Lo que hoy pego aca, en ingles, es toda una muestra de lo que considera algo asi com el estado actual de la economia en USA y el porque (algunos)
I am not sure I understand. The comparative advantage that China has vis-�-vis the USA is all our regulations to cut productivity. The Americans With Disabilities Act is a huge primary hamper. Minimum wage is less so, but still effective. OSHA, requirements for retirement funds, health care -- all these cut American productivity without hampering Chinese workers.
American labor unions have great legal advantages in negotiation and bargaining, and all that comes on top of the mandated programs.
Now clearly there are social balances here; no one really wants to make American factories unsafe, and return to the days when William Lloyd Garrison had a policy of firing his factory workers without pension when they reached the age of 35 on the grounds that they didn't work as hard as youngsters. (Although Circuit City recently fired all its experienced sales staff because they earned too much, and replaced them with new hires; the logic of capitalism is inexorable absent government intervention.) There needs to be a balance.
The first step in achieving the balance would be to get the Federal Government entirely out of the labor regulation business including health and safety. Most people won't recall that Constitutional amendments allowing Congress to regulate and forbid child labor twice failed, and the Supreme Court held for years that Congress had no power to regulate work conditions in the states. This eventually fell to reinterpretation of the Constitution, so that it was held that window washers in Michigan were engaged in interstate commerce because some of the offices in the building might be engaged in interstate commerce, etc. Prior to all that, the Congress didn't interfere with labor conditions, and the states set such matters. The result was at least some competition among the states to keep productivity higher.
Do understand, I am no advocate of unrestrained laissez faire that leaves everything to the market place. The market place, unrestrained, would not only bring back child labor, but left to itself, would eventually sell human flesh and rent out children for prostitution. There is nothing on this earth that someone will not market given freedom to do so. On the other hand, while I have little confidence in Sacramento, I have far more confidence in Sacramento than I do in Washington DC. After all, Sacramento -- and Los Angeles -- are safer places to live, and have better schools (awful as they are) than the District of Columbia where Congress has the full power of a state government. I have more confidence that Sacramento will set working conditions more appropriate for California than I do in Congress's ability to do so. I also believe that some states, faced with unemployment from job exports, will chose to pay attention to world conditions and change regulations to favor jobs over ideology. Some won't. Fine by me.
Comparative advantage has caused the US to accumulate enormous debts. We owe, if not our souls, then much of our hide, to Japan and China. We then build enormous bureaucracies to take care of those whose jobs were exported. This will become more acute as workers without any accumulation of retirement benefits get older.
We sow the wind.
4 comentarios:
No lo conocía al ñato. Pero no es el único en cuestionar el calentamiento global. Hace unos meses la BBC pasó un documental muy bueno con una catarata de científicos que hablan del enfriamiento global (no es joda). No recuerdo los nombres pero entre estos estaba el ¿agrónomo? que diseño los paraisos cultivables en Israel cuando se fundó el estado y una jóven escandinava.
Otro tema interesante es que poco se habla de los ciclos astronómicos y de si estamos en un calentamiento en una época glaciar o interglaciar.
Respecto de las deudas de los "usados" (ciudadanos de U.S.A ) con Japón y China hay un detalle. El que tiene el arma en la mano define una regla de juego "civilizada" (=$) pero si el cae preso, pero cuando comienza a perder el juego con su reglamento, vuelve a sacar el arma e inventa reglas nuevas. Y ya estamos llegando a esos tiempos.
Saludos.
Yo lei varias veces a Pournelle en la revista Byte, no sabia que también era "politico reporter"
Con respecto a USA, creo que la presente devaluación del dolar le va a hacer bien a la economía, justamente lo mismo que pasó con Argentina, con la diferencia que USA tiene una capacidad de producción de bienes ilimitada, vastos recursos naturales y una población acostumbrada a trabajar 45 horas semanales con 2 semanas de vacaciones anuales (a diferencia de los europeos). Lo único que les falta es petróleo, pero ya están en camino los primeros autos de 100MPG (como habrá visto en la Wired)
La verdad, espero que les vaya bien, me caen mejor los americanos que los chinos.
mmm, lo de las 45 hs habra sido en otras decadas, ahora, salvo las industrias amenazadas por el outsorcing, que hayan sobrevivido a la exportacion, 45 hs, no way, al menos en la franja entre las costas.
y, petroleo a 100 tienen, mucho, en Athabasca (arena embebida en petroleo, pero a ese precio dan los nros)
y que se yo, los chinos son inescrutables, las veces q trabaje con ellos, son tan distintos que no se, debe ser cultural quizas
el amigo Pournelle fue el que penso el discurso de la guerra de las galaxias de Reagan, y yo tambien lo conoci en Byte, hace mucho mucho tiempo.
Un gusto y pase cuando quiera
PS
Bienvenido colega, alguien que sea Project manager, haya leido Byte y lea wired solo puede ser colega
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