That's my tune - mostly. But I find it easier to tell this to a group of 25 yr olds rather than a 55 yr old with a mortgage, college bills, possible medical costs, perhaps a parent in need of long-term expensive care. And wondering how long it'll be before his 401K retirement plans get back on track after the bubble burst.
I've said it before - I'm in IT and I think about this everyday. What am I doing to ensure I can provide for my family?
to Ralph Nader speak to this very subject last night, I really wish we had some realistic hope of getting him elected.
With the almost-total loss now of our manufacturing base, our economy is based on smoke&mirrors, hamburgers and "information technology" (which is essentially nothing).
The only people who really believe in the 'global economy' are the very few who are enlarging their personal fortunes. For the rest of us it's disaster, and NAFTA is the most close-to-home example I can think of at the moment.
One of the shining examples of how bad NAFTA is, is that the state of Michigan cannot stop Canada from hauling their trash and hazardous waste across our borders. Now, this is a country with a land mass pretty much equivalent to that of the United States and a population of some 30 million. Surely, somewhere, in all that wasteland, theres room for a landfill of their very own. And on top of all that, one very greedy and uncaring US developer is now drilling a 'deep well', into which he intends to let Canada inject even more hazardous waste. The only thing that can stop this is action by the US congress, and the liklihood of that happening are just slightly less than me having Britney Spears show up on my door tonight for a date.
(Soapbox now properly stowed. Thanks for listening.
I'm 50 now and always kept in the back of my mind, I could be replaced or this type business is not going to last unless changes are made. I am certainly glad that I knew this when I was 23.
Ultimately, in a global economy, most of the world must be just barely above subsistence level. As countries such as China raise there standard of living those on the US and Europe must drop to compensate.
The good news is that as the standard of living drops the value of our time drops and it is less costly to spend many hours in the woodshop. The bad news is that you will be doing it neander style. (some may consider that good news as well)
Tim Douglass
Welll......it's all in the labor, and lack of environmental laws. I read an amazing article about what sometimes happens to the world's old computers. China has enormous landfills made up of only junker pcs. Labor is so cheap, it is actually economically feasible to have people actually stripping them for parts, screws, wire, even down to the level of using acid to leach the precious metals out of the circuit boards. The areas where they do this are so polluted, the people who live nearby have to bring in bottled water to drink. Scary.
snip > "so polluted, the people who live nearby have to bring in bottled water to drink."
Why do Americans buy so much bottled water then?
If we wanted to level the trade deficit all we would have to do is require that any company shipping goods to the US had to document that their production was meeting all US environmental standards. You would see production moving back to the US in droves.
Tim Douglass
Paranoia? Because it tastes better than the chlorinated stuff? Because they can afford to spend money on water? I don't think they HAVE to, I think they LIKE to. Big difference. I dunno -- I have a well.
IMHO there is a sucker born every 10 seconds. I would imagine 10% have a good excuse. Much cheaper to filter your own water than to pay some to filter it for you.
Because they have more money than they know what to do with and they're stupid.
>Never heard of a filter?
Yeah. A kitchen sink filter, refrigerator filter, or whole house filter. Or buy the PUR water pitcher and you get crystal clear water. Much of the bottled water is simply city water filtered and bottled.
I agree with what you are all saying here. I am so thankful that my son is working for a company making war machines right now because that is all that I see that is safe in the US manufacturing area. I went to Sam's club today and wondered around looking at where the products were made. Almost everything I saw with any real manufacturing content (except washers, dryers and some tools) were made in China. Scares the heck out of me.
Pe>
Right, the washers and dryers are made in Korea. Take a look at the larger appliances and more and more are imports. Places like Best Buy are pushing a lot of them
some of us. lots of us live in places where we've polluted our local water supplies.... where I live it's impossible to get a well drilling permit- I'm on top of a TCE plume.
We will compete again when the standard of living in those other countries rises to where it is no longer cost effective to transport the goods. Of course that will also be coupled with a drop in our own standard of living, but that may not be all bad.
Tim Douglass
This is correct. And the Korean appliances Best Buy is pushing is high end stuff, not the cheap stuff.
I am afraid you are right there. The question is, how long will it take their standard of living to reach the level we are when our standards of living cross? What will our standard of living be at that time? Come on, Paul Samuelson, draw us a curve of THAT.
"US environmental standards" ?
There must be a reason why GWB won't sign the Kyoto protocol.
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