Originally Posted By: Salmo g.
Protectionism ultimately fails. Even the most redneck pro-American consumer shops at WalMart for imported products.

It's funny that within the fishing and hunting community, people scoff at lower priced but well made rods and reels manufactured off-shore, yet no one criticizes the purchase of what are perceived as high quality goods like fly reels from England and shotguns from Italy. Humans are weird.

Like it or not, if a manufacturer can hire the same quality labor he pays $35 an hour for in the US for $3.50 a day in Asia, then the forces of economics will cause him to do it, regardless of his preferences. The companies that don't have been dropping like flies. I suppose what this means is that the global marketplace will level the playing field. The standard of living in Asia will increase, while the standard of living in the US decreases. Is there really any alternative, and if so, what is it, and how does it work?

Sg


The thing is that all of these places are relying on the US, EU, etc. as the marketplace. The western world cannot supplement the income of a billion Chinese yet that is what is being expected. It is a one way street, we have stiff requirements for US work conditions and encourage the exploitation of other countries, so basically if you want the ol' youth filled sweatshops, it is ok as long as they are not here.

I would consider the fact that China charging huge terrifs on imported goods (when we are charging none), paying their workers a wage that is supplemented from the Communist government to keep these people busy and not in a state of revolt... in other words protecting everything within their country from the outside and entering a world economy with a one way door. I find this to be a very un-level playing field, they pollute, they exploit, they don't take responsibility for defects poor workmanship, if someone dies from a Chinese product, it is nothing more than a note left on their door...

If all the laws we have in place to protect consumers, workers, etc. really did mean anything to us, why would we encourage these same things to be dismissed with our imports?