How do we produce more when free trade sends industries over seas?

[DocHolliday]

Americans need to save more and produce more goods to escape this depression: Schiff, Paul, and others have said this many times.

Saving more is easy enough, but how do we produce more goods when manufacturers don't want to set up shop in the country? Taxes can be lowered, but that alone is not what's driving them away. Paying employees a living wage in this country costs a lot more than in Asia.

A few foreign auto makers have moved in in recent years, of course, but most goods are made overseas and imported.

Good for cheap products, bad for jobs and production.

So what do you guys suggest? How do we escape this? How can we have free trade and production?

 

[not.your.average.joe]

stop manipulating the worlds money supply


btw, welcome to the forum

 

[tremendoustie]

Americans need to save more and produce more goods to escape this depression: Schiff, Paul, and others have said this many times.

Saving more is easy enough, but how do we produce more goods when manufactures don't want to set up shop in the country? Taxes can be lowered, but that alone is not what's driving them away. Paying employees a living wage in this country costs a lot more than in Asia.

A few foreign auto makers have moved in in recent years, of course, but most goods are not made overseas and imported.

Good for cheap products, bad for jobs and production.

So what do you guys suggest? How do we escape this? How can we have free trade and production?

The USD is worth far more than it should be, relative to other currencies. If the government stops manipulating/borrowing money, allowed the dollar to fall, and reduced taxes and regulations, manufacturing companies would flock back to the US.

There would be a temporary hit in quality of life in this country -- it's hard to beat a lifestyle based on continuous huge borrowing and spending -- but we would be far better off in the long run, and have a much more stable, productive economy.

It is not free trade that has sent industry overseas, it is government intervention -- especially in setting artificially low interest rates.

 

[Optatron]

get this straight already, we don't need to PRODUCE to be wealthy, we just need money to be wealthy.

we have the easiest production in the world, the printing press.

 

[CitizenPlain]

Come up with an idea for a great needed product,

...

 

[DocHolliday]

It's easy enough to say that Citizen Plain, but why in a million years would you expect companies to do so.

Keep info Guarded: I'm sure that most do, but you'll recall that asian countries like to step all over copyrights

Don't sell out to the big money investors: Most of our companies are publicly traded, so too late.

Sell at a reasonable price to Americans: Companies will continue to sell for the best price they can get while being competitive.

Hire only documented Americans and legal immigrants: Why would they? Illegals are cheaper.

Don't let the Feds get their greedy hands on it: Well, assuming a libertarian is in setting policy, we can take this as a given.

produce it here with quality materials and craftmanship.

Keep your information secret and guarded.

Don't sell out to the big money investors.

Sell at a reasonable price to Americans, and more to world.

Hire only documented Americans and legal immigrants.

Don't let the Feds get their greedy hands on it.

 

[DocHolliday]

And it's a flawed system. I'm asking for solutions, not rehashing. (did not mean this to sound harsh)

get this straight already, we don't need to PRODUCE to be wealthy, we just need money to be wealthy.

we have the easiest production in the world, the printing press.

 

[DocHolliday]

I'm not sure how current this information is, but a quick google search tells me that Vietnamese workers make $l.60 a day.

Do you believe that when the US stops manipulating/ borrowing that we're going to drop so much that Americans will gladly accpet $1.60 a day?

Even assuming a huge depression/adjustment, I find that unlikely to the extreme.

I don't buy that such a correction would be enough to lure back manufacturers.

The USD is worth far more than it should be, relative to other currencies. If the government stops manipulating/borrowing money, allowed the dollar to fall, and reduced taxes and regulations, manufacturing companies would flock back to the US.

There would be a temporary hit in quality of life in this country -- it's hard to beat a lifestyle based on continuous huge borrowing and spending -- but we would be far better off in the long run, and have a much more stable, productive economy.

It is not free trade that has sent industry overseas, it is government intervention -- especially in setting artificially low interest rates.

 

[brandon]

Saving more is easy enough, but how do we produce more goods when manufacturers don't want to set up shop in the country? Taxes can be lowered, but that alone is not what's driving them away. Paying employees a living wage in this country costs a lot more than in Asia.

The thing is we don't really have a choice. Once other countries stop buying our debt and we can no longer afford our massive military, we will have to produce more.

What will happen is our standard of living will have to decrease significantly so our workers become more competitive on the global level.

Then again, if we reduce regulations and taxes, that is a competitive advantage we will have over places like China, where the government is involved with everything. That advantage will make it so we don't have to reduce our standard of living too drastically.

 

[torchbearer]

The thing is we don't really have a choice. Once other countries stop buying our debt and we can no longer afford our massive military, we will have to produce more.

What will happen is our standard of living will have to decrease significantly so our workers become more competitive on the global level.

Then again, if we reduce regulations and taxes, that is a competitive advantage we will have over places like China, where the government is involved with everything. That advantage will make it so we don't have to reduce our standard of living too drastically.

this.

 

[Optatron]

And it's a flawed system. I'm asking for solutions, not rehashing. (did not mean this to sound harsh)

depends on what your goal is

do you want us to be more physical in our economy and production? then we need to roll our sleeves up and compete with slave labor

do you want ourselves to be more wealthy? we can either print money, or rob other countries, or kill them off.

do you want just yourself to be freer and happier? join the might, become a corporatist and stop worrying about other people (only socialists have time for that)

 

[Zippyjuan]

True free trade must include the free movement of labor and capital and freely floating exchange rates. In the case of the US and China, the dollar is kept artificially high by the Chinese which makes their goods artificially low and gives them an unfair trade advantage. If the currencies were allowed to float freely, higher demand for Chinese goods should make their currency stronger relative ot the dollar (you need more of their currency to buy more of their goods) and in the long term, this would raise the relative cost of their goods and stop the exidus of jobs from the US.

 

[Cali4RonPaul]

Germany has a trade surplus, they export very sophisticated manufactured goods. Its a developed nation with high wages as well. Its the culture and work ethic of the inhabitants. While so many countries have invested in education and the promotion of engineering and mechanical trade schools. The USA has a greater focus in training for service related jobs, our economy is addicted to consumption.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

my plan

im finishing a machinist course now

i have 2 buddys who did the same course and got good jobs jobs that are paying for them to do their nims apprenticeships and get journeyman's papers

we are goin to start buyin some used equipment (mill ,lathe ,surface grinder etc.) later this year and maybey tryin to get some jobs here and there, by the time were journeyman machinist (4 years) we will have everything we need for a full blown make just about anything shop plus between the 3 of us we have lots of experiance in carpentry granite and concrete roofing construction demolition maintnence computers etc so there wont be much we cant make...

hopefully by then maybe we can get taxes slashed and some of the red tape out of owning your own buissness

i hope others out there have similar plans

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

Yeah - the only ways to get really competitive would be to dismantle the government regulatory apparatus. Then if we could start making quality and durable goods like Germany, Switzerland and Russia do, that would put us in a different market than the designed obsolescence China crap.

And then there is always plan B - massively reduce the population... say with a pandemic and take care of that pesky unemployment "problem"...

-t

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

my plan

im finishing a machinist course now

i have 2 buddys who did the same course and got good jobs jobs that are paying for them to do their nims apprenticeships and get journeyman's papers

we are goin to start buyin some used equipment (mill ,lathe ,surface grinder etc.) later this year and maybey tryin to get some jobs here and there, by the time were journeyman machinist (4 years) we will have everything we need for a full blown make just about anything shop plus between the 3 of us we have lots of experiance in carpentry granite and concrete roofing construction demolition maintnence computers etc so there wont be much we cant make...

hopefully by then maybe we can get taxes slashed and some of the red tape out of owning your own buissness

i hope others out there have similar plans

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Media-Art...to-Make--Almost--AnythingFall2002/CourseHome/

http://www.media.mit.edu/physics/pedagogy/fab/

You're welcome...

-t

 

[surf]

i think there is a flaw in the premise that "free trade sends industries overseas." free trade does not necessarilly send industries away, it can also bring industries here (see Toyota, Honda). I'd argue it is the regulatory clusterf#ck, the tax rates, the uncertainty, the regulatory costs and healthcare costs, etc. that make the grass appear greener elsewhere.

and most of us here would probably attribute industries' desire to look elsewhere to the lack of "free" trade and the onerous (?) burden the gov't(s) place on businesses.

 

[Cali4RonPaul]

my plan

im finishing a machinist course now

i have 2 buddys who did the same course and got good jobs jobs that are paying for them to do their nims apprenticeships and get journeyman's papers

we are goin to start buyin some used equipment (mill ,lathe ,surface grinder etc.) later this year and maybey tryin to get some jobs here and there, by the time were journeyman machinist (4 years) we will have everything we need for a full blown make just about anything shop plus between the 3 of us we have lots of experiance in carpentry granite and concrete roofing construction demolition maintnence computers etc so there wont be much we cant make...

hopefully by then maybe we can get taxes slashed and some of the red tape out of owning your own buissness

i hope others out there have similar plans

Good stuff I wish you the best.

I have had my own business since 2003 I started it when I was 19 yrs old, Its still going but due to the economic downturn its doing less. Its in the automotive field I import from Asia for the most part, But recently I got a made in the USA injection machine for $20,000+ hopefully when the economy improves I can start making some plastic injection autoparts and hire some workers here, its all about finding your niche.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Media-Art...to-Make--Almost--AnythingFall2002/CourseHome/

http://www.media.mit.edu/physics/pedagogy/fab/

You're welcome...

-t

lthanx looks cool ill have to dig in and check it out more in depth when i get a chance

we get to start on the cncs next week so far its been a lot of lathe work milling and grinding i think the cnc's will be pretty easy to be honest but definatly an important thing to be able to do

have you ever seen that rep rap thing yet its a pretty simple to build 3d printer like they mention on that site there theres a vid on there homepage http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

i forgot about that till i seen 3d printing on that site i wanted to build one before but ended up forgetting about it i probly will build one now but probly bigger and better

 

[evilfunnystuff]

Good stuff I wish you the best.

I have had my own business since 2003 I started it when I was 19 yrs old, Its still going but due to the economic downturn its doing less. Its in the automotive field I import from Asia for the most part, But recently I got a made in the USA injection machine for $20,000+ hopefully when the economy improves I can start making some plastic injection autoparts and hire some workers here, its all about finding your niche.

I wish id have had the foresight and opportunity and ambition to start a buisness that young i

im 30 and ive just lately started taking steps toward having a couple i got a smaller start thing in the works too that isnt costing very much but should be nice once it gets to a decent size