Local story in my area from yesterday reporting on the transit and arrival of some new cargo cranes constructed in China and navigating through Maryland waters after a 2 month ocean transit.
The cranes cost $40M so this represents at least a $40M hit to US GDP, in fact probably more if local labor compensation disparity is included in the calculation (hard to compete against the USD value of 2 rations of dog brain soup per day) . And it doesn't stop there, as these cranes will assist in the future off-loading of additional $M worth of US GDP destroying goods at the Port of Baltimore.
Transit of the Bay Bridge was temporarily halted, thus killing the domestic productivity of the local economy for a day (thanks!), while the custom craft passed under the bridge by only 4 feet!
And isn't it nice of our US government agencies to assist this mercantilist effort to annihilate domestic employment, we read:
The ship took on extra ballast water to ride lower. Special instruments installed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration measured the clearance. “Over six minute intervals, the data was updated, calculated and re-provided to the ship’s operator so they could safely navigate,” said Linda Austin, NOAA Spokesperson.That was awful nice of them.
It's always Class War between the citizen class and the merchant class, and we're ceding the battle to them - under the guise of "free" trade! Freedom lost over "free" trade, how low can you get. We're always in a Semantic War. Stuart Chase nailed it when he wrote "The Tyranny of Words."
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books/about/Tyranny_Of_Words.html?id=pTXfGAAACAAJ
What'd Tom Jefferson say about the merchant class?
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Thomas Jefferson
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff138493.html
You fiddle with semantics, and you can confuse ANY subject, and enslave any ignorant people.
Under MMT philosophy isn't the crane a real benefit while the cost of our infinitely create-able is of no real loss? Ideally our citizens would have better uses for their time than building cranes. The fact that they don't is due to the mismanagement and misunderstanding of how our monetary system works.
ReplyDeleteAlso, once the crane arrives and performs its tasks, I expect we'll all benefit by the increase in productivity it provides.
Broll,
ReplyDelete"we'll all benefit by the increase in productivity it provides."
If we started retiring all people at 55 with full healthcare and a $50k tax-free public pension as a start... then maybe.
Resp,
Matt -
ReplyDeleteThat SO works for me.
It would have the added benefit of taking both Gitt Wrongly AND Wrong Pall out of the race.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteAre you in the SF Bay Area? So am I
@Matt
ReplyDelete"If we started retiring all people at 55 with full healthcare and a $50k tax-free public pension as a start... then maybe."
As long as other nations choose to send us giant productive cranes in exchange for bits of paper, we could indeed pursue such policies.
Roger: What'd Tom Jefferson say about the merchant class?
ReplyDelete"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Thomas Jefferson
Thus neoliberalism's policy of "free markets, free trade and free capital flow." However, this is actually disingenuous, since neoliberals then manipulate arrangements of treaties and agreements in favor of their own interests and disadvantaging others by creating monopoly conditions through artificial scarcity. The emerging world sees through this and is pushing back, denying excessive patent protection, for instance.
I am actually all for liberal market and trade policy within the context of what works best for the whole. The world needs to approach the global economy as a holistic (closed) system, otherwise imbalances in production, distribution, and consumption will continue to result in social, political, and economic friction, with the added threat of leading to conflict.
Admittedly this is complex, and it requires cooperation and coordination that exceeds market forces alone, at least until there is more fluid and frictionless global marketplace. So far that cooperation and coordination have been insufficient and in fact, recent efforts to address major challenges have broken down, often into acrimony.
But it's not rocket science either. There are fairly large tolerances in economics and buffers available as well, in comparison to the precision required in engineering.
Btw, I wonder if Caterpillar built that crane in China.
Broll: "Under MMT philosophy isn't the crane a real benefit while the cost of our infinitely create-able is of no real loss? Ideally our citizens would have better uses for their time than building cranes. The fact that they don't is due to the mismanagement and misunderstanding of how our monetary system works. Also, once the crane arrives and performs its tasks, I expect we'll all benefit by the increase in productivity it provides."
ReplyDeleteYes, the US is in the position it is in for domestic policy reasons, not trade, and addressing trade will not resolve the problem, only exacerbate it. The US is too financialized for one thing and the non-financial sector has also been skewed by deteriorating institutional arrangement. Both are observable in the rise of rent-seeking over productive contribution.
Fiscal (tax) policy and institutional reform (anti-trust) can address that, but those are political issues. And the right as convinced the sheeple that it's a choice between either their narrative about capitalism or "socialism" and an inevitable march down the dreaded road to serfdom as the slaves of commissars. In reality is it is a choice between making liberal democracy work as advertised or remaining the slaves of the ownership class.
Clonal,
ReplyDeleteNo I'm on the other side of the US in Maryland.... that bridge is unofficially known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge aka the 'bay bridge'.
Dont worry though if you are feeling left out, your authorities out in the SF Bay area are also hard at work displacing US jobs with Chinese labor:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/20/san-francisco-oakland-bay-bridge-controversially-made-in-china/
So our morons have both coasts covered as far as US employment destruction...
rsp,
We got our Chinese cranes a few years ago - when the had to pass under the "Bay Bridge" as well. - Towering cranes pass under local bridges
ReplyDeleteThen of course there was the Chinese crane to build the new Bay Bridge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpcZe62WICE