We are a nation of consumers, that is our problem.

[tracker722]

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[chadbag]

Man did you get this info spoon fed to you from Rush Limbaugh? Just wondering...

It is actually true to a large extent. And no I don't listen to Rush more than about once every two months for 1/2 an hour when I happen to be in my car during the time he is on the air.

I read once that around the world, minus regulatory and taxation costs, (and minus exorbitant union demands), that you get about the same productivity for your money. In other words, the claim was that minus the influence and costs associated with regulations and taxation and other external factors, that the 25 cents an hour you pay someone in Pakistan to make t-shirts gets you the same amount of actual value produced as someone you pay $15/hour in the US. Ie, it would take you 60 hours for that guy to produce his t-shirts that one guy here could make in an hour. The difference being the guy here is educated and can take the initiative to learn new automated machines etc and is therefore much more productive than the uneducated guy doing things by hand. HOWEVER, once you factor in external influences, like regulations and taxation, (and exorbitant union demands), the US made good becomes much more expensive because that same $15/hour probably really costs you $25-$30 hour or more so you are paying 2-3 times as much for the same productivity.

I don't know if it is true but it makes sense on a rough scale. That is one reason why simple manufacturing has fled the US. It costs too much to comply with regulations, high taxes (US has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world), and extortion from the unions.