From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Newsgroups: sci.econ
Subject: Re: "Dumping"
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:54:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: apollo.Bz9J6F.6A1
Distribution: na
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <louis.724349346@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca> louis@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Louis Schmittroth) writes:
>brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder) writes:

>|One thing I find interesting is that when news of changes for the better 
>|occur in employment, they are criticized by the left no matter what segment
>|they occue in.  If the new jobs are well-paying, they claim that this neglects
>|the poor.  If the growth is in low-wage jobs, they complain that it is "McJobs"
>
>It isn't high wages that causes the American companies to be
>non-competitive, it is the low productivity.

  Yet overall, US productivity is the highest in the world (source:
  Economist).

>                                         Lester Throw reports and
>documents that Germany is the leading exporter of textiles with wages
>running about $4 an hour higher than US textile workers.  They work
>smarter with better machines, better management, and a different view of
>human resources.  Helmut Kohl and crew cannot be put down as leftists.

  I disagree with this latter statement.   The policies of European
  centrist parties like the Christian Democrats, et al, are about
  comparable to the left (Ted Kennedy, et al) wing of the US
  Democratic party.   The US has no major equivalent of the 
  European Social Democrat/British Labour parties.  


>In general I find the old tired classification of left and right as
>irrelevant in today's world, and certainly do not put myself down as
>left, anymore than Ross Perot is either left or right.

  In general I agree with this, but the public still widely employs
  these labels. 

  In any case the fact remains that US unemployment peaked a few 
  months ago at 7.6%, significantly lower than the EC average 
  of 9.5%.    I still claim that jobs are, and will continue to
  be for the rest of the decade, the most important political
  measure of the US economy.   While economists measure an economy
  by its production of goods and services (GDP, etc), it is increas-
  ingly clear that average people measure an economy by its production
  of decent jobs.

  But it is also clear by the chronically high rates of unemployment
  in Europe that the European model doesn't offer much insight for
  us.



---peter


PS -- Relevant to this is an article in today's Wall Street Journal
      about the US' growing, one might even say burgeoning, high
      tech industry.  By almost any metric the growth and success
      of that industry segment in recent years has been dramatic.
      I say "almost" because the one exception is in jobs.   The
      article even suggested that from an employemt viewpoint it
      might even be a net negative, especially for lower-tier
      workers.   So the point I've been making for several years 
      on Usenet is reinforced:  In the past it wasn't so necessary 
      to differentiate "growth" -- an industry that grew in profits, 
      sales revenue, or unit shipments (conventional measures of
      growth) also grew in jobs.  Today there's a disconnect there
      so wishing for "growth" is no longer enough.