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Federal Loan Guarantees Requested for Ethanol Pipeline
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<P mce_keep="true">[quote user="greyhounds"] <P>[quote user="Bucyrus"] <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>I understand your explanation that a loss of manufacturing jobs is due to increases in domestic productivity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the loss of jobs to cheaper foreign labor is an entirely different reason for the loss of manufacturing jobs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> </FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>And the fact that U.S. manufacturing as a whole happens to be growing does not necessarily mean that we are not losing manufacturing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I would be skeptical of any source that implies that we are not losing any manufacturing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Obviously we are losing some of it to the lower wage countries, although our manufacturing growth may be bigger than the loss.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If we were not losing any, the growth would be still greater.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Certainly we are sending engineering and design work to India, China, and other low wage countries.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>U.S. engineers cannot live in the U.S. on the wages of Indian engineers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT face=verdana,geneva size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT face=verdana,geneva><FONT size=2>I agree that loss of manufacturing is not the only thing wrong right now with the economy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not by a long shot.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>I don't think anyone has ever said we are not loosing "any". As I said, perfect doesn't exist. There's always going to be change. Factories in Muncie will close. To be succesfull we have to adapt to the changes, not fight the inevitable. The fact is that the US manufacturing segement of the economy is vibrant and growing. (or at least it was before the current economic unpleasantness) That doesn't mean that old factories don't shut down. That doesn't mean that the manufacture of light bulbs won't go overseas. Things change. We can't have "NO" loss. But as long as the gains overcome the losses, we'll be fine.</P> <P>Win some, loose some, some get rained out. If we win more than we loose it'll be OK. And we've been doing that. What do we make here? Well, locomotives for domestic use and export to China, aircraft for domestic use and export all over the world, Cat earthmovers that travel the world. Ford trucks, etc. We're good at it.</P> <P>If anyone is interested I'd reccomend the book "The Box, How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger" by Marc Levinson. That's what really changed things. Along with the Internet. Before containerization it was totally impractical to manufacture things such as televisions in far off lands and sell them in the US. The transporation costs provided a trade barrier. Container ships reduced the transportation cost to near zero, eliminated the trade barrier, and made the world economy bigger. Of course, the workers who formerly made the TV's in Bloomington, Indiana didn't appreciate this. But the container ships are reality. Complaining about reality is like complaining about rain. A useless waste of time.</P> <P>The Indian engineers are another reality. They're there. They exist. Before the Internet it was impractical to coordinate the efforts of an engineer working in India with directives from the US. Now it's easy. What do you want? A law against the reailties of the Indian engineers and the Internet? Things have changed. We have to change with them. If we do that we'll be fine. If we try to build a wall around the US it will be a disaster.</P> <P mce_keep="true"> </P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P mce_keep="true"> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>My characterization that sounds like a complaint that the system is not perfect is directed to many who believe that world free trade is basically a perfect system with no downside whatsoever.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They elaborate on that claim by saying that, with world free trade, everybody that is able to produce gets an equal chance to compete with others to produce the lowest cost product.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So the perfection is that the world gets the best products at the lowest possible price.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have no disagreement with that as far as it goes.</FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>But when you have a world system evolving over a long span of time without this balanced world trade model, and suddenly the world players embrace it, there can be a tremendous imbalance that explosively seeks equilibrium like the bursting of a dam.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>World free trade is a perfect system, but when it encounters these imbalances as it spreads, the imbalance can be highly destructive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>I am in favor of the free market, so I cannot easily see a remedy to this problem in the form of laws and protectionism.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Certainly, I do not advocate building a wall around the U.S., and even if some degree of protectionism were wise in order to mitigate the pain of a too rapid transition, I have no confidence that government could do it right.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So that does leave it just like the rain or something inevitable that is useless to complain about.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But nevertheless, it is a big problem.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is a fine line between dismissing it as inevitable and putting one’s head in the sand.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even rainstorms require diligence. </FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>I find little comfort in the snapshot that shows China to be only making the trivial products while we are making earthmovers and locomotives.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The free market trajectory that is propelling this will quite likely see China building our locomotives and earthmovers before our standard of living equalizes with China’s.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are not going to just lose some manufacturing jobs due to obsolescence, as has been happening since the beginning of time. This is like a dam burst, and the wall of water has not hit yet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Right now, it just sort of looks unreal as it approaches.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Many don’t even see it coming.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=verdana,geneva></FONT> </P>
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