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> You can't pay an American worker 20 times as much to make the same product in the same number of hours. That's not true: you failed to mention the possibilit
by Chaebixi 10y ago
> You can't pay an American worker 20 times as much to make the same product in the same number of hours.
That's not true: you failed to mention the possibility of the customer paying more to make up for some of the difference in labor cost.
> People don't want to hear that, but those are the alternatives.
Those are the only alternatives, but only if you are restricted to thinking like a free-market economist. Other ideologies allow for other possibilities.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoThis is actually where free-market thinking matches the real world - unless you find a way to force people to follow your ideology, they'll keep choosing what's cheaper.
- wazoox 10y agoIt's only cheaper because you don't account for social and environmental costs, and simply get rid of them as "externalities". But they're not externalities anymore, and their effects are coming down on us, and badly.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoThat it true, but it doesn't invalidate the observable fact that people tend to pick cheaper things if presented with a choice.
- AnthonyMouse 10y agoCustomers have repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to pay a large premium for a made-in-USA tag, and protectionist tariffs don't help you export American products.
- mch82 10y agoBut consumers have also demonstrated willingness to pay for shipping, wholesale markup, retail markup, and other fees that dwarf the differences in regional labor and manufacturing costs. So local made goods can be competitive. "How the cost of a shirt adds up" http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-cost-of-a-shirt-adds-up/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-cost-of-a-shirt-adds-up/
- fennecfoxen 10y agoPlease name the country which achieved its legendary prosperity through a planned economy, protectionism, or a programme of economic isolation.
- alphonsegaston 10y agoI don't think it's as binary as that. Many large prosperous countries (e.g Germany) rely heavily on exports but are still more heavily interventionist and protectionist than the United States. While I'm largely in favor of free trade, it would be somewhat foolish at this point to deny that a trade policy such as ours, so exclusively focused on returns for the Capital class, has pretty bad political consequences. We either have to develop a better education system and social safety net, or subject ourselves to dangerous populist tantrums.
- IIIIIIIIIIII 10y agoParts of all of these, sometimes many parts, I think South Korea? Japan? USA and GB initially, until there economies were strong and they wanted free trade. It isn't black/white.
- CPLX 10y agoChina. My understanding is it's becoming quite well known.
- fennecfoxen 10y agoChina's not really all that prosperous by developed-world standards, though, it's just huge. It's like 20% of US prosperity levels, and far more unequal.
- mistermann 10y agoCheck back in 10, 20, 30 years when they run the world.
- quanticle 10y agoI'll do you one better and name three. Japan. South Korea. China. All three implemented protectionist tariffs, and industrial policy that involved the government "picking winners and losers".
- infinite8s 10y agoWhat other ideologies allow for other possibilities?
- Chaebixi 10y ago> What other ideologies allow for other possibilities? Literally every one that thinks more broadly than immediate goods vs. money-price in an economic transaction.