You said something about my comments in the Jackson Sun being the equivelent of me saying that unified governments cause outsourcing.
When you say outsourcing, you might think outsourcing to another country. What I was talking about is outsourcing from within.
For example, Whirlpool (the company I work for) who is very "involved" in our local economic development scene, pushed for this policy of flooding our job market with low-paying jobs by only awarding tax abatements to low-paying factories.
This generates an artifically-created lower average hourly wage, which you commissioned salesmen are sure to lament, because it means fewer people who can qualify for financing, or qualifying for financing for the real high-commission stuff, as it affects that all-important debt-to-income ratio.
But back to the "outsourcing from within" thing. With the artifically-lowered average hourly wage, comes a good-paying company's ability to ask themselves: "Why are we the only ones paying "x" number of dollars an hour for this line of work, when no one else is?"
So in essence, it's the story of a large corporation putting themselves in a situation where the fox is watching the hen house. They lower the average hourly wage for an area by becoming involved [hijacking] the local economic development agency, and using that influence to only grant tax abatements to low-paying factories - to push down the average hourly wage for the whole area, so when this company conducts a wage survey to make sure they're where they want to be for the area, when they "suddenly discover" that the wages in their area have fallen - that's an excuse to lower theirs as well, by outsourcing their people within the very same factory walls where people used to make a good living.
Our company did this by outsourcing our warehouse to another company who pays less and offers no benefits. The warehouse is still there, but the people working the inside are making a hell of a lot less.
That not only sucks for the former workers who got paid good, but it also sucks for the commissioned salesforce who don't have as much "prey" to feast upon. Afterall, how're you going to income-qualify someone who only makes $9/hour? See what I mean? It sucks for everybody - except the large corporation.
Question for you Chris:
Where do you buy your groceries?
Where do you buy your hardware?
It's a free market. I assume you make at least some of those purchases at a discount chain rather than spend a higher amount for items at a mom-and-pop owned store with less buying power.
Yes, it does suck that somebody else will do a job for less money. I see it in my business all the time and sometimes I have to adjust to what the market will bear in pricing.
Because of that market system, when Whirlpool can't build a dishwasher as cost-effectively as Amana can, they can't sell it as cheaply or make as much of a profit at retail.
Kudos to you if you always buy the most expensive stuff out there for the right reasons. I just can't help but think that your reasoning is overly hopeful in the face of economic reality that you likely practice in your own household.
On the topic of Iran, have you read this stuff about the Iranian bourse?
http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html.
Let's see...
There is a great deal of information here that concerns me, and I did NOT study economics in college. What I would want to see is what Walter Williams (economist) makes of this article, so I'll email it to him.
Very good stuff though. Is the dollar truly based on oil?
Is the EU considered stable enough that the Euro would be a favorable replacement for the dollar? Wouldn't the same decreasing value principle apply especially when Europe's economy falters or has one of it's more frequent down swings (than what the US has).
I can say with some certantity that there isn't enough gold to back the US currency. There is a lot of gold in reserve, but I doubt there would be enough. Unless you had the "Goldfinger" scenario: nuke Ft. Knox to hyperinflate gold prices...
I don't have enough knowledge to answer the question. But you've got me thinking.
II: Walter Williams responded to me:
"Thanks. I don't know a lot about it but I wouldn't worry.
Cheers.
Professor Walter E. Williams"
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