We are quickly reaching some middle ground here.
You say a level playing field for everyone including labor. I'm willing to retract a majority of my statements if I can have that. The abuse of labor in this country is unconscionable. Business leaders under the guise of "capitalism" have made it difficult to organize, unbelievably difficult to negotiate a contract and borderline impossible to strike. I mean look at a couple example just out of aviation of late, Air Canada Jazz, was allowed to strike less than 10 months out of contract. Weeks later they had a great new deal. The BA cabin crew strike happened while under contract due to violations of their contract by management. Can you imagine what would happen if instead of being told fly it and grieve it we told them, if you make me fly this we strike? Can you imagine what it would be like if 2/3 of our regional carriers weren't currently operating with contracts that are more than 2 years past expiration.
I will happily allow that if labor had the power that most countries give it my call for worker protections would be a moot point.
However I suspect it would not reduce all need for protections. As soon as labor was granted that power, business would call foul and say they need to move hundreds of thousands more jobs offshore. So there would need to be some level of protectio0n against that.
Finally, we have to acknowledge while overdoing isolationism can be dangerous, some level of protection is necessary. And usually no matter how absurd it seems on paper it isn't too terrible in practice. China is the shining example on this currently. Fixing the yuan to the dollar has to be one of the most ridiculous predatory practices out there.. but it hasn't exactly hurt their trade has it?
cale
Cale;
Like I said, give labor and companies enough rope to hand themselves with. I did not hang each other. It is M.A.D. Labor needs their corporation and believe it or not, the corporation needs their labor.
What you say may happen, may happen. What you would do is as the government is offer incentives for corporations to keep the jobs here. Kind of like many states do not. (Tax breaks for corporations that choose to build a plant and or headquarter in a given state, district or country) That is called capitalize.
See the principality knows that it is in their best interest to have said corporation move in. Why? Because they will get far more revenue from the lower tax rates than by sticking to their guns with a higher tax rate. This very simple example is proof of how tax cuts will increase the revenue for a municipality. Countries can do this as well.
There are a lot of areas of a total open market that scare a lot of ppl. Me too! When you have workers that are willing to do your job for 1/5 of the cost, that is bothersome, especially if it is a skilled trade or profession. There will always be countries that do not collect the tax, do not have min EPA standards etc. Think of the past 20 years. How many different countries were the hotbed of production for those annoying happy meal toys, etc? Tons. Taiwan,India, China, Bangladesh etc. Point is that it is always a moving target.
The biggest issue here in the USA is that we have all been trained to buy the deal. That a difference in off brand quality is marginal at best. We created the market that effects us. See the consumer drives the market place. Don't you go to Wal-mart or COSTCO (China Off Shore Trading Company) because it is cheaper? Well you are forcing the competition to marginally reduce the quality of their product to compete. The consumer by making a impulsive decision to buy the off brand is marginally forcing the market forces to shift.
In regard to airlines. Places like SWA, AAI Ryan Air, East Jet etc found a consumer that was willing to do with a lot less for a lot less. The conumer drove to the "No-Frills" option and killed the margins for the higher cost airlines. Well the playing filed has been leveled both for labor and for cost structure. Now you see the corporations holding capacity down in a effort to restore their margins. It is the ebb and flow of a consumer drive market place.
I could go on for hrs, but the simple fact is that at the end of the day, both labor, and corporations should be the ones that figure out their problems. Labor can get greedy and kill a corporation, but what genius is that for the labor? Government has tried to marginally protect labor and truly protect corporations from labor. It works for joe consumer until joe consumer changes his or her buying habits because they do not have the disposition income due to the inability to reap the gains and good fortune of their labor.
America was built on disposable income. Its infrastructure was built with that fact in mind. Take that disposable income away, and the country you have grown to know and love will have to change to survive. If that change needs to happen let the consumer drive it, not government bureaucracy.
(You may make assumptions about my political agenda, but this is not a political based argument for me. It is about simple economic forces and who get to drive the market)
