Sugar Farmers hope for help from Congress

But you will be forcing GM to pay a higher price for steel made here because the price is higher than in Asia due to worker costs. Bush artifically set the price of foreign steel higher with a tariff. So GM can't get cheaper steel anywhere. On the other hand, Kia gets cheaper steel from Asia because of no tariffs. No how can GM compete on price with Kia when it cost them 10% more just for the goods to manufacture? I don't want our companies hindered by costs, due to taxes, tariffs, that will make the competition with Kia, Honda, Toyota impossible.

I don't want our small remaining steel industry to go bye bye either but one of the other has to go to compete. You can't make Asia charge Kia the same price as US Steel charges GM.

 

but with a market as large and sweet as ours, if a country refused to sell to us, it would be terrible for them, and another country would be happy to pick up the slack and sell to us. if brazil decided to stop selling us coconuts for political reasons, i am sure the dominicans or whoever would be ecstatic. much like burger king would be excited if mcdonalds shut its doors. in the end someone is always supplying us, because there is such an incredible profit to be had selling to americans.

how does it help our security to overpay and cripple ourselves? like lsucraig says, it doesnt help GM if they are stuck competing with foreign companies who get cheaper steel abroad. we will have to tax ourselves to keep these dying industries afloat. and taxing ourselves is the ultimate restrictor of our economy. it costs so much to artifically keep our domestic industry afloat, that it is killing the reason we are dominant in the first place, economic freedom.

the government should protect us, not restrict who we can buy and sell from.
the government is again oerstepping its bounds when it restricts trade. to oppose free trade is to explicitly be anti-american in my book.

 

the entire population cant work in the tech industry or services Martin, sheesh. the population is bigger than that. The economy needs a strong manufacturing base. Your idea is wonderful, but not everyone can be a lawyer, IT desk operator or civil engineer. The IT desk operator jobs are being outsourced also. People need the jobs LOCAL to make the money.

Obviously you think some "new" employement is going to pop up somewhere, a void to be filled? Manufacturing uses up large amounts on Human resources wich is good. Generates more money. Gets it into the LOCAL economy. Where as outsourcing and high tech jobs are not as numerous and don't pump as much money into the local economy. its really not that hard to figure out.
GM has always been free to buy foreign steel BTW.

You see the economy in two dimensions, it's not like that.

 

Foreign steel has a tariff on it......the price would be higher than if they got it from US Steel. Then Kia gets it for 1/3 cheaper. Yeah they can buy it at a higher price than anyone in Asia. Once again, how is that fair?

Tariff's or government price controls, the high minimum wage, unions demanding more and more benefits, government subsidies, are as responsible as anything else for us losing jobs and whole manufactoring sectors.

 

why not?

so you keep claiming, but i dont see any reason why this is true. i know lots and lots of people who have jobs at places like schools and newspapers and research centers and the military. they manufacture nothing, but they seem to be ok. they provide a service that residents of earth pay for. it doesnt matter that none of them work in a foundry or a farm. but all this is beside the point.

the point is that freedom should not be restricted.

 

they can buy their steel anywhere they want though. regardless.

Unions may do harm in some ways but if it werent for those unions in the first place, you'd have people working in awful conditions and child labor. There has to be a point somewhere in the mix that protects workers.

that's the whole reason corporations want to go overseas, they have no scrupples, they want to exploit people, and that's just wrong.

something has to generate NEW revenue, not just shift it around, that's why a service only based economy will eventually fail.


martin....never mind buddy you aren't going to see it so skip it. I'd rather you miss the entire point it's easier that way.

 

They can't buy foreign steel at a cheaper price.......can't be done. It would be higher, with the tariffs than US Steel prices. They are screwed.

I never said unions didn't serve a purpose but for unions to expect workers to go on strike because they don't have 10 15 minutes breaks a day and these huge benefit packages.....that's why the companies are leaving. Not every company is going overseas to exploit cheap labor. Cheaper labor is not better labor. They want the most skilled labor they can find at the cheapest price because they have shareholders to answer to and competition from overseas companies whipping their butts on price and quality. And with the taxes they have to pay, the prices for goods that are kept at an artifically high price because of tariffs and such, how can we expect to keep a business here. They have to go because the things I mentioned are forcing them to go......what, the government gonna subsidize GM and others so they don't go under like the airlines?

The best thing for those airlines was to go under. Let them reform with new names and new labor contracts. The unions have killed the airlines.

 

now you sound like an anti capitalist hippie. foreigners love sweatshops.

and you think only manufactured goods are products with value. you cant understand that a product like research has any value. you cant touch research, so according to you it cant generate revenue.

ok.

 

too bad they haven't already shipped all the manufacturing jobs out of the country. if they had, i'm sure all those folks making $6.00/hour would have transitioned into research science and cured cancer by now.

 

That is so true...education is a great thing, but not always easy. Hence, many people join unions and complain.