08-14-2015, 07:31 PM
(08-14-2015, 05:50 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I agree that globalization is a problem, but the answer is not for us to lower ourselves to third world levels.
Eventually the markets in other emerging countries will balance out.
Yes, EVENTUALLY. But today and for a good many more years, the engineer in India making $10k a year is rich where he lives...and that's what's driving the wealth gap (all over, not just in the US). And mom & pop get a nice chunk of that savings via their investments in the F500 thru mutual and pension funds.
What's ultimately going to "balance" things out is those economies growing to increase aggregate demand to catch-up to the excess supply of global labor.
It's not about "lowering ourselves to third world levels". If you were trying to run and maintain a competitive company, Fred, you're going to employ the cheaper but equally talented Indian engineer. Or you'll be a "good citizen" and slowly, perhaps quickly, let your business become uncompetitive and go bankrupt (real big of you to lose us 100 jobs for every dozen you saved not outsourcing).
All this talk about what America used to be is apples-to-oranges. The assembly technician and even the engineer were not really competing with a global labor pool 30 years ago.
But I'd submit our "abject poor" have it better, in many respects, than your middle class families of 30-40 years ago. They have a car, possibly two, WITH air conditioning. Big screens tvs. Cell phones. Washers and dryers. Dishwashers. Money is even readily available to go to college.
