What's your stance on protectionism?

What's your stance on protectionism?

  • Total voters
    7
MediaBud

MediaBud

Member
Padawanbater2 said:
What role do you believe government should play in order to ensure American workers receive competitive wages and don't compete against international labor?
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Government should protect open and free markets, and voluntary trade. It shouldn't dictate how private businesses are ran, or how much workers should get paid. And we should compete in an international market.

I know it's questions that enable thinking, and invitational stems won't work with me... I know enough to examine the conceptual underpinnings. Good try, though.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
MediaBud said:
Government should protect open and free markets, and voluntary trade. It shouldn't dictate how private businesses are ran, or how much workers should get paid. And we should compete in an international market.
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How do "open and free markets" present competitive wages for American workers? "Open and free markets" compete for the lowest wages possible, including what we here in America would call "slave labor". Do you support that to ensure the American businessman receives the highest possible profit?

How do you suggest American workers compete against Asian or African workers who work for pennies on the dollar?
 
MediaBud

MediaBud

Member
Padawanbater2 said:
How do "open and free markets" present competitive wages for American workers? "Open and free markets" compete for the lowest wages possible, including what we here in America would call "slave labor". Do you support that to ensure the American businessman receives the highest possible profit?

How do you suggest American workers compete against Asian or African workers who work for pennies on the dollar?
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Slave labor cannot exist in free, voluntary markets. It can exist in government-controlled markets. If someone is willing to work for cheap, why should government stop them? If my neighbor wants to watch kids on our street for $5 per hour, that's her thing. If I want volunteer my time without pay, why must it be my government's concern?

If you're afraid of Asian and African labor, maybe you should work on your skill sets, or try innovating an existing market, or creating a new one. U.S. citizens have access to great schools, so there's little reason for anyone here to look forward to separating cherries for 50 years.

With the sudden decentralization of media and rapid advances in information-communications technology, should the government keep newspapers from dissolving, and maybe require layout designers get $15 per hour, because of all the people who know only how to work with printed paper? If you want to earn (!) a competitive wage, you have to develop a competitive skill set... and that means taking ownership and responsibility in your career progress.
 
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Rob Roy

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
'Free' trade is working- for the big corporations who can take advantage of it. It's not working for the rest of the country, and since its harmful on balance to more people than it benefits, I'd say it's reasonable for government to step in and enforce some changes to level the playing field.
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Asking for the entiity that permitted cronyism to solve cronyism may not be the best idea. More government will not solve the problem of cronyism, it will just point the gun in a different direction for awhile, which is not leveling the playing field, it is changing the nature of the command. So it wouldn't be a real solution, it'd just be a rearranging of the furniture.

To ensure a level playing field, government should step OUT of the picture, all the way out.

Free trade cannot happen if an uninvited coercive third party sets the parameters. That would be oxymoronic.
 
Rob Roy

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
MediaBud said:
Slave labor cannot exist in free, voluntary markets. It can exist in government-controlled markets. If someone is willing to work for cheap, why should government stop them? If my neighbor wants to watch kids on our street for $5 per hour, that's her thing. If I want volunteer my time without pay, why must it be my government's concern?

If you're afraid of Asian and African labor, maybe you should work on your skill sets, or try innovating an existing market, or creating a new one. U.S. citizens have access to great schools, so there's little reason for anyone here to look forward to separating cherries for 50 years.

With the sudden decentralization of media and rapid advances in information-communications technology, should the government keep newspapers from dissolving, and maybe require layout designers get $15 per hour, because of all the people who know only how to work with printed paper? If you want to earn (!) a competitive wage, you have to develop a competitive skill set... and that means taking ownership and responsibility in your career progress.
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Well put, thank you.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
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Your graph of percentage gains is purposely deceptive, like all your posts. Going from producing 10 widgets a year to 15 widgets is a 50% gain, but doesn't come close to the importance of growing from 1,000,000 widgets to 1,100,000 widgets.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
How do "open and free markets" present competitive wages for American workers? "Open and free markets" compete for the lowest wages possible, including what we here in America would call "slave labor". Do you support that to ensure the American businessman receives the highest possible profit?

How do you suggest American workers compete against Asian or African workers who work for pennies on the dollar?
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Most of your "solutions" seem purposely aimed at benefiting those "workers" who won't work, period.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
MediaBud said:
Slave labor cannot exist in free, voluntary markets. It can exist in government-controlled markets. If someone is willing to work for cheap, why should government stop them? If my neighbor wants to watch kids on our street for $5 per hour, that's her thing. If I want volunteer my time without pay, why must it be my government's concern?
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"Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person's livelihood depends on wages or a salary, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a pejorative term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor by focusing on similarities between owning and renting a person.

The term wage slavery has been used to criticize exploitation of labour and social stratification, with the former seen primarily as unequal bargaining power between labor and capital (particularly when workers are paid comparatively low wages, e.g. in sweatshops), and the latter as a lack of workers' self-management, fulfilling job choices and leisure in an economy. The criticism of social stratification covers a wider range of employment choices bound by the pressures of a hierarchical society to perform otherwise unfulfilling work that deprives humans of their "species character" not only under threat of starvation or poverty, but also of social stigma and status diminution."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

If your neighbor wants to babysit for $5/hour, there is nothing legally preventing her from doing that, if you want to volunteer your time without pay, you can. The minimum wage was not created to protect people who want to work for less, it was designed to protect workers from being paid too little.
MediaBud said:
If you're afraid of Asian and African labor, maybe you should work on your skill sets, or try innovating an existing market, or creating a new one. U.S. citizens have access to great schools, so there's little reason for anyone here to look forward to separating cherries for 50 years.
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Low skilled jobs will always exist, they are a necessity in society and millions of people depend on them for their livelihood and survival. That being the case, it becomes a question of whether or not you believe people who work in these jobs are worth a living wage. It is clear it's not only the obviously humane thing to do but also the much smarter and efficient thing to do. The picture gets even more clear when you look at analysis of the recovery data and discover the overwhelming majority of economic gains since the recession have gone to a very small number of people at the top.
MediaBud said:
With the sudden decentralization of media and rapid advances in information-communications technology, should the government keep newspapers from dissolving, and maybe require layout designers get $15 per hour, because of all the people who know only how to work with printed paper? If you want to earn (!) a competitive wage, you have to develop a competitive skill set... and that means taking ownership and responsibility in your career progress.
Click to expand...


 
S

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
i haven't given it really much thought, so i answered other..but if it's to tax those importing to us? do it!

i will think more on this though..the above is knee jerk reaction.

i do think however part of our 'rebalance' is that we need to produce our own product, that will give the little fishies (scorps,llcs) their business back that was taken away from them by the big fishies (ccorp).

you little fishies with businesses realize this don't you? you are being undercut and pushed out of business by the conglomerate who can afford to move overseas, produce something for next to nothing, all the while..whistling dixie as effective negative tax they just bought with their millions/billions they pay to lobby (rather than in taxes)?..is this the american dream little fishies?:wall:

take back your business revenue from the billionaires..it's your money, do you get it, now?..vote sanders2016!

:lol:
 
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