When hands are wrung and brows are furrowed over the loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign nations, the discussion always centers around how we are losing our manufacturing base and how we are supposedly going to lose our middle class.
The prophets of doom and those pushing a political agenda never mention one thing, though. Foreign made goods imported to the United States typically cost less than American made goods. Oh they mention that foreign workers are paid less than American workers, but they choose to ignore the fact that the goods made by these workers cost the American consumer less than comparable American made goods.
Modern America is built on consumption. The poor in America still have televisions, stereos, microwave ovens, and, probably, cellular telephones. The poor in America live a lifestyle that would qualify them as rich in most other parts of the world. That is only possible because of the importation of cheap foreign goods.
Protectionist trade policies would necessarily drive those prices up. When prices are driven up, consumption decreases. The poor, who have less disposable income, would be the first to stop buying these so called luxuries. In effect, protectionism would drive down the lifestyles of the people at the bottom of the ladder.
No one ever mentions this, though. I'm no expert on trade policy, but I certainly don't see how making the poor live with less is good for the American economy.
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California was "The Great Experiment" for Liberals. Californias on the far left gloried in every "social program," bragged about extreme environmental policies and applauded the oft overturned rulings of the leftist Superior Court in the nation. The results, liberalism run amok, are obvious.
The Democrat led State of California instituted higher corporate taxes, higher health care costs, ridiculous retirement packages for govenment employees, massive injections of red tape and crazy hiring regulations that drove even Mom and Pop stores out of business. All those problems combined with some of the highest property taxes in the nation, brownouts and prohibitive fuel costs drove many businesses and industries to flee the state -- some even to flee the country.
California isn't the only liberal state to make the cost of doing business too great for American manufactures to bear. Every time I hear the Democrat "Blame Bush" crowd of hypocrites decry the loss of manufacturing jobs, I want to ask, "What part did you people play in creating the recession that began under Bill Clinton?" Every time I hear a left wing Democrat insist "Bush must take responsibility," I want to ask "When do you ever take responsibility for trying to take America further and further toward Socialism?"
Liberals are now trying to rename themselves. They want to be called "Progressives" instead of "Liberals." I say, "Let's call 'em what they really are, "Socialists." After all, there is nothing "liberal" about curtailing free speech under the guise of being "poltically correct." There is nothing "progressive" about reverting to the same failed socialism that wrecked the economy of Europe as a whole. The anti-Capitalism French/United Nations adulators need to assume responsibility for being Socialist dinosaurs who refuse to support our economy, our military and our President in a time of war.
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