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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quehubo who wrote (18155)	11/30/2003 10:18:11 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793677

you may want to pay a little more but this is not what americans what to do. Look at wal mart on friday. something like 5.1 billion dollars .. equal to something like $5. for every american in America. in one day! where is all the stuff made.. CHINA I believe the long lines at stores this Friday is an example of Americans very aware of price. Never have i seen photos of people up at 4am in long lines to get into stores by 5am or 6am in prior black Friday sales.. To me price is the over whelming factor in purchases this Christmas. Expect to the walmarts, and other big discounts do very well. Jobs will always be an issue, shoe manufactures, tanners, wool mills, service centers, etc been going to cheaper countries for decades..

To: quehubo who wrote (18155)	12/1/2003 11:12:45 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793677

So how does a Western worker costing the company $25 an hour compete against an Asian costing the company $2.50 an hour? Americans, like everybody else, will have to develop competitive advantages. Our competitive advantage has traditionally been based on a level of technology and efficiency that justifies higher wages. We have to expect that our competitors will strive to cancel out that advantage, and if we want to retain it we will have to stay ahead. We are not “entitled” to stay at the top of the heap, and our workers are not “entitled” to their $25 an hour. We have to earn these things. The question for the politicians is how do we maintain a decent size middle class in an increasingly competitive global economy? I’m not sure the politicians will have much to do with it. The key word here is “competitive”. If we want to maintain that decent size middle class, we will have to compete successfully. The good news is that the more successful other nations get, the more their workers will ask. The middle class and the technology-based industries in these emerging markets will also be readier markets for American goods, and will be far less likely to create the kind of geopolitical instability that costs us so many billions to cope with.