and many people, even in America, are not "educatable" and are not a part of a union. my hometown used to have 3 garment factories, the one closest to where i lived made tommy hilfiger crap. the employees were non-union and made about $6.00 an hour. the plant got shipped to mexico for cheaper labor. however, the price of tommy hilfiger products did not go down.

not everyone is a union member, and not everyone, has the ability to be educated to the point of performing in a white-collar world. even in America, many people are only capable of standing in one spot performing a repetitive manual task on a daily basis. unions are not only killing the industries they are a part of, but non-union manufacturing industries as well.

the biggest private employer in america is wal-mart. there are still plenty of support/service/retail type jobs people can take. the guy doing pharmaceutical research is gonna need to employ a ton of guys to build his buildings and run his subway. his kids are gonna need teachers and people to build schools. he will need tons of services.

otherwise you effectively have welfare where i am artificially forced to pay too much for american products. welfare sucks.

the bottom line is this: you should not restrict my freedom to purchase foreign products at the prices decided upon by me and my seller merely because you favor communist style government price controls and tarriffs. america means freedom, that includes the freedom to trade goods and services with whomever.

arent you republicans supposed to be for small government?

just like every other industry. i dunno why you think that for instance microsoft or google or LSU doesnt keep the economy going. even though these companies produce nothing tangible.

i fear you have such a simplistic view of this that you think nothing has been produced unless you can touch it.

and somehow you still think the only sorts of jobs in the world are manufacturing.

people who are alive need services. just lke they need manufactured goods. so the need for services ends when there are no people.

and also do not forget that you want to force me to do the same. i dont care if you want to pay more for your american products. buy american all you want. just dont use your government to force me to do your bidding. i want the cheaper products.

of course it is! this is where i really nail exactly how you are wrong, so pay close attention:

the government is supposed to give people FREEDOM, NOT JOBS. the market provides the jobs, NOT THE GOVERNMENT. the government provides freedom and security from violence. the government is supposed to protect you from being forced to do anything. thats liberty. you do not understand the role of government vs the market.

true, and especially not if anti-freedom people force me to do what they want instead of giving me individual choices.

you simply do not know what liberty is. forcing us to pay more to keep americans employed in certain industries but not others is not liberty. it is the exact opposite. you certainly do not favor liberty.

if you want socialism, i hope you leave america.

says you. i dont see why we couldnt have an economy purely based on non-manufacturing.

if you paid less for the car, you could spend that same money on something else, but i guess the economy wouldnt benefit then, right?

of course you are, you specifically favor subsidies. specifically for farmers, have you not said this before? have you changed your mind?

you are playing word games. if the government protects an industry they are providing jobs that otherwise would not exist. the subsidies you favor are forcing certain people to be poorer than they would be otherwise for the sake of other people in industries you happen to favor. you are puninshing the majority for the sake of your preferred minority.

money. the choice to not have it taken from me for your subsidies.

not if i have already paid part of the price of the american product through taxes and subsidies.

but you favor taking that right of choice away. thats is what a subsidy is. they are not voluntary.

what you favor is the right to take my money for your goals, not mine.

right, you favor taking from me. you dont want certain people to have to earn money like the rest of us, you want them to be provided for by the rest of us.

you favor the policy which will cripple america most. by restricting the ability of the market to adapt.

that is all i have to say about it. i dont believe you understand this issue, and i do not have the patience to continue to explain it.

thank you for pointing that out . I guess they'd rather pay them to be on welfare and unemployment. I was hoping they'd get it without me saying it.

And martin the reason why you don't see that the economy has to be supported by manufacturing as well as servies is because you dont want to.
the population cant all be service based. if EVERY person in the BATON Rouge area were to quit their manufacturing jobs and try to become employed at LSU EVEN if they COULD, the university could NOT supportt them. marc has you

especially since lsu is a land, sea, and space grant university. we'd have to do away with all that gov't. funding and rely solely on tuition (less grants and fed. funded scholarships) and industry contributions for education and research (minus ag and manufacturing, of course, because they'd no longer exist). fair is fair, the gov't. shouldn't subsidize research and education either.

It's fun reading the thoughts of non-economists on the economy. Definitely some interesting assertions (my favorite being that tariffs or taxes are good for the economy.) I'm starting to understand why some people can only put "inspected by #37" stickers on underwear all day at the precious mfg. jobs.