On 12/26/2011 7:31 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:01:33 -0500, Steve Walker
wrote:
On 12/25/2011 22:35, Ed Huntress wrote:
To anyone who thinks that US manufacturing salaries, including
benefits, are harming our industries or trade, consider that there are
13 other countries that pay mo
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...the-us/250460/
So much for that idea. Some of the countries on that list are among
the most successful exporters of manufactured goods.
Back to the drawing board...
As a lazy researcher when it comes to statistics, I'm gonna go out on a
limb and guess that most of the countries above us in the chart export
items that need a higher skill level to produce, thus the higher
production per hour cost.
Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it.
It doesn't have a simple answer. The closest thing to a summary
reason, though, is that the best exorters with high wages tend to have
strong coordination among labor, management, and government.
In Germany, labor sits on corporate boards. It's written into the
German constitution.
So in other words, it's up to the policies of the government's whether
they allow a system that works well or not for the people who live in
their country. As we have seen in the past, countries like Japan and
Germany put policies in place that make it easier for their people to
compete successfully and to earn enough to have a high standard of
living. In other countries it doesn't work that way.
Just as we have "right to work" states you find that workers in those
states have lower pay and lower standards of living. So the policies the
individual government pursues are what allows the people of a country to
have it good or to have it bad when it comes to living standards. If
high living standards for its workers is a high priority to a government
you see that reflected in the country's living standards. If a
government does not make a high living standard for it's workers a
priority you can see that as well. Over the last three decades in the
U.S. keeping American workers at a high living standard has not been a
high priority to the American government, especially under the Bush
administration's pro business government. For those of us who live here
you can't help but notice the change.
Hawke