Since you know that I think many of the challenges American workers face are self inflicted by our limitless consumer desire for the low cost best stuff.
I mean many Americans want the lowest cost, highest feature, highest quality, best performing , etc products and services, and don't care where that money goes as long as they save a few bucks and get their dream product / service.
While at the same time insisting that American workers should be paid. Which of course is kind of insane.
I find Trump's Buy American pitch promising, though I think he and his company should start putting their money where their mouth is.
WH List of Accomplishments
CNN Trump Promotes Buy American while Mar-a-Lago Seeks Foreign Workers
WAPO Buy American
Reuters Allowing More Seasonal Workers While Pushing Buy American
WAPO Trump Products are Made Where
I mean many Americans want the lowest cost, highest feature, highest quality, best performing , etc products and services, and don't care where that money goes as long as they save a few bucks and get their dream product / service.
While at the same time insisting that American workers should be paid. Which of course is kind of insane.
I find Trump's Buy American pitch promising, though I think he and his company should start putting their money where their mouth is.
WH List of Accomplishments
CNN Trump Promotes Buy American while Mar-a-Lago Seeks Foreign Workers
WAPO Buy American
Reuters Allowing More Seasonal Workers While Pushing Buy American
WAPO Trump Products are Made Where
4 comments:
Except where professional sports are concerned, I think the customer is always right. If you want to reduce the trade deficit, I think the key is to impoverish the American consumer so he can't afford to buy goods from abroad, which would also force American industry to focus on foreign markets. History also teaches us that losing world wars catastrophically is also good for trade.
--Hiram
Enough! It is time to quit assessing the "goodness" of a particular policy based on who suggests, supports or promotes it. It is either a good policy or a bad policy depending on what it actually does (or is reasonably expected to do, a priori). In this case, we want people to buy the lowest cost goods and we want them to buy American. By all rights those two should be one and the same. But with the highest corporate taxes in the developed world that cannot happen. Government created the problem; government can fix it. Pass the GOP tax plan or, better yet, the FAIR tax.
Actually what we want is:
American citizens to enjoy a world leading quality of life if they are willing to learn, work, save, invest and make responsible personal choices because these actions support the strength of our country.... Therefore creating a virtuous cycle by which future Americans will enjoy those benefits also.
The challenge is that we do have people who strive to:
- enable free loaders within our borders (ie welfare, illegal workers, etc)
- buy the cheapest most trendy products no matter the domestic consequences
- increase the US regulatory and tax burdens of creating jobs in the USA
The irony of course is that often it is the Liberals who support the above... While complaining that workers in the US are not paid enough...
Again, we should EXPECT people to buy the best "value" (cost and perceived quality) they need or want. It's called free market competition and it is critical to improving quality of life. China has passed from the biggest "want" of a bicycle, through home appliances, to a condo, and now it's a cell phone and passport.
All of the things leading in the other direction, as you point out, are things foisted upon us by overweening government and liberal utopians with no clue. It is in "our" power to fix this only if government gets a LOT smarter than they seem to be at the moment. I don't think you are going to get a "virtuous cycle" by appealing to patriotism or even common sense, so long as government incentivizes the opposite.
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