The next time you’re shopping at Wal-Mart, take a second to inspect the products. How many things in your cart are made in America? While I haven’t shopped at the Great Wall-Mart in years, it’s my impression that most of their stuff is made in China. Maybe I’m full of shit, maybe not, but I’m not going into that place to find out.
But I do buy stuff from other stores, and I do often look at where it comes from, out of curiosity. Usually it’s China, but there’s also a fair amount from India, Brazil, and my bed sheets are Egyptian cotton (elitist!).
I don’t point this out to suggest you stop going to Wal-Mart (it’s your choice if you want to hand over your money to those censorship Nazis), because I don’t think they’re particularly egregious when it comes to buying imported products. Rather, Wal-Mart is indicative of a general trend in America.
Americans love cheap shit. We want our products inexpensive and of poor quality. We buy things that break in a few weeks and then buy another, because we are a disposable society. It’s not an efficient way to live, it’s hell on the environment, and it means we settle for using worthless trash, but hey, it’s the American way, right?
This mentality is putting America out of work.
The average American says they feel that outsourcing is a major problem. Americans claim to not be happy about jobs going overseas. Yet their actions speak louder than their words. Despite a brief post-9/11 resurgence among the Republican base to “Buy American,” American made products continue to be an endangered species on retail shelves.
“Statists,” like myself, would point out there are many ways the US government can change this, but as anyone paying attention can tell you, that’s won’t happen so long as the corporations who profit from this economic model are funding the campaigns of our politicians. It may also change as the cost to ship products from overseas increases as oil runs out, but America’s industries are already at a breaking point.
In my opinion, if we wait for the invisible hand to correct this, we’re going to end up bitch-slapped.
So I ask you guys: Why are people passionately against exporting our work, yet apathetic about it when it comes time to make a purchase?
The only thing the government can do to 'fix' this problem is to roll back the labor laws (like minimum wage), change the tax structure (remove income taxes completely at all levels), and impose tariffs on these various countries we import from. Ricardo be damned, after all.
ReplyDeleteAs for apathy, I'm just apathetic overall. I'm not overly concerned with other countries making products that are pretty much for our use because that keeps them from attacking us (why bite the hand that feeds you?).
By the way, why is it assumed that Americans have to work at factories? I'm sure the factory worker really wants to work there and wants his children and grandchildren to work there as well.
Rolling back minimum wage when minimum wage isn't enough? Yeah that will solve the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe reason companies go overseas is because it's cheaper. Not only the price of labor, but those pesky restrictions on where you can dump your poisons and how much of the poisons can remain in your product are lacking in these countries. This just means Americans are buying dangerous products that harm the environment, themselves, and are produced by what is essentially slave labor.
No, the answer is to tax the top 90% so they stop dipping ther hand into the till and leaving none for those at the bottom. Henry Ford built a solid industry on this principle, and it can still work. Companies that do not abide by labor laws and environmental restrictions that are imposed in America should not be allowed to import any product that would not meet at least those same standards had they been made domestically.
Income tax is not the problem, dipshit, sales tax is. There shouldn't be sales taxes, because that discourages purchasing, and since sales tax alone would never be enough to run the government or pay off our debt, removing income tax is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
And Americans don't have to work at factories, they could also work at call centers or in a management position at a factory, but I guess that doesn't occur to you. Besides, some people should be working at factories because it may be all they are qualified to do. There are millions of unemployed Americans who would take a factory job.
Besides, some people should be working at factories because it may be all they are qualified to do. There are millions of unemployed Americans who would take a factory job.
ReplyDeleteFor those without any specialized skills or a degree, those were once the only decent paying jobs. Unless manufacturing returns to America, there will never again be high-paying jobs available for workers without a college education.
For those without any specialized skills or a degree, those were once the only decent paying jobs. Unless manufacturing returns to America, there will never again be high-paying jobs available for workers without a college education.
ReplyDeleteSeconded.
75% of the population does not have a college degree, so this is clearly something that affects a lot of people. I would love to see more worker-owned establishments, like these. It's quite difficult, however, to get businesses started right now, and it's perhaps more difficult to wrestle control of companies out of the hands of entitled heirs.
@Bret: The American tax system is the most business unfriendly system in the world. I never said anything about a sales tax either, so I don't know where you got that notion from.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is cheaper to have unskilled labor overseas because you can pay them much less than minimum wage here in the United States (along with being forced to provide Health Insurance, thanks to Obamacare).
If you are concerned about imports, imposing tariffs is the best way to go. The quality of the working conditions in these conditions could be assessed and if they fail to meet certain standards (preferably the standards we have here), then tariff the heck out of the product. In other words, make it profitable to manufacture here at home again.
Are you aware of David Ricardo's Comparative Advantage theory in economics? Personally, I don't buy into it, but it is considered a golden law amongst nearly all economists these days.
(By the way, taxing the top 90% is pretty much everyone in America. You may want to rephrase that.)
(By the way, taxing the top 90% is pretty much everyone in America. You may want to rephrase that.)
ReplyDeleteTaxing people who make over 5 million dollars a year 90%. Is that phrased better?
Tariffs just raise the price of an imported good. I don't want Chinese drywall-type products sold here at all.
And I disagree heartily that business tax is business unfriendly, it's small business unfriendly, and it's this way because the richest have paid to make it so. I'm all for making a much simpler system, and I don't even like the idea of a corporate tax (corporations are not people and should not be taxed based on its "income," when in actuality money earned by a corporation is operating capital).
I don't like sales tax either, and since most Libtertarians I have ever heard talk about removing income tax think that you can make up the taxes on sales tax, I assumed. Sales tax, corporate tax... it's all a system of double taxation. I would prefer to just tax every individual's income based on a steep progressive scale. Simplifying the system would also help close loopholes that have the wealthy actually paying lower aggregate tax rates than the poor.
I do agree that we import much more than we develop internally. From oil to gasoline to lumber to drywall to whatever else you can imagine, we import it more than we should. A sovereign nation cannot survive when it is dependent on others for its economic livelihood. That just means we have to bend over backwards when those nations demand that we invade other nations. It wouldn't surprise me, for example, if the Saudis and Chinese were engaged in a conspiracy to get us to attack Iraq (probably didn't happen, but wouldn't be a surprise for me).
ReplyDeleteAgain with that 90% argument.
ReplyDeleteChrist, you want someone who earns $5 mill to give away 4.5 of it because you feel no one is "worth" that much? That's not for you to decide. That's for the market that determines his or her value and salary. Also, I think we can find other ways to balance out inequities instead of raping the productive.
So lemme ask. If my day cares bring me in a $5 million dollar salary - or thereabouts - (which is not far fetched if I open a few) you'd want to tax - no wait confiscate - 90% of the risk and sweat I poured into it?
I got two words for you and you can guess them.
Anyway.
On my blog e-Talian I posted and discussed about how Italians REFUSE to buy anything made in China. It's kept their unique economy based on the strength of SME's relevant and operating. Of the major G7 countries (Russia is not a G7 nation), I think they're the ones who have resisted the China reality the most.
Again, that isn't how taxes work.
ReplyDeleteSomeone making exactly $5 million would have 5 million taxed at the rate below 90%. Someone making $6 mil would make $5 mil at the lower rate, and would pay 900k on the 6th million (and all subsequent millions).
It's not about deciding anything, it's about people looting their companies and choosing windfall self-profits over employee interests. It does not benefit an economy to enable the people at the top who write their own paychecks to pocket the corporate profits.
You have to seriously understand that America was built on this model. Eisenhower enabled it and it was still 70% by the time Reagan took office. What is particularly irritating is that the rich bitched about it, even though they were paying less than 20% of their actualy income after legal loopholes and accounting magic (funny how many corporations are in the Carribean...).
It's bullshit. If the rich were paying their share, we wouldn't be in debt, we wouldn't have crumbling infrastructure, and the companies they looted would still have the operating capital needed to do business competitively.
You don't know what you're talking about sometimes, TC. This is one of them.
Someone making exactly $5 million would have 5 million taxed at the rate below 90%. Someone making $6 mil would make $5 mil at the lower rate, and would pay 900k on the 6th million (and all subsequent millions).
ReplyDeleteYou never put it that way. If you're saying let them have their $5 million at whatever tax rate it while the 6th be at 90%.
The way it read was just take 90% at source.
Let me rephrase. You're saying: At $5 mill tax them at whatever the rate it. Beyond that point, 90%.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, here in Canada we don't go anywhere near what you suggest. While we pay high income taxes (progressive and depending on salary - something you'd love), and while we pay a shitload of hidden taxes our corporate tax rates are, ironically, low.
ReplyDeleteAnd be careful when you accuse someone of not knowing what they're talking about. It's one thing to be able to theorize and debate about it and quite another to experience it. I call it as I experience it. I can only speak of the Canadian experience and they take enough.
Again, people make a simple calculation. They gross $5000 and the government takes $2800. Maybe to you it's perfectly legit or normal. Not to me.
Where I begin to push back is when they add all sorts of nefarious hidden taxes to grab more to pay for their inefficiencies or expanding services. Something you seem unwilling to entertain. They have their hands rubbing against our ball sacks as it is.
The reason why, in part, they need that much of our money is to A) pay for too many services we may not need and its inefficiencies and B)to line the pockets of politicians and their cronies.
I don't mind taxes when I sense and know my money is being well-spent. I'm all for chipping in my bit. Clear? I just demand accountability from the state as they demand it from me.
Here in Quebec, it's a travesty and disgrace the level of corruption. It's scandal after scandal with taxpayer money. At some point you have every damn right to demand they take less if they're going to be arrogant dicks with it.
Understand, Bret 'Ginx' Alan?
I have never heard of a tax system that actually bumps all of your taxable income into another bracket. If that was the case, people's salaries would specifically hover just below the varying rates.
ReplyDeleteYou can become better acquainted with your own Canadian tax system here, since you evidently don't pay much attention to this stuff.
Learning is fun.
[For the record, I think I actually explained this once before on your blog, and SE told me I was a moron for thinking anyone didn't understand how this worked... and after a quick glance, I did, here. Can you at least understand why I would question the intelligence my opponents when this kind of thing happens? Nothing is more frustrating than arguing with willfully ignorant people.]
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of a tax system that actually bumps all of your taxable income into another bracket. If that was the case, people's salaries would specifically hover just below the varying rates.
ReplyDeleteWhere did I give that impression? If I did, my bad.
Of course I know it's progressive - I effen wrote it in one of the posts.
Oi.
Bret,
ReplyDeleteIt's all good.
Why is my eye twitching...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I just thought of something. I was cleaning out some boxes and came across some old Income Trust papers I had. It made me think about the 90% thing. What I would love to know is what the tax loopholes were like back then in the USA. I would imagine pretty loose and open. I doubt it was as clear cut as you seem to assert.
ReplyDeleteThe rich always find ways to protect their wealth.
I know my cousin in Paris has to be careful or else the state can take up to 90% REGARDLESS of your income.