It reminds of the 1980's economy when everything was US and now. What would happen after 10 years if the cycle continues.
US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
You would take, say, $1200 (a very high estimate) and call it a day? You can live, it doesn’t even have to be a bad life, but it’s not really all that much. I doubt many would find that to be enough. I wouldn’t. And I’m not even all that ambitious. I think a basic income can create very strong incentives to make at least some additional money compared to traditional social security. There is no need to find a job tha…
"You would take, say, $1200 (a very high estimate) and call it a day?" $1200 what? You're missing a time element there. I assume "per month". I've lived on less than that before, with some comfort, and I was working, too! If I get to assume health care (not unreasonable in the world we're hypothesizing) and don't forget that I'm not working and I'm not worrying about working either, then yeah, that sounds like a pret…
Per month. (Health care was assumed. I’m from Germany, you are already insured if you are unemployed. I don’t know any better.)
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#43Secondly, there have been calls for a US industrial policy -- that is, for Washington to essentially "pick winners and losers" by promoting some industries that they feel have a high probability of success. Asian countries have been doing this for years with remarkable success and it is a policy which we clearly need to copy. The market is pretty good at picking winners. Washington likes to take money away from the w…
What you say is true, but reality has also become more complicated than free market good, socialism bad.
Well, I guess I can take that to the bank.
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#44Worthless without context. What I'd really like to see is the change in US manufacturing as a percent of world manufacturing over time, and the trajectory of US manufacturing in comparison to the level of manufacturing in China.
I believe much of manufacturing is building things from parts from elsewhere. I did work for a pottery wheel company and the wheels major components were from Mexico (the metal frame) and motor from China. I didn't really take a look at the other parts but likely those were from overseas as well.
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
We get richer as labour gets more automated and cheaper. So it’s not a bad thing. It shouldn’t be. The big problem is that we don’t have work for bigger and bigger parts of the population. They are poor not because society as a whole got poorer, they are poor because they don’t have anything the labour market wants because it can be had cheaper now. I think it’s about time we recognize that. We have to make it possib…
We have to make it possible for everyone to live ok lives, even without having a job. We are rich enough. We didn’t get any poorer as a whole. We should be able to afford that. It already is possible. The poor in the USA right now have a standard of living greater than the middle class of 1970, but tend to work less than 800 hours/family/year. http://www.heritage.org/research/welfare/bg1713.cfm
That partisan think-tank study is pretty laughable. Since when is quality of life judged by appliance ownership? I don't have healthcare, a proper education, job skills, and my neighborhood is dangerous but hey at least I've got AC and this wonderful color TV!
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
We get richer as labour gets more automated and cheaper. So it’s not a bad thing. It shouldn’t be. The big problem is that we don’t have work for bigger and bigger parts of the population. They are poor not because society as a whole got poorer, they are poor because they don’t have anything the labour market wants because it can be had cheaper now. I think it’s about time we recognize that. We have to make it possib…
We gotta be really careful about how we do it. Were I single and not willingly in the scenario where I am going the extra mile to have and provide for a family (that best-case scenario for society), I might very well decide to just take your "basic income" and call it a day, but if society is going to have that "basic income" it's only going to happen if people like you and me and anybody else hanging around on HN do…
An important part of basic income, is a research effort on reducing the cost of basic living. with reduced costs , pressure on taxpayers would be reduced , which should help both politically and socially for the acceptance of this ideas.
Research is both DARPA level research , and investing money in 3rd world r&d and commercial efforts, since low cost technologies are bound to come from there.
Just as an example, The cost of an high rise apartment could be reduced to $8000(excluding land) using container building techniques.This shows a path of really cheap rent for really basic housing.
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have to make it possible for everyone to live ok lives, even without having a job. We are rich enough. We didn’t get any poorer as a whole. We should be able to afford that. It already is possible. The poor in the USA right now have a standard of living greater than the middle class of 1970, but tend to work less than 800 hours/family/year. http://www.heritage.org/research/welfare/bg1713.cfm
That partisan think-tank study is pretty laughable. Since when is quality of life judged by appliance ownership? I don't have healthcare, a proper education, job skills, and my neighborhood is dangerous but hey at least I've got AC and this wonderful color TV!
Job skills and education are a means to obtaining a good quality of life. The lack of them does not indicate a poor quality of life.
Quality of life is having desired goods and services, which the study indicates the poor have.
Regarding health care, do you wish to assert that health care available to the poor today is worse than health care available to the middle class in 1970?
Re: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead
#48It's worth considering that industrial index he cites includes some things that most people might not consider manufacturing per-se, including construction, mining, and utilities. According to http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/Current/default.h... the only sectors in the index that have seen growth over 2% compared to 2002 levels are utilities (electric and gas) and business equipment (which seems to consist of "industrial and other", "transit", and "information processing"). Unfortunately there is no breakdown among them.