| sixtiksix wrote on Tue, 03 January 2006 10:19 |
The Chineese aren't leaving their farms that have six John Deere machines and a nice little homestead...so...not a fair comparison.
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Maybe not fair, but accurate. Since the question was if the Chinese were happy doing these manfacturing jobs, the answer is compared to what they were doing before, yes.
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Fair trade...hmmm...compete...Can't really say, but I don't believe people are Walmart greeters, but if you say so.
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You don't believe there are Walmart greeters, or you don't believe former manufacturing workers are? In the former case, I can assure you that Walmart greeter is in fact a real job description, as silly as it sounds. In the latter, I'm not saying all former manufacturing workers have that job, but simply pointing out that a large number of those who once had high paying manufacturing jobs with benefits now work much lower paying service jobs with no benefits, and therefore have to now pay their own health care costs, etc. So in essence it's a double whammy on their budget.
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On the other hand what will happen in China as the quality of life gets better? Will they finally get off their haunches and become like....Japan?....
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It's possible. China is certainly in a strange situation, being simultanously a communist regime but practicing capitalism. If the people do rise up and democratize, then eventually they will demand worker protections, benefits, etc. However, there's no guarantee that will happen, and in the meantime it eviscerates the labor markets of industrialized nations. So in essence, we are fueling the progress of China to our own detriment.
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I don't agree with your mortgage thing either. I had no business getting a mortgage, but they (whoever they is) let me have one and I owned a home til I went broke. It was great. When you say it is down to emergency levels....emergency for whom?
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As a property investor and landlord myself, I can tell you that
I know more about the mortgage and RE situation than I care to.
You say you owned a home til you went broke. What happened then? Either you were forced to sell it and take whatever money was left for yourself, or the bank foreclosed. It is this second scenario that will play out for many people, especially if housing prices retreat even a
fraction, because they will then be upside down in their mortgage and owe more than the property is worth, and have no choice but to walk away and let the bank take it back.
As far as emergency levels, it is emergency for the economy. The Fed has a range that they consider "nominal" for interest rates, and then they have a range they consider "emergency". Very few people ask the question why did the Fed over the last 4 years have to cut rates to levels not seen since the Depression? There are such massive imbalances and structural problems underlying the U.S. economy that the Fed knew they had to cut hard and fast to keep the economy propped up, but in the process they created another problem, namely the housing bubble, and all in all they only served to forestall the eventual rebalancing that the laws of economics tell us must eventually come. Only now, because even more imbalances have been created, that rebalancing will be far more painful than before.
