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Originally Posted by pan6467
I believe there is middle ground and that it needs to be found for the good of ALL society. We are seeing huge gaps between the wealth and the poor. People talk of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and whoever but the vast majority employ more people overseas and ship goods here than they employ here and ship overseas. So where is the benefit for the US society there?
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The US gets goods cheaply. People overseas get wealthier and smarter, more able to produce useful things.
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The problem is the jobs. Raise wages, get jobs back here and you build up a better tax base thereby taking the burden off the wealthy.
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This is known as waste. Putting someone who has the ability to get a college degree, and all the benefits of an American upbringing, into a shoe factory, spending all of their lives glueing shoe soles on... That's a waste.
You could pay them a good wage, but they are still wasting their potential. Doing this to the entire economy would make the sum total of all corruption and theft look like a drop in the bucket.
Imagine if you could earn twice as much per year.
Now imagine if every good costs 10 times as much.
I mean, you wouldn't want to hurt the oil workers in Texas. Oil from outside the country would have a levy large enough to make domestic production worthwhile. The same for coal, iron, wood, methane -- all the raw materials that drive the economy -- importing them would hurt the workers!
Shoes, instead of being manufactured by people being paid less than a dollar a day, would be built by workers earning 140$/day (remember, everyone earns twice as much -- and this includes paid overtime). These workers are 5 times more efficient, but it still means labour is nearly 30 times more expensive for shoes.
The same holds for computers and everything else.
Other nations, given the new USA's protective policies, close their doors to American imports. Some of them form large free-trade regions.
The American military superiority keeps some regions trading under favourable contitions with the homeland for a while. Unfortunetally, over a decade or two, the free-trade regions start having impressive standard of living improvements, compared to the American economy and other nations in it's military sphere of influence.
American's who choose to leave the country for the higher standards of living elsewhere are viewed as traitors, turning their back on the oaths they all swore in primary school.
Oh wait, that was what happened to Russia, not what would happen to America.
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It is utter and complete bullshit, not to mention societal and economical suicide to NOT create better paying jobs and manufacturing in this country. Both greatly increase the tax base and the rich's burden is reduced immensely.
If Bill Gates decides he wants cheaper labor so he sends jobs to India, then he slices his own throat because he leaves lesser paying jobs here a lower tax base and increases his own. Same with every job that we send overseas.
So if they CHOOSE to send jobs overseas (or import cheaper labor) weakening our economy, then they have no right to complain when the government comes demanding they pay more taxes. If they cannot contribute to a growing healthy job base, then they should be forced to pay.
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Labour is moved overseas because it is benefitial to both of you, theoretically.
America gets goods cheaper than it could get by producing them internally. Other nations get things from America they want.
[SNIP microwave bombs]
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If people have more money and can spend more freely, they wouldn't have to look for the "better deal" from overseas. If you are making a little more you may spend a little more on a better or comparable computer built entirely in the US than one built cheaper overseas.
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You don't seem to understand capitalism. If there is an identical shoe that costs 1/10th as much, most people will chose the cheaper shoe. What makes a shoe non-identical is funny sometimes, but people really will pay attention to things being 10 times cheaper.
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What we are doing now is buying the best we can with what we have and we are allowing the very countries buying up our debt, taking away our jobs to sell us cheaper goods.
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You seem to hold up jobs as the holy grail. What you are describing is a sick welfare system, not productive jobs -- those 'jobs' you seek to add are at the expense of other people.