"Gary Coffman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 06:07:25 -0500, Nick Hull
wrote:
In article ,
"Harold & Susan Vordos" wrote:
What do I propose? How about everyone that has a job reconsidering
their
contributions to society, and the pay that is received for their
services.
Why in hell should a low or no skill job pay high wages when highly
skilled
people are being put out of work these days? Makes no sense, and
helps
keep the prices of our goods out of balance with reality. How do we
expect
to compete under those conditions?

Going to fundamentals, costs are high in the US because we have health
care, social security, a big army, etc.

China has universal health care, social security, and the world's largest
army. They just pay a lot less for them.

Example, it cost them about 1/30th as much to put a man in space as it
cost the US to put John Glenn in orbit. We have a military that buys $200
claw hammers and $400 toilet seats. It costs you $15 for a lousy Tylenol
in the hospital. Etc. China won't pay those prices.

As Ed always says, and Harold is in effect saying above, we have a
huge underworked and grossly overpaid middle class. China doesn't.
It pays peasant labor peasant wages. It doesn't try to promote them
to the middle class by paying them more than their labor is worth.
The US does, in spades, and as a result our costs are grossly higher
than those of nations like China.

The US's defined *poverty* level is higher than the wages of 99% of
the workers in most of the world. That's because our cost of living
is grossly inflated compared to most of the rest of the world. And
our cost of living is so high mainly because we pay people so much
more than the rest of the world does. It is a vicious circle.

We got away with that when our economy was largely isolated from
the rest of the world. But that's no longer the case. Now we find
ourselves going head to head with economies with much lower costs.
We've reacted to that by becoming the world's largest debtor nation.

A currently running commerical illustrates that. It shows a man wearing
designer clothes mowing his yard with a riding mower, talking glowingly
about his two new cars, his new HDTV, etc and finally saying he's in
debt up to his ears. It ends with him saying plaintively "help me". It is
an ad for a debt consolidation service, but what it really says to us is
that we've been trying to live better than we can afford.

Restructuring our debt won't solve this. Trying to get other people to
pay for our lifestyles will no longer solve this. We have to get our own
house in order. We have to gain control of our own costs, and our own
expectations, if we hope to avoid bankruptcy as individuals, and as a
nation.

Gary

Thanks,Gary. I can always count on you to refine and say so eloquently,
that which I am trying to say.

Harold