@moonbus saidWe, as Americans, have always been well-aware that we were 'shipping jobs to lower cost countries' in order to lower the cost of DVD players and battery-operated birdhouses which we wanted to buy at Walmart. Since NAFTA and Reagan etc., this fact has never been hidden from anyone.
Americans know the price of everything and the value of nothing; that's why they moved manufacturing overseas, where labor costs are lower. Now they're bitching that the working class lost their jobs and want a billionaire conman to deport all the foreigners. You can't make this stuff up ...
The PROMISE that was made was, 'Oh, but that doesn't matter. Americans who lose their jobs in manufacturing will be re-trained in computers, high-tech stuff, and the knowledge-based economy, e.g. office work. We will still have FULL employment.' We have all heard that countless times.
Americans don't want to be making widgets on assembly lines. We all want to be 'creators' and 'dsesigners' and 'visionaries.' That's the carrot that was dangled to move all our manufacturing capability overseas. 😆
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@spruce112358 saidOf course, and that strategy made a few people fabulously rich, but only in the information-based industries, such Larry Paige, Mark Z'berg, and Jeff Bezos. Moreover, the wealth-gap increased. Look at any graph of wealth inequality for Americans since Reagan and the trend jumps off the page at you: the rich got richer, no one else did, and the poor got poorer. THERE IS NO TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT.
We, as Americans, have always been well-aware that we were 'shipping jobs to lower cost countries' in order to lower the cost of DVD players and battery-operated birdhouses which we wanted to buy at Walmart. Since NAFTA and Reagan etc., this fact has never been hidden from anyone.
The PROMISE that was made was, 'Oh, but that doesn't matter. Americans who lose their jo ...[text shortened]... sionaries.' That's the carrot that was dangled to move all our manufacturing capability overseas. 😆
For example
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/02/349863761/40-years-of-income-inequality-in-america-in-graphs
The people left behind by the information-revolution were the ones Trump bamboozled into thinking HE would be the one to fix wealth inequality. Of course he won't, but the damage he'll do before the bamboozled figure that out may be irreversible.
@MartinS saidApple stops updating their Operating System (OS) on their iMacs and MacBooks after about 7-8 years. Why? Something, too hard, mumble, mumble.
We are now ALL paying the price for only buying the cheapest.
Look at the quality of Chinese goods - cheap crap.
HOWEVER, we ONLY have ourselves to blame; we only go for the cheapest - look at airlines; cheap as crap seats and you even have to pay for which row you sit in (ie , get off faster); leg room, extra cost, complimentary nibbles, extra; even a friggin glass of ...[text shortened]... r and unfortunately you get what you vote for
The Chinese have the world screwed - trump is a toy
The real reason: Apple needs you to buy a new machine every 7-8 years. That is in their business plan.
Old machines still run some things, but they start complaining after a decade. One of mine finally refused to open mail anymore because the OS was too old.
'Quality' is synonymous with 'lasts a long time.' But 'planned obsolesce' makes more money. 😆
@moonbus saidWell, free trade works great, but not when it is unilateral. 😆
Of course, and that strategy made a few people fabulously rich, but only in the information-based industries, such Larry Paige, Mark Z'berg, and Jeff Bezos. Moreover, the wealth-gap increased. Look at any graph of wealth inequality for Americans since Reagan and the trend jumps off the page at you: the rich got richer, no one else did, and the poor got poorer. THERE IS NO TRI ...[text shortened]... course he won't, but the damage he'll do before the bamboozled figure that out may be irreversible.
One of the 'promises' in shipping jobs to China was that the Chinese would get wealthy and buy things from us. But when we tried to export Amazon or Google or YouTube to China - the Chinese government blocked it and invented their own. Then they sent us TikTok.
I've always been for massive tariffs on China - long before Trump - due to their unfair trade practices and currency manipulation.
The *ONLY* good thing Trump has ever done (and this does not forgive his insurrection - not by a long shot) was raise tariffs with China. Nor do I think he is doing it well or will follow through with it consistently as he should. Biden never lowered the China tariff, remember. 😆
@moonbus saidThe wealth gap per se does not bother me. What does bother me are a few costs that have risen almost without bound DUE TO government interference 😆 :
Of course, and that strategy made a few people fabulously rich, but only in the information-based industries, such Larry Paige, Mark Z'berg, and Jeff Bezos. Moreover, the wealth-gap increased. Look at any graph of wealth inequality for Americans since Reagan and the trend jumps off the page at you: the rich got richer, no one else did, and the poor got poorer. THERE IS NO TRI ...[text shortened]... course he won't, but the damage he'll do before the bamboozled figure that out may be irreversible.
1) healthcare, which desperately needs to be nationalized to single-payor OR be opened up to UNRESTRAINED generic and low-cost competition (which is opposed by the AMA, pharmacists, pharmaceutical companies, and for-profit hospitals.)
2) college costs. Government giving out endless predatory loans that cannot be discharged even if the degree was worthless and that person can't find a job is unconscionable.
3) inflating the currency, which always drives prices up faster than wages.
4) not taxing property "progressively" e.g. allowing hedge funds to buy millions of homes and hold them off the market to inflate prices so that rents go up and young people cannot afford to purchase.
😆
@spruce112358 saidThe Bretton Woods arrangement assumed, with no enforcement mechanism, that trade imbalances would be temporary and restricted to a few products or services. The Chinese figured out how to game the system by massively exporting all kinds of products, demanding payment in hard/foreign currencies (not their own worthless currency), and importing very little. One country imposing tariffs on the rest of the world isn't going to fix what's wrong with the Bretton Woods arrangement.
Well, free trade works great, but not when it is unilateral. 😆
One of the 'promises' in shipping jobs to China was that the Chinese would get wealthy and buy things from us. But when we tried to export Amazon or Google or YouTube to China - the Chinese government blocked it and invented their own. Then they sent us TikTok.
I've always been for massive tariffs on ...[text shortened]... follow through with it consistently as he should. Biden never lowered the China tariff, remember. 😆
@moonbus saidAgain - if China is willing to send me a banana peeler for $3.99 using Amazon, and Jeff B. gets rich thereby, I'm reluctant to say that's wrong at some International Level. 😆
The Bretton Woods arrangement assumed, with no enforcement mechanism, that trade imbalances would be temporary and restricted to a few products or services. The Chinese figured out how to game the system by massively exporting all kinds of products, demanding payment in hard/foreign currencies (not their own worthless currency), and importing very little. One country imposing ...[text shortened]... tariffs on the rest of the world isn't going to fix what's wrong with the Bretton Woods arrangement.
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@spruce112358 saidOf course not; there is nothing wrong with Jeff B. making piles of money. What's wrong is when the Chinese govt. refuses to reciprocate. What's wrong is when the Chinese govt. insists on controlling its own internet search engines so the Chinese people cannot order books about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre from amazon (and make Jeff B. richer). When freemarket economics butts up against a dictatorship with a planned economy, the goal posts shift.
Again - if China is willing to send me a banana peeler for $3.99 using Amazon, and Jeff B. gets rich thereby, I'm reluctant to say that's wrong at some International Level. 😆