Hellpuppy, I am so glad you were wrong....

[softball]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

I agree with you on production of goods, imports versus exports, etc. I just disagree on how to get there.

It's all about the jobs and who does the labor, and the costs involved.

Labor costs in the U.S. for simple menial manufacturing tasks are driven artificially high. You can thank unions for a lot of that, especially in automotive, textiles, etc. But we just put a very pro-labor, pro-union, liberal Democrat in office. Unions ensure you'll overpay for your labor.

Then there's taxes. The uninformed who do not run a business think an employee making $30K a year costs $30K a year. Wrong. Taxes, FICA, etc it all piles on.

Skilled jobs are leaving for same reasons. Forget the offshoring non-sense of adult. Look at real I.T. jobs. In most areas of the U.S. an IT Professional is going to go for $60K-120K depending on skill set, experience, etc. That's before taxes and bennies. To hire the best and brightest right now you need to add another 40% on top of that to cover the bennies and taxes.

Meanwhile, many Fortune 100 companies are sending tens of thousands of IT jobs to india. Typical costs for a mid-range IT Professional offshore? $30 an hour all inclusive. You dont have to provide desk space, computer, anything, you pay the outsourcing company $30 a year, tell 'em skill set you need. And you've got it. They're well educated and do good work as long as you can spec things well....not so good in the area of "thinking outside the box".

You gotta make the companies want to bring those jobs back here. Obama's idea? Tax companies who offshore. All that does is drive the entire company offshore.

Want a growth business for 2010? Staffing companies. If Obama executes his plan, you're not going to want employees, you're going to want to outsource as much as you can and make all of that overhead someone else's problem.

So really, your solution is just a fairer distribution of the wealth. Sounds like a plan. Sounds kinda familiar.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

So really, your solution is just a fairer distribution of the wealth. Sounds like a plan. Sounds kinda familiar.

Actually you're talking me into isolationism...

Slap on some tariffs and call it a day.

[softball]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

Actually you're talking me into isolationism...

Slap on some tariffs and call it a day.

Export or die. Otherwise the economy becomes like a snake swallowing its tail.

[Hell Puppy]

Lots of over simplification on all of our parts. None of us are economists. I'm just going back to my original point that I dont think bigger gonvernment fixes anything. It can bandaid things and quiet the populace, that's about it.

Even FDR and his "new deal" to end the great depression. He put a lot of people to work, that was the start of a huge growth of American government. Before it ran it's course, we entered World War II. That war really stimulated the economy, everyone was working in jobs to support the war or serving in it. And we rode the waves of growth when the men returned home right into the baby boomer area, the development of the Interstate system, huge growth in automive and technologies like television, aerospace, etc.

It all starts with jobs.

Obama is right about one thing, and I hope it works out sooner rather than later. A conversion of our energy infrastructure from fossil fuels to something else could give us another 30-40 year ride.

But if nothing changes, Mexicans will be doing the physical labor of building it out, the hardware technology will be built in the pacific rim and the code will be written in India.