manufacturing. So they could KEEP their production close to home.

Those that innovate but don't MAKE -- soon forget how their products work. We learned that in 60s/70s with Japan. And we're stupid enough to keep making the same mistakes. We were supposed to be the brains -- THEY got their hands dirty. However, Japan didn't NEED us after a couple decades. Because THEY KNEW more about the products than the owners of the Intellectual property.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore. We're pretty much doomed with that attitude.

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad.....Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary.

??? What? There is and must necessarily be some place that wants good and services and other places where the labor cost of producing/providing those things is lower than in the places where those goods/services are demanded. What changes over time is the location of the lower cost laborers and the magnitude of difference in high labor cost areas and low labor cost areas. "Cheap labor" is, after all, a qualitatively relative term not a precise quantitative one.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore.

That's not so at all. What the U.S. dominates in selling these days is innovation and ideas, intellectual capital, rather than the results of rote physical labor, human physical labor.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital. It dominates in CONSUMER gimmicks. Not scientific innovation. Our STEM graduate schools are DOMINATED by other worlders coming here to do the innovation. We can't GET our kids to do it. THEY want to be MBAs and public policy specialists. THAT'S where the money and fame is after 4 DECADES of selling off our high tech domestic vertical infrastructure.

Cheap labor is dead. Chinese know that. THEY are investing BILLIONS into automated manufacturing. They're tired of MOVING laborers from the country to the new cities and building dormitory housing for their factories. And it's not all that efficient. The 21st Century goods production will be done robotically and with AI.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital.

F*ck me. Yet another literalist....You literalists are really beginning to bore and exhaust me....For how long are y'all going to put absolutely no real thought into your comments here? Will you never tire of trite responses and retorts?

• Comparative Advantage, Economics by Topic | Library of Economics and Liberty

I don't need those definitions. 20+ years in the entrepreneurial furnaces of Silicon Valley.

I'm gonna borrow a factoid from WinterBorn to illustrate my SKEPTICISM as to our level of ABSOLUTE advantage...

Learned from him that 40% of our Nobel prizes in hard science have come from immigrants since 2000 or so. Isn't that exactly what I LITERALLY told you above? That OUR KIDS are not choosing the hard paths to innovation and research?

That "absolute advantage" is going down in flames. I've BEEN in the war zone. That's why I'm reporting as a literalist.

I've watched the number of yearly IPOs slip far below the tech boom in the 60s thru 90s. I've BEEN in the graduate schools FILLED with foreigners. If it wasn't for THEM -- we''d have been burnt toast by now. There's no INSPIRATION or thrill to BE "the brains of the world".

The work from my own head and hands is now throttled back because there is NO American tech foundry anymore. Can't find pieces and building to MAKE stuff if isn't used in a cell phone or a car. It's all consumer. Not Integrated circuits to build medical devices or physics tools UNLESS --- you're a giant corporation.

That's the way globalization was SUPPOSED to work. That we kept our absolute advantage. But we should have remembered the times we made fun of Japanese junk and thought our TVs and consumer stuff COULD NEVER be topped.

 

[usmbguest5318]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad. Most of the laptop money goes to Lenovo and the component suppliers. Who are largely western companies. The parts however are largely now made in Asia. What goes to "enemy economies is the labor to MAKE all those thousands of components..

The decision to manufacture in Asia caused massive ripples in the whole supply chain that USED to feed the production of goods. We no longer HAVE a supply chain to make such things. It was poorly executed.

OTH -- you cannot have a major modern economy and "service" each other to death. Changing America into a service economy (hookers, drugs, rehabs, govt) is also a death trap. You NEED trade. But you need have companies retain CONTROL of the action. If you're not MAKING GOODS, you're doomed.

Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary. What America SHOULD have been doing is designing towards 21st century manufacturing. So they could KEEP their production close to home.

Those that innovate but don't MAKE -- soon forget how their products work. We learned that in 60s/70s with Japan. And we're stupid enough to keep making the same mistakes. We were supposed to be the brains -- THEY got their hands dirty. However, Japan didn't NEED us after a couple decades. Because THEY KNEW more about the products than the owners of the Intellectual property.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore. We're pretty much doomed with that attitude.

The trap of "cheap labor" overseas was a passing fad.....Even Asia realizes that the "cheap labor boom" was temporary.

??? What? There is and must necessarily be some place that wants good and services and other places where the labor cost of producing/providing those things is lower than in the places where those goods/services are demanded. What changes over time is the location of the lower cost laborers and the magnitude of difference in high labor cost areas and low labor cost areas. "Cheap labor" is, after all, a qualitatively relative term not a precise quantitative one.

We don't even want to be "the brains" part of it anymore.

That's not so at all. What the U.S. dominates in selling these days is innovation and ideas, intellectual capital, rather than the results of rote physical labor, human physical labor.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital. It dominates in CONSUMER gimmicks. Not scientific innovation. Our STEM graduate schools are DOMINATED by other worlders coming here to do the innovation. We can't GET our kids to do it. THEY want to be MBAs and public policy specialists. THAT'S where the money and fame is after 4 DECADES of selling off our high tech domestic vertical infrastructure.

Cheap labor is dead. Chinese know that. THEY are investing BILLIONS into automated manufacturing. They're tired of MOVING laborers from the country to the new cities and building dormitory housing for their factories. And it's not all that efficient. The 21st Century goods production will be done robotically and with AI.

US hardly dominates anymore in intellectual capital.

F*ck me. Yet another literalist....You literalists are really beginning to bore and exhaust me....For how long are y'all going to put absolutely no real thought into your comments here? Will you never tire of trite responses and retorts?

• Comparative Advantage, Economics by Topic | Library of Economics and Liberty

I don't need those definitions. 20+ years in the entrepreneurial furnaces of Silicon Valley.

I'm gonna borrow a factoid from WinterBorn to illustrate my SKEPTICISM as to our level of ABSOLUTE advantage...

Learned from him that 40% of our Nobel prizes in hard science have come from immigrants since 2000 or so. Isn't that exactly what I LITERALLY told you above? That OUR KIDS are not choosing the hard paths to innovation and research?

That "absolute advantage" is going down in flames. I've BEEN in the war zone. That's why I'm reporting as a literalist.

I've watched the number of yearly IPOs slip far below the tech boom in the 60s thru 90s. I've BEEN in the graduate schools FILLED with foreigners. If it wasn't for THEM -- we''d have been burnt toast by now. There's no INSPIRATION or thrill to BE "the brains of the world".

The work from my own head and hands is now throttled back because there is NO American tech foundry anymore. Can't find pieces and building to MAKE stuff if isn't used in a cell phone or a car. It's all consumer. Not Integrated circuits to build medical devices or physics tools UNLESS --- you're a giant corporation.

That's the way globalization was SUPPOSED to work. That we kept our absolute advantage. But we should have remembered the times we made fun of Japanese junk and thought our TVs and consumer stuff COULD NEVER be topped.

I don't need those definitions. 20+ years in the entrepreneurial furnaces of Silicon Valley.

Well, if that's the case, why did you respond to my comments so damned literally? It seems to me you do need to review the concept of comparative advantage because you gave it no consideration -- in your response -- neither explicitly (which I wouldn't expect) nor implicitly, which I would expect from someone who doesn't need to review the concept and whereby their remarks would show some sort of contextual application of the concept such that their response would not have been purely literally driven.

OT:

I've BEEN in the graduate schools FILLED with foreigners.

Neither your, my nor anyone else's personal observations and recollections are in any way indicative of what the U.S. economy enjoys as comparative advantages, absolute advantages, or distinctive competencies. Everyone sees and notices what they want to, but that doesn't at all mean what they see and notice corresponds to anything existential. It's astounding to me that, in the context of a line of discussion about what be the U.S.' economic strengths and weakness, you even mentioned them. Be that as it may....

Really? You apparently are unwilling to share anything other than your own anecdotal observations, and quite frankly, given that you must necessarily be referring to a set of facts pertaining to at least 100 different programs, something more credible than anecdotal attestations is called for. Perhaps at some point I'll bother to check what be the ethnic diversity at the country's top graduate programs...I don't have the time right this moment to do so. (Truly, I can't say when I'll ever have time to do that level of fact confirmation, and I don't know if anyone's already done it and published the results of their research.)

• Top Computer Science graduate programs
• Top Engineering graduate programs
• Top Physics graduate programs
• Top Math graduate programs
• Top MBA programs

That's just a handful of STEM and business programs. I didn't bother to cite listings for biology, chemistry, geology, medicine, or any social science. I found some quick top-level figures for Harvard and they don't align with your anecdotal attestation. I also quickly found top-level graduate school information for MIT and they don't either. Ditto for Stanford.

I seriously doubt that looking in even greater detail that I'm going to discover that foreigners outnumber, let alone outnumber to an extent that might be said to corroborate your claim of the schools/programs being "FILLED with foreigners." I wouldn't expect to find any U.S. school having 75%+ foreign student bodies, but to meet roughly the bar of "filled with foreigners," I'd expect to see something on the order of maybe 55% to 60% foreign graduate student matriculation rates in U.S. STEM programs and a similar rate of foreign tenured (or tenure track) professorships at those same institutions. Yet, my cursory "look see" revealed nothing even close to that predominating at the three institutions for which I found some, admittedly not directly congruent with your claim, figures.

 

[Indeependent]

There is a hole in my logic here I need pointed out.

Let's say Bob buys a something (Lenovo laptop?) made in China for $600. The retailer makes a few bucks, Amazon makes some, Fed Ex makes some. Lenovo of China makes some, the Chinese workers make some. Perhaps $50 of his $600 make it back to support the Chinese economy leaving the U.S. with $550 left to spend.

Now lets say Bob's taxes go up $600 and corrupt government officials blows it evenly on legal marijuana, strippers and whores. Some pot farmer gets $200, some stripper gets $200, some whore gets $200. America still has $600 and hopefully Bob can get a used laptop from his mother.

The tax increase has accomplished nothing. Sure we'd be better off paving a road, arming an aircraft carrier or building a football stadium but the dollars took another turn around our economy.

What do I need to know or think about?

What percentage of the average American's salary goes to "an enemy" economy vs what percentage of government spending does?

Strippers and bartenders don't deserve to earn a living?