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To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (40485)	10/30/2003 8:05:25 AM
From: Chas.	Respond to of 74559

We have created a monster and it is beginning to feed on itself, it will eventually devour us. We have brought the rest of the world up to our intellectual & technological standards thru the Computer and the Internet. Now this technology is being used to create a World Economy, utilizing horrifically cheap labor to lure our manufacturing and service industries offshore with the apparent acquiescence and authorization of our Government. In order for USA to compete with this new world economy our present day wage structure must be lowered to a parity with the rest of the world, ie China, Mexico, India, Asia in General......... Our Standard of Living and Way of Life will be substantially lowered over the next 20 years ...... this is the legacy we are leaving our Children and Grandchildren......... Our only really good future leverage is the Military Nation option..... We have become a dog chasing his tail....a catch 22..... we are back to My Tribe...Your Tribe.... So much for Technology.... regards

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (40485)	10/30/2003 8:53:45 AM
From: smolejv@gmx.net	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

It's funny but it looks as if the US' situation defies the laws of Archimedes - I guess it's that so-called full spectrum dominance.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (40485)	11/1/2003 4:32:06 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Haim, <<the World economy follows the laws of Archimedes - meaning poor countries will get higher standard of living and rich country will stagnate or even lower their standard of living>> ... appears to be more true than not, for now ... until you sofa goes up in price, down in quality due to official intervention :0) U.S. Furniture Makers Seek Duties on Chinese Imports online.wsj.com By DAN MORSE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL A coalition of U.S. furniture makers asked Washington trade officials on Friday to impose antidumping duties against Chinese-made bedroom furniture -- furniture that the coalition says is unfairly priced too low. The domestic companies say imports from China are ravaging its industry. Over the last 2½ years, the U.S. wood-furniture-making industry has shed approximately 34,000 jobs, or 28% of its workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. At the same time, imports from China have grown significantly. U.S. makers of sofa and upholstered furniture have been more insulated from imports, in part because those goods are often custom-ordered, although imports are growing in that sector also. Friday's trade action centered on wood bedroom furniture -- beds and dressers, for example. Based on its own investigation, the 31-company coalition estimates that in order to "level the playing field," anti-dumping duties could begin at 158%. The coalition said it had found "detailed and extensive evidence of dumping." The furniture makers filed their petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Those agencies will investigate their claims. John Bassett, president and chief executive of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., Galax, Va., and a spokesman for the group, said, "The petition documents some of the most egregious examples of dumping by the Chinese, which require the highest antidumping duties." Whether his group can prove that remains to be seen. Thus far, several of the big American players in the business have stayed out of the coalition. The petition is expected to be fought vigorously be Chinese factory owners, American importers and perhaps some big furniture retailers. They will argue that low-priced furniture from China is simply a matter of a labor-intensive product moving to a nation with very cheap labor and an increasing number of modern factories. Kevin O'Connor, the president of Legacy Classic Furniture, Greensboro, N.C., an importer, said, "Without getting religious about the whole thing, is God an American? Did he decide that the only people who should have wealth and a good way a life are in the middle of the North American continent? … In China, you ask these people to work 12-14 hours a day, six days a week, and they'll do it gladly, because they're trying to improve their plight in life." Imports from China of household wood furniture, a category that includes bedroom furniture, jumped 75% from $1.65 billion in 2000 to $2.89 billion last year, representing more than a third of all such imports to the U.S., according to the Commerce Department. In stores, consumers are grabbing up the lower-priced Chinese furniture, which industry officials say is getting better in quality. U.S. domestic production of all wood furniture fell to $10.67 billion last year from $12.12 billion in 2000, according to the American Furniture Manufacturers Association, an industry group. This includes production of furniture made of imported components. Write to Dan Morse at dan.morse@wsj.com

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (40485)	11/1/2003 5:38:43 AM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Haim, I heard about this today on the radio. It sure explains a lot of things... The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to swap pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different. In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (in the absence of an actual monkey able to eat it) was enough to induce sullen behaviour in a female capuchin. Dr Brosnan and Dr de Waal report that such behaviour is unusual in their trained monkeys. During two years of bartering prior to these experiments, failure to exchange tokens for food occurred in fewer than 5% of trials. And what made the behaviour even more extraordinary was that these monkeys forfeited food that they could see¡ªand which they would have readily accepted in almost any other set of circumstances. The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. bbs.chinadaily.com.cn