 "No Longer Relevant -" | 2009-11-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A22RY8N8CNDF3A |
Voter thinking this Tuesday focused on jobs and the economy, and sent a clear message of dissatisfaction with economic progress to-date. Private sector employment has dropped since 2000. The topic's importance was re-emphasized Friday with the release of data showing the unemployment rate continuing to climb - now 10.2% (not counting those who have given up looking, or are working only part-time). Reinvigorating Main Street America's employment picture, however, will not be easy. Problems have been building for years, long before the sub-prime crisis. Some believe automation is the major source of recent job losses. However, it is difficult to look at the constant parade of long trains carrying shipping containers inland, or the millions of illegals turning up all across America, and conclude that this is the case.
Substantial improvement on Main Street will primarily require drastically limiting 'Free Trade.' Free Trade supporters repeatedly cite the imposition of Smoot-Hawley tariffs as substantially deepening and prolonging the Great Depression, and conclude that we must not turn protectionist. Reality, however, is that prior to Smoot-Hawley, the 1929 Trade Surplus was an insignificant 0.38% of our GDP, and could not possibly have had significant impact even if lost entirely. True, international trade plays a much bigger role than in 1930 - however, the fact that we've run large and increasing trade deficits for decades is prima-facie evidence that eg. no trade whatsoever would at least stop the bleeding.
As for Adam Smith's famous Free Trade support, that occurred 200+ years ago - before across-the-board very large and low-cost competitors like China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, the Internet, jet planes, and massive cargo ships made a much large proportion of economies vulnerable to offshoring than ever before. We need to also remember that protectionism is what allowed the U.S. and its new Asian competitors to achieve their original economic strength. (Smith himself warned against taking Free Trade too far - such that a nation's security was endangered.)
Free Trade defenders might assert that manufacturing and IT have borne the brunt of offshoring to date, and their future offshoring is not likely to increase. Recent trends and data, however, suggest service jobs will increasingly also become affected. American firms are already establishing R&D facilities in China; Asian competitors not only have a cost advantage competing for engineering work, they also have the advantage of greater experience in production gained through producing our manufactures. Unfortunately, this also provides them with a natural lead-in to new areas - eg. offshored CRT-tube manufacturing experience helped Asians in new areas of plasma, LCD, photovoltaic, solar, and LED screen development and manufacturing, and this trend probably will extend into nanotubes as well. Data reported in Business Week's 11/09/2009 issue confirms the shift - over the past year, U.S. employment of scientists and engineers has fallen by 6.3%, while overall employment has fallen only 4.1%.
Proposed U.S. economic remedies frequently suggest increasing the proportion of Americans receiving college degrees as a defense against offshoring. Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman and current economics professor at Princeton, warns that the key distinction in whether a job is likely to be offshored or not will be in whether a particular service is delivered in person (haircuts, brain surgery) or not (computer programing) - not whether it is education intensive. (Elective brain surgery can also be offshored.) Thus, a college degree may no longer be a panacea. Blinder also believes it is quite likely that offshoring (unless changed) will depress the real wages of many U.S. workers who do not lose their jobs, the offshoring transition will continue for 2 - 3 decades and bring gross potential job losses in the range of 30- 40 million, and that American standards of living will decline. Proposals by still others to deal with offshoring job losses via more jobs in high-tech areas (eg. biotechnology) become ludicrous when viewed in the light of these numbers. Professor Blinder's suggestion makes much more sense - increased vocational education.
Additionally, some Free Trade defenders contend that Chinese labor costs will soon become non-competitive. There are two problems with relying on this 'defense:' 1)Chinese productivity has also increased considerably. Economist Steven Roach (author of "The Next Asia") lives and works in China and reports that productivity in China's industrial sector surged nearly 20%/year from 2000-2004. Further, even after six years of double-digit increases, average hourly compensation for Chinese manufacturing workers was only 3% that of the U.S. average in 2004. (It's difficult to get reliable up-to-date information on China.) 2)By 2020 it is estimated that there will be 553 million non-agricultural workers in China - 100 million more than in all the developed world, according to Martin Jacques in "When China Rules the World."
Others contend that China cannot continue its rapid economic growth without Democracy, something it shows few signs of doing. Jacques, on the other hand, provides data showing that most Chinese believe the political climate has improved since 1989 (Tienanmen Square), and 72% of its population are satisfied with the condition of the country vs. only 39% in the U.S. (As for the widely reported large number of civil disturbances within China reported each year, Jacques contends most have nothing to do with the central government - eg. local land issues.)
Finally, there is the large and growing problem of illegal immigrants taking jobs from American citizens. The U.S. already has enough problems finding work for its own citizens, and the problems are going to become much more severe via currently unfettered offshoring. It is numerically impossible for the U.S. to also provide jobs for the current number of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central, and South America - we must sharply reduce the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Bottom Line: Main Street America cannot withstand continually losing jobs to Free Trade, illegal workers, and automation. Wall Street, on the other hand, has benefited immensely from these job losses and shows no signs of changing direction. The recent financial crisis clearly demonstrated that financial markets are not self-correcting, and that Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' is not infallible. Immediate government redirection is required. |
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 "Brilliant Economics Book" | 2009-10-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3QATBVNUOK2SB |
With the exception of Adam Smith not outright condenming slavery the book is a brilliant economics book. And slavery like it or not is a part of economics. It's a way to get labor for very cheap (like food, water and shelter only). On page 744 he does however call it the unfortunate law of slavery. Slavery is abhorrent and prevents the whole from reaching their great potential for the benefit of a few (the wealthy who have slaves and the consumers who get products much cheaper because of it).
On page 110-111 This really stands out "No Society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable"
Adam Smith does however place too much emphasis on Corn being the commodity that everything is measured against. It's just as easy to switch to a different food source like Rice for instance. That if enough people switched to would cause the price of corn to drop or stop being planted.
On page 986 He says there is no public institution for the education of women and he talks about not educating the women like the men. He says they are taught only what their parents or guardian judge it necessary or useful for them to learn and nothing else. This clealy isn't good either but I know he was just stating a fact of life at the time.
I cry BRAVO!!! for Adam Smith's take on Religion. He got the true religion right! On page 998 it says "because in every religion except the true it is highly pernicious and it has a natural tendency to pervert the true, by infusing into it a strong mixture of superstition, folly and delusion. Each ghostly practitioner in order to render himself more precious and sacred in the eyes of his retainers will inspire them with the most violent abhorrences of all other sects. No regard will be paid to Truth, Morals or Decency." The true religion extols Truth, Morals and Decency as Jesus taught us to keep the commandments. This is the whole duty of man. To speak the truth and walk uprightly. To not steal, Not Lie, Not commit adultery, etc. But today's organized religions are more interested in building bigger buildings to get more money collected for the most part than to do good works.
On page 1067 Adam Smith says "the ground rents of uninhabited houses ought to pay no tax". I wholeheartedly disagree with this
statement. This would allow the very wealthy to own so much land that the poorer people could never own their own piece of property. That's what property taxes are for to prevent this from happening. If the poor abandon all these houses that the very wealthy own then eventually the very wealthy will be unable to pay property tax and the government will take control of their property and put it back into circulation providing their workers places to live. That's why the proper way is the way the government of the the U.S. (or maybe Idaho) has implemented it. You get a tax break for your primary residence for your place to live but none from additional properties. Not to mention another country with a lot of cash could buy up all the property in your country and control too much without doing the labor needed to keep a country functioning properly.
But overall it's a very good book.
Sincerely,
Jon Beckmon
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| "Fantastic!" | 2009-10-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: AUHCB25JQ84O8 |
| The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because the book is really fat, so when trying to read near the crack you have to sort of pry the book open, and it feels the binding might break. I doubt it though. Great deal! Entire book, handy side-notes... Get it! |
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 "One of the Classics of Economics" | 2009-09-23 |
| - Reviewed By clay091270 |
Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" is truly one of the most influential books in world history. Published in 1776, it discussed many of the economic ideas of the thought system we refer to today as classical or nineteenth-century liberalism.
First and foremost, it enumerated the capitalist doctrines that led to the awesome increase in living standards over the past two centuries--doctrines such as free trade, the importance of economic growth for a society, and the idea that the entire society benefits when the individual is encouraged to pursue his economic self-interest.
Smith also examined the topics of paper money and commodity standards and provided examples from the past of when currencies were debased during hard times. Perhaps the most sobering part of the book from the point of view of today is the section that discussed how governments, when they have spent far too much and can no longer service their debt, must either repudiate the debt or incinerate it via severe inflation--we can only hope that the gross overspending in recent years on the part of both parties in Washington will not bring us to that point in the coming years.
Some of the other topics on which Smith held forth include apprenticeships, colonies, agriculture, defense, taxes, the differences between public and private sector employment, and fascinating comparisons of wage rates between England and the then-colonies and between parts of Britain.
The book is very readable despite the fact it was written in eighteenth-century English, and is definitely worth tackling if you have a serious interest in economics. |
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| "Great" | 2009-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: ABL1LW948H22X |
This book is huge!!! The pages are so thin, the writing is so small, it's hard to read. Despite all this if you are interested in Economics, this won't be an impediment in ordering this book.
Go for it, Adams Smith is the best. |
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| "Book Review" | 2009-06-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2EN8YQBHEFA16 |
| This book came very fast, was very affordable, and was in great condition when it arrived. |
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