"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:16:38 -0800, "Hawke"
wrote:


GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 22:07:39 -0700 (PDT), Millwright Ron
wrote:



labor is the cheapest. It comes about by lobbying for "free trade"
such as the NAFTA and CAFTA legislation.

Yay. Way to go Ron. Bring back the Smoot-Hawley tarriffs of the
1930s. We can repeat history. The financial leg of our economy is
already weakened by the mortgage mess. Lets impose punitive tariffs
and take out another leg.

RWL

The Asians impose punitive tariffs on our goods and it doesn't seem to
have
hurt them at all. In fact, they are kicking our asses. Maybe if we had
brains we'd copy them. We would say we're all for free trade but then
have
protectionist policies just like Japan and China. We're not smart enough
to
do that though and will continue having our asses kicked. And we'll
complain
a lot.

Hawke

The fact is that most Asian countries import very little from the U.S.
But you are correct that there are high import duties in most asian
countries, with the exception of Singapore, where duties are so low
that it is effectively a duty free port.

The reason that they are "kicking our asses" is simply that they
manufacture goods at an attractive cost and thus "sell" more goods
then they need to "buy".

In Thailand for example, nearly all the imported goods are either raw
materials or luxury goods while they are the main manufacturer (world
wide) for Toyota and Isuzu pickups.

The real answer is that the U.S. has priced themselves out of the
world market.

Let me give you one simple example: I buy Zestril, a medicine for
hypertension, in Thailand, for the equivalent of US$ 12.90/30 tabs. I
saw it advertized on the Internet, for sale in the U.S. for $48.00/30
tabs. The same medicine, made by the same people, in the same factory.
Does that give you a hint why the U.S. is losing business?


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

It's more complicated than that. The same company that makes that drug
probably sells it across the Canadian border for a lot less too. Our
pharmaceutical companies have the government by the balls and get sweetheart
deals you wouldn't believe. If they had to really compete we'd be paying the
same, or nearly the same as you are. Another example, Bill Clinton was in
Africa promoting anti AIDS programs. They had one where drugs were being
supplied from Europe and it cost about 200.00 a year to keep someone alive
who had AIDS. The same medication in the US was 10,000. There is something
horribly wrong when you see that kind of a difference in costs of
medication. It's all about the government and business and the deals they
pull off. There is no free market anywhere in the modern world. It's all
under government control. Some care a lot more about their own people than
others do. Just look at Japan vs. China. China doesn't care much about its
people but Japan does. Japan cares more about the Japanese than America does
about Americans. It all boils down to policy. In my view our policies suck
and is why things are as bad as they are here. We could make things a lot
better for the people here if we were willing to take control of the
corporations. We lost control of the corporations when we got a right wing
administration. If it changes to a Democratic one you will see changes that
improve the lot of regular Americans. How much is the question.

Hawke