| Ljink96 said: Are you insane!!! It is because American companies finding cheaper employment for their own financial gains that we've been in this crisis for so long (1). You can't expect that to benefit all americans, it only benefits a small few. It's pure economics. You take jobs away from people to make a quick buck and leave others without employment, the middle class. If the middle class americans aren't working then america is screwed (2). The poor don't account for income and the rich are too greedy and avoid taxes (3). It's a recipie for freaking disaster. What made the US an economic powerhouse was the automotive industry that boomed after WWII. Where things were made in America and Americans bought our own products. What's happening is, people are becoming greedy, American Greed, and finding ways to make cars cheaper overseas and thus taking money out of the US circulation (4). You can't expect something to stand strong if you're putting in little and always expecting a lot. That principle only works for so long. Read up on economics and what really happened to put America into its current sorry state. Useless wars inside and out and greed: Carrier for example, are what put America where we are now. We're trillions in debt, our petrodollar is dying, and we're told everything is okay and it really isn't. Not wanting to pay Americans to do work just because you can find a place where you can get labor done cheaper sounds good to a business but to a country that used to rely on that income to remain an economic powerhouse...it sounds like bullshit. And it is. |
1) There are several "crises" going on right now, so I'm not sure which one you're referring to. The predominant one of the era is the general economic stagnation since the 2008 collapse, so I'm going to assume that. That crisis had nothing to do with outsourcing to cheaper countries. It was a result of interest lates being kept artificially low for decades, conseqeuently causing an over-leveraging of debt. Federal law massaged a large chunk of that debt into real estate, hence why that was most affected. This is still going on, by the way, and the auto industry is showing similar patterns to housing back in 2005-2007.
2) The minimum wage stuff in this thread doesn't even relate to the middle class. Minimum wage individuals are not middle class. Middle class is households who earn around $50,000 per year. Less than 3% of the population makes minimum wage, half of which are under 24 years old, and the largest chunk of which work in restaurants where tips make up the bulk of their income.
In addition to this, yes, the middle class *is shrinking* but it's not because they are getting poorer. The largest chunk of people leaving the middle class has been to people going to higher income groups. That's not exactly what I'd call a crisis.
3) The rich are "too greedy and don't pay taxes". Top 20% pay 84% of income taxes, bottom 20% receive more than they pay. Or, even more rich, top 1% pays 45% of income taxes.
4) You tell me to read economics, and then show no understanding of how foreign trade works. When an American buys a car from Japan, Americans buy in USD, and Japanese sell in JPY. At some point, a person (usually a bank or fx dealer) will buy JPY for that American, and sell that American's USD. The only way that the dealer can do that is if they find somebody else willing to buy the USD, ie, find somebody wanting to buy goods from the USA. True, that person may not be interested in buying an American car, but they may be interested in buying American corn, or beef, or planes, or financial services, or even a vacation to Disney World.
People who tell you that the United States has a trade deficit are only looking at half the equation, the current account deficit. In order for there to be a current account deficit, by definition, there must be a capital account surplus. Read economics.
