Fix the economy by restoring jobs back to the U.S.A. Reject NAFTA. Impose import duties on U.S. Mgrs. impoting their own goods.
Force U.S. manufacturers to bring back jobs for the U.S. workers whose jobs they have outsourced in order to reduce their costs of labor. How do we do this? Tell those nations that we are trading with under international trade agreements that we do not believe that they are trading fairly with us and that unless they begin to do so we will reject our compliance with the trading agreements and declare them null and void. When we have nullified those trade agreements, the U.S. should impose import duties on U.S. Mfgrs. equal in amount to the difference between the foreign wages paid to the foreign workers and the minimum U.S. hourly wage for the same number of hours for which the Mfgrs. have paid their foreign workers. In other words we should make reimported foreign manufactured goods as costly to the U.S. Mfgrs. via import duties as it would have been had they not outsourced those jobs in the first place. If the U.S. Mgrs. don't like it then they can sell those same foreign made goods in the nations in which the goods were manufactured. They will lose the U.S. market for their foreign made goods unless they are willing to pay the U.S. import duties. That's the kind of tax rebate that would really help the U.S. economy to get out of this recession.
Creating and regaining lost, permanent U.S. jobs is the best way to get our nation out of recession. A temporary tax rebate is not a permanent fix. It is not even a short term fix. Only when U.S. workers have jobs can they continue to make mortgage payments; buy gasoline at its current price; pay for medical insurance; buy food, clothing and make minimum credit card payments. What will happen when the $800.00 per person tax rebate is spent? Will it have prvided a jobless worker's family with the continued wherewithal to pay for his or her familiy's needs. No, of course not!
What it will do is to give a tax rebate to all U.S. persons who have paid taxes including a great number of wealthy people who don't spend any more for anything because the already have what they need. In our economics classes we learned about the law of diminishing marginal utility which is, in other words: "The more you have of something you needed the LESS you want more of it." So, why rebate to the wealthiest who are less likely to spend it? That's another reason not to go for a "temporary, UNtimely fix" that won't, in the long run, solve th recession problem.
The "Temporary" fix will only benefit the wealthiest people. It will not solve the problem which is the continued loss of U.S. jobs to those abroad. How many jobs has the U.S. created in China, India,Latin America and the rest of the world outside the U.S.? Ask the Bush administration and the Republican neo-conservatives that question. A correct answer will show how many jobs have left the U.S. permanently and the rate at which more jobs will leave our country in the long run future.
Please. Democratic members of Congress. Insist on combating the effects of continuing job losses abroad. Reject N.A.F.T.A. and all similar treaties. Insist on fixing the unemployment problem, also, by undertaking construction of new public infrastructure in the U.S. hiring only legal U.S. residents..
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I disagree
"Creating and regaining lost, permanent U.S. jobs is the best way to get our nation out of recession."
I would like to disagree with you on this point. What we need is not increased jobs, but increased production. If you read any economics textbook you will find they are all for free trade. To reject that free trade is always good is like arguing against gravity.
Trade is a voluntary act of mutural benefit. We would not trade with China unless we were receiving goods we valued more than our dollar. Free trade greatly helps the poor as well, as they gain access to cheaper goods, raising their standard of living and effectively making them richer.
We do not need to focus on restricting trade, rather we must embrace free trade. The jobs we lose to foreigners will be replaced by jobs where we hold a comparative advantage. As we knock down our trade barriers other countries will follow suit and we will find additional markets for our goods.
NOPE.
As usual, Libertarians and Conservatives use truths OUTSIDE their range of applicability.
Sorry but Science is a Liberal Art. You can lean Libertarian personally, but Libertarianism along with Conservatism is demonstrably false. The leaning, of course, is not.
In this case you use terms far too broadly to apply. E.G. Who exactly is "we" in the "we would not trade with China unless..."?
About your post
"We" is any American that buys a foreign produced product. We buy the product because we value the product more than the dollars we spend on it.
As for the rest of your post, I did not see you refute me on any of my points, you simply utilized Ad hominimd attacks on me for being a libertarian. You would do well to explain to me how in this instance I am using truths outside my range of applicability.
Track my posts.
Your error here is the "we".
If I leave quotation marks on it you are completely accurate in your description of why "we" trade:
The problem is that the first "we" is often one person/entity and the second another.
So simply do a thought experiment:
Can YOU think of a situation in which a guy buys cheap Chinese wrenches from Kmart yet is worse off due to trade with China?
The details, the complexity, is why there is debate.
Let's be clear.
-Notions that Conservatives and Libertarians hold ARE notions which American Liberals also hold.
-Emotional bias toward "Independence", "Live and Let Live", and "Love thy Neighbor" should inform each of our vote only when an OPINION is called for.
Much of politics-as-usual however is bullshit which RELIES on mixing the two.
Two problems with our
Two problems with our current state of "free trade".
One is that now, we trade jobs as well as products, you can call it "outsourcing to maintain a competetive advantage", but all it really is is selling American jobs to other countries at the expense of our own. So instead of buying goods we used to make in America, we buy them from Mexico and China, which "saves" us money because those goods are cheaper? No, because the people buying those products are the ones who work at Wal-Mart because they lost that same manufacturing job. And they can hardly afford those goods even with their employee's discount card, let alone cost of living, so now to scratch by, they need government assistance, and because they earn less, they pay less in taxes, so the government has to make up for that lost revenue by constantly borrowing from China.
The other problem is that, even though we are one of the world's largest markets for goods, whenever someone even mentions that fact in passing, "PROTECTIONIST!!!!" is screamed, like protecting our own economy is a bad thing. Why? Other countries protect their economies. You think China gives a s--t about our economy? Why should they, they already own us.
corporations need to care about America
The trade aggreements are not the root of all evil. It is the corporations focused on the bottom line rather than being a good citizen of America. Profits are necessary for them but there could be some give on their end if they were good citizens. Then they would be finding ways to be inovative in creating jobs rather than cutting back to appease the shareholders so they get bigger dividends.
The focus of companies has become all about earnings. And computers and technology has taken humanness out of business. They need to care about America and Americans. They can still find ways to be profitable and create jobs by being less greedy and more inovative, and by doing so help not only themselves but our economy and the American people as well.
There are companies in America doing quite well using that sort of thinking but we never hear about them. They have people in management that give a darn about people, our country, their communities, and still make a profit. IT ain't rocket science. It takes caring and good management decisions and honesty. More businesses should try it. Part of the problem is most companies do not look at new ways of doing things. They just keep coming in in the morning and doing things the same way they have for years and years as a matter of habit or fear of changing.
This is a new time and a new day when we have the opportunity to change the way we do things, so that EVERYONE can benefit. There is no place for greed and dishonesty any longer and following the same old paths hurts everyone.