Monday, August 24, 2015
Made In Mexico ( and China)
Donald Trump has identified one of our enduring labor problems. Most of our consumer products are manufactured overseas, China mainly but also Mexico and other Latin American and Asian countries. He has said that he will correct the problem if elected through good management. So, I was amazed and amused to learn today that both his and his daughter's fashion lines are manufactured in guess where? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2015/07/03/trump-clothing-line-made-in-china-and-mexico/
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ReplyDelete(CNN)—Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lamented the global stock market turmoil Monday morning -- when the Dow plummeted 1,000 points at open -- saying it's an example of how the United States is too closely tied to China.
"As I have long stated, we are so tied in with China and Asia that their markets are now taking the U.S. market down. Get smart U.S.A." Trump tweeted.
He added in a separate Tweet: "Markets are crashing - all caused by poor planning and allowing China and Asia to dictate the agenda. This could get very messy! Vote Trump."
Mexico and China of course they are along with everything at Target, Walmart and Old Navy. But I bet he isn't asking nearly the low price for items that Walmart is although the same people are making the stuff.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to the new Oreo's moving from Chicago to Mexico.
ReplyDeleteI hope they will introduce a guacamole cookie, maybe a dash of jalapeno pepper. Tasty.
Delete
DeleteProbably need lots of those healthy preservatives.
Of course Trumps fashion line is manufactured in other countries.
ReplyDeleteHow could he possibly be competitive using US labor with US taxes and regulation?
Taxes and regulation suck
DeleteI am reminded of a science fiction writers conference where, during the question and answer session, a smart alec student asked author Harry Harrison "Why is it that 90% of science fiction is crap?" The author's answer was "Because, young man, 90% of everything is crap."
DeleteOnly if you have to pay taxes does it suck.
DeleteAs far as regulation, would you want to drink the yellow water from the Animas?
The EPA sucks too
DeleteOnly if you drink the water.
DeleteTrying not to breath the air today as it's nasty from the smoke from Wash, Id, Ore. You would think the EPA would pass a regulation banning fires.
"Of course Trumps fashion line is manufactured in other countries."
DeleteYes Lou and the wider spectrum of your countrymen are glad of the reduced prices they have to pay for the unnecessary crap they purchase with their dollars received from the government. Trump makes a packet by selling goods made overseas at prices so low that Americans would not even get out of bed for the work which used to be available.
Americans have priced themselves out of the market for jobs by having a grossly exaggerated belief in their worth as workers. This is the same as we in Australia, less jobs and fewer young people being trained to perform the work, More and more decide to opt out of the workforce by living on government handouts or simply existing underground. It becomes a generational thing and we now have children leaving school never having seen their parents go to work in the morning.
Where did this modern malaise begin? Well to be fair it was always with us but at a level too small to affect the economy of the country. The problem began post WW2 when Japan was aided in her rebuilding by being given access to some modern Western technology and from there, the work ethic of the nation blossomed. Japan was prepared to work for a pittance in order to learn what the West wanted. Transistor radios were among the first products. Small, reliable and cheap everybody had to have one; just like the Japanese smart phones we see today.
In time Japan became very good at not only copying, they learnt how to invent and modify existing products and the West bought all they could make. As the industries grew, so did the need to source cheap labor, Japan became another manufacturing giant with the capacity to hive off surplus production requirements to South Korea. Again the disease spread to other countries and Indonesia ,India, China etc have all blossomed into cheap manufacturers and the West has been left with champagne taste and a beer income.
In the latter part of my working life, I had an import business, it was specialized but all my products came from China, both mainland and Taiwan with the exception of Lazy Suzan mechanisms which I imported from Oshkosh(?spelling) in the US.I simply could not source the quality elsewhere and the prices for the American ones was attractive provided I bought 2 thousand at a time.
So there we are. The world has become smaller, free trade deals are ever present and still we, the one time world leaders in production, sit with our begging bowls and a handkerchief to our eyes as we wait for what we erroneously consider to be our entitlement.
Cheers from Aussie
Americans have priced themselves out of the market for jobs by having a grossly exaggerated belief in their worth as workers.
DeleteTo compensate our leaders have opened the borders to illegals who will work. The volume of illegals has suppressed wages for all. The outcry of raise the minimum wage echos through out the USA as workers believe flipping burgers making a cappuccino is worthy of much higher wages. Instead of addressing the root cause of stagnant wages, illegal immigration, the people of the US demand more.
Our politicians have convinced us free trade agreements are the way to go. We import cheap goods from overseas and in return export jobs. Then people wonder why the middle class is shrinking. We cannot go back as with the export of jobs we have also exported our technology. China will easily duplicate product exported to the USA and replace them with Chinese product, a perfect duplication of our junk.
This next election I suspect will be the point of no return. Should voters vote for FREEE, we will continue down this road. Perhaps they will surprise everyone and demand change we can believe in. Americans first.