Reply #28

In the discussion thread: Offshoring: Should America be impoverished in order to help other populations become better off? [View all]

Response to dawg (Reply #26)

Thu Dec 29, 2011, 11:24 AM

Zalatix (8,994 posts)

28. Poor or not, if you control manufacturing, you eventually control R&D.

Comparative Advantage has never worked in international trade, only in theory. In fact the seeds for Comparative Advantage's failure was planted by your own points: transportation costs make up one example for why it would simply be cheaper to do the work at home, if wages were equal.

In fact it is even possible that David Ricardo's Comparative Advantage has been totally misunderstood by free traders. Not calling YOU a free trader though.

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103 replies	Author	Time	Post
Offshoring: Should America be impoverished in order to help other populations become better off? [View all]	Zalatix	Dec 2011	OP
We can't impose our will or our lifestyle on the rest of the world either.	Kurmudgeon	Dec 2011	#1
I've no desire to impose anything on any country.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#3
Thats just BS to appease the masses	FreakinDJ	Dec 2011	#2
Comments like that are likely to ENRAGE the masses, drive them to action.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#4
Truth Hurts	FreakinDJ	Dec 2011	#5
No, I don't mean comments like yours, I mean comments like the one I am referring to	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#7
Surprise ! - Not all posters on DU are Americans	FreakinDJ	Dec 2011	#8
Hmmmm, really now? Perhaps therein lies the problem	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#9
We have Canadians here telling us America needs Free Trade	FreakinDJ	Dec 2011	#11
Yes I've met the type	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#13
Can you point me towards one of those posts?	polly7	Dec 2011	#20
That would be against DU rules against "Singleing out a Poster"	FreakinDJ	Dec 2011	#25
ah, I see how that works. ;)	polly7	Dec 2011	#40
We do it because the corporations that determine US policy	mmonk	Dec 2011	#6
That's really the only reason.	Quantess	Dec 2011	#42
I've been thinking about the opposite side of this question	Tsiyu	Dec 2011	#10
Indeed	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#12
Actually, it can work fine when they aren't poor.	dawg	Dec 2011	#15
Comparative Advantage doesn't work.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#21
But you're comparing apples to oranges.	dawg	Dec 2011	#26
Poor or not, if you control manufacturing, you eventually control R&D.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#28
Yes, for the product you manufacture.	dawg	Dec 2011	#34
Well, we are far more productive, this much is true.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#35
The productivity and efficiency of the American worker ...	dawg	Dec 2011	#36
There are tariffs.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#37
traditionally tariffs were for raising revenue for the federal government	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#49
I'm generally opposed to tariffs, but ...	dawg	Dec 2011	#56
The problem is there are two parallel yet unharmonized trade agendas	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#60
That is enlightening.	dawg	Jan 2012	#98
Smoot Hawley did nothing of the sort. Plus, embargoes on US exports are useless now.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#57
So many fallacies in such a short post	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#59
You're still pushing more fairy tales. Here are the documented facts.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#61
I don't think there is any economic issue LESS in dispute Smoot-Hawley	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#66
You seem to want to defend Americans losing jobs. We don't have anything to lose by losing exports.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#67
If you want to advocate fighting a 17th Century trade war, go for it.	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#70
The US heavy industry won't collapse if we hire Americans to build for the American market.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#71
I'm not opposed to tariffs, I am opposed to punitive tariffs.	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#76
More facts debunking the Smoot Hawley myth	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#68
Naturally imports dropped, that is what punitive tariffs do	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#73
Imports dropped far more than exports.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#74
So it was all the depression huh? The massive retaliatory trade barriers were just a coincidence?	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#82
Trade deficits devalue the dollar naturally.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#85
Oh and let me add... to hell with the WTO.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#89
So if I follow you...	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#90
Why do you keep spouting these uninformed opinions? You have no documentation to back them up.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#93
Looking at the calendar... today is Sunday December 31st 2011	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#94
US = Low productivity? Just another of the major errors in your argument	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#95
High US labor productivity is a modern phenomenon	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#96
High US labor productivity is NOT merely a modern phenomenon - where do you get these fantasies from	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#97
"we must fight against the race-to-the-bottom free traders who would have our workers...	LooseWilly	Dec 2011	#53
I mostly mean the policy makers.	dawg	Dec 2011	#55
Indeed. The US trades more with the EU than with China despite China having 3 times the population.	pampango	Dec 2011	#91
What will China and Europe do when America becomes too poor to buy their stuff?	Zalatix	Jan 2012	#101
Once every American family has a decent standard of living, we can consider this.	dawg	Dec 2011	#14
Offshoring is a way corporations make sure everyone is in poverty	lunatica	Dec 2011	#16
All the interconnectivity that's occurred during the past 50 years...	randome	Dec 2011	#17
"resulted in better standards of living" -- not here in the US, though. DECLINING wages, standards	Romulox	Dec 2011	#19
America has problems. No disputing that.	randome	Dec 2011	#23
That's an after-the-fact justification whipped up by the plutocrats; the EXPLOITATION came first,	Romulox	Dec 2011	#27
Hard to afford smart phones on ZERO DOLLARS an hour.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#31
Less war, more revolutions.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#22
Most of the revolutions today come from a desire for democracy.	randome	Dec 2011	#24
And what do you call those riots in Democratic Europe?	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#29
I'd call them not on the same scale as the Arab Spring and other riots.	randome	Dec 2011	#32
It hasn't gotten to that point yet but when it pops...	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#33
Those standards of living will go down drastically with the rapid overuse of resources.	antigone382	Dec 2011	#43
Offshoring currently moves manufacturing toward pollution-heavy countries.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#45
"Free trade" with Korea was the latest neolib betrayal. nt	Romulox	Dec 2011	#18
Good question. Thoughts...	PETRUS	Dec 2011	#30
Resembles the questions over whether or not there should be progressive taxation, social	wiggs	Dec 2011	#38
Your case is nowhere near as strong as you imagine	muriel_volestrangler	Dec 2011	#39
And you are saying "America needs to become poorer" - your case is not strong at all.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#41
Off-shoring doesn't really help the poor in other third world countries - it helps the corporations.	haele	Dec 2011	#44
Post-War prosperity was built on having bombed nearly every other industrialized nation to dust.	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#46
Britain was not 'bombed to rubble'	RZM	Dec 2011	#47
In 1940-1941 England was flattened!	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#51
No it wasn't	RZM	Dec 2011	#52
The Luftwaffe wanted to destroy the RAF et-al and aircraft factories	Sen. Walter Sobchak	Dec 2011	#54
The Luftwaffle wanted to, but they failed.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#58
as long as US prosperity is not built on killing & ripping off other countries & nations;	marasinghe	Dec 2011	#48
Nope	juajen	Dec 2011	#50
Good question	Proud Liberal Dem	Dec 2011	#62
And cheap foreign labor is not cheap.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#64
Right	Proud Liberal Dem	Dec 2011	#65
How "cheap" is it really?	high density	Dec 2011	#79
Outrageously false dichotomy. NAFTA, for example, screwed both sides of the border.	JackRiddler	Dec 2011	#63
NAFTA Is Starving Mexico	polly7	Dec 2011	#81
And to think, America would be even worse than that without welfare.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#86
Better Lives for Mexicans Cut Allure of Going North	pampango	Dec 2011	#92
Will the Mexicans let us go there for jobs?	Zalatix	Jan 2012	#100
Offshoring Mission Accomplished	Octafish	Dec 2011	#69
It's just another way to transfer more weath upward	high density	Dec 2011	#72
Maybe we can force them to pack up and leave, totally	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#75
There needs to be a collective change in the way companies think	high density	Dec 2011	#80
"a family that cares about its own"	grantcart	Dec 2011	#77
Where's my Global Citizenship ID card? Can I move to China for a job with this ID card?	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#78
Apparently you cannot.	grantcart	Dec 2011	#87
Find someone else to sell your One World Government ideas to. I'm flippant and proud of it.	Zalatix	Dec 2011	#88
I see you didn't have an answer to the offshore pollution problem, eh?	Zalatix	Jan 2012	#102
What?	unlawflcombatnt	Jan 2012	#103
Let's talk about the real issue - globalists becoming vastly rich	TBF	Dec 2011	#83
should Americans take a good hard look at their options and their impacts on the global economy?	getdown	Dec 2011	#84
Had the corporations and government agencies had good intentions when they went into these	jwirr	Jan 2012	#99

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