[ale][OT] 08.20.04 on pbs... emphasis on it jobs going ===> u sa

[Hogg, Russell E.]

This is always disheartening, especially the "Train Your Replacement" stuff.
I've been laid off and had to move to Macon (yes, it's a backwater).
Fortunately I wasn't a homeowner and didn't have any mouths to feed (aside
from my own)

FWIW, there are jobs coming into the US, (though not in the same numbers I'm
sure) it's all relative, Labor costs here are far lower than they are in
Germany for example because of the ridiculous labor law there.  Some 3rd of
the population under 30 there is "unemployed" if memory serves.  Of course
their government literally pays them so they aren't exactly starving.  
(You can do this when foolish Americans pay for your defense - they spend
less than 1% of the budget on their Military - Again going from memory)
A guy I work with here has a buddy over there who hasn't worked since 1992.

I guess my question is what can be done about it?
I personally think the Government telling me who I can, and can't do
business with sounds nothing like freedom.
Tariffs and the like have never had positive results as far as I know.
(very little that the Fed mucks with does)
All that Smoot-Hawley* stuff had a lot to do with starting the great
depression.

This leaves me with one vote left.  My Pocket book.  I'm guessing there are
web sites out there keeping tallies of who does the most off shoring.
Maybe I'll write all those companies and explain that I don't appreciate it
and that I'm taking my business elsewhere.  I think an organized effort by
us will serve us far better than asking our government to put restrictions
in place further eroding our freedoms 
(One party eroding from the left and the other eroding from the right).

I'll also point out that innovation means people losing their jobs.  People
are the only costs of business.  
When you figure out a way to make your product with less raw materials it
damages the guy you bought the materials from (at least in the short term).
When you figure out how to build the product in fewer steps the people
building it pay the price.
You save Money and sell more product at a lower cost.
People in general benefit because more people can now afford your product.  
Then maybe you buy just as much raw material as you did before but the
system doesn't balance perfectly.
Blacksmiths who specialized in shoeing horses probably never recovered from
the advent of the car.

GM pretty much destroyed Flint Michigan in the 80s but that cost cutting may
have saved the company that employs however many thousands of auto workers
today.

One of the founding fathers actually described this, He described the
welfare state as one where those who benefited from innovation could be
taxed to support those who paid the price.  This bears some resemblance to
the modern UNEMPLOYMENT program as opposed to WELFARE which got reformed
during the Clinton years (Thanks Billy).  

We've had some serious FLAME WARS over this stuff in the past, lets keep
this one friendly, I think we all understand and feel the pain on this
issue.  Maybe we can have a meaningful discussion about it.  
Does Anyone know of such a web site?  
Maybe someone disagrees with my outlook and can offer fact to repudiate it.


ME ---> Digs flame retardant suit out of dresser drawer -  searches in vain
for a helmet, ask Kramer if I can drink from the fire hose.


(Ducking) -Russ


* - Protectionist U.S. trade legislation that raised tariff rates on most
articles imported by the United States, triggering comparable tariff
increases by U.S. trading partners. The Tariff Act of 1930 is also known as
the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, after the two legislators who sponsored it, and
sometimes as the Grundy Tariff, after Joseph Grundy, president of the
Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, who was the chief lobbyist for it. 
See also: Beggar-Thy-Neighbor Policy, Column 2 Rates, Countervailing Duties,
Imports, Protectionism, Reciprocity, Retaliation, Tariff, Trade Agreements
Act of 1934, 
http://www.asycuda.org/cuglossa.asp?term=Tariff%20Act%20of%201930





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