Clint Johnson
Well-known member
There are examples in the US and Canada of every single one of those dirty industries. It is partisan rhetorical argument alone that pretends that these industries are gone rather than smaller and cleaner. We still have plenty of metal mines, steel mills, pulp mills and construction sites. Gold mines in particular lag behind the others and they could use some watchdogging but all told these industries are considerably cleaner than they were fifty years ago.
The infrastructure and machinery operating cost difference between the developing world and the developed world is negligible- a Terex TXC300LC-2 cost pretty much the same in Guangdong as it does in British Columbia. By far the largest difference is the cost of labour. It wasn't environmental regulation that drove industry overseas, it was unions. Unions driving up the cost of labour here and in Europe has been the biggest job creation program for the developing world that I can imagine. Seriously, I can't imagine a more efficient way to move jobs to China and India.
Before you think that I'm bashing unions, I actually believe that this exodus of labour has been a truly great contribution to the overall well being of humanity. I am a human first and a Canadian second; I believe that the average family in the province of Guangdong could use economic uplifting more than the average family in the province of British Columbia. I do not resent the jobs that have moved overseas even if it costs me my job. I do resent the coercive methodology of many "progressive" organizations and politicians.
As China and India become more prosperous, their costs of labour will approach parity with us and industries and factories will once again become more localized as shipping costs become a larger percentage of the finished goods costs. The hundred mile diet ideology would actually become more rational and extend to other industries.
I don't know if it is intentional or not but the socio-economic policy that the Obama administration is following will lead to several years (maybe a decade or more) of double digit inflation. This will devalue the American dollar at the same time as the Chinese Yuan should be holding value or getting stronger- the point of parity will accelerate toward us as our businesses use the economic hardship as a valid reason for not raising wages at the same rate as inflation- leading to lower real wages for us as China and India slowly gain in real wages. The politicians seem to be trying to bring this parity about far quicker than the market would naturally take- at the expense of the average American's standard of living.
Sure it won't be smooth sailing for China and India but they are heading in the right direction while we rush madly through recession toward depression. Their wages will fall for the next few quarters - but I'm guessing that they will not drop bellow where they were five years ago. They should pull out of their recession faster than the US pulls out of their depression.
Who would think that the leaders of Russia, India and China would have a better grasp of economics than those running the show in the US, Canada and the EU? Maybe it is that they've already gone through their phase of pretending that wishful thinking and magical realism make for sound economic policy?
