Do you agree that in the short term, protectionism can be benefecial as it holds jobs and wages steady but in the long run can be ineffecient and wasteful if others are willing to do the same job for less but in another country? A government has to be very wealthy to afford protectionism for very long. Otherwise prices and wages remain high as a country stagnates.
With globalism, people are forced to be competitive in pricing and may lose their job or high wages but will eventually find something where they can compete with the rest of world on an equal basis. If governments and unions push for high wages and excellent benefits, those industries will not be competitive on a global basis and will only be able to compete within that country if tariffs are also placed on imported products. GM and Ford are only surviving because of American consumer loyalty which continues to erode as their products just don’t match up to foreign competitors. GM and Ford will need to build cars outside of the US if they truly want to compete and regain market share.
The computer industry may go the way of India as prices are much cheaper there as well. China has the edge on low tech products.
Where will the US compete globally in the 21st century? Likely in real estate and banking and in medical research and even agriculture but we may struggle in other areas.
Global means just that. India has its competition as well as China, in a global economy all markets are up for grabs. The winner is not just who produces the most for the lowest wage, but who does it best. I’m not a business major, but from what I can figure, you either are the best, or you are the second best, everyone else comes in at the bottom, so the US has to decide which markets it can be the best in and which ones it has to settle for second best.
It took me a long time to learn how to think from another’s perspective and I still need to work at it and most Americans still can only see things from their own perspective (which is scary since leaders like President Bush are often blind to other cultures).
Chinese and Americans can learn alot from each other!!!!! There are some things I hate about American culture but some things that I love very much. We do have more freedoms to speak out against our government and more rights and are not forced to do things like everyone else but free to chart our own course with many possibilities and opportunities. But we also think more about ourselves and how we can get ahead even if it hurts others or damages the environment and we are a nation of consumers always wanting to please ourselves with material goods (large gas guzzling SUVS and huge homes with the latest in electronics) instead of developing deeper friendships. We think about how to get richer in materials while sacrificing getting richer in our social relationships and this is probably even more of a problem with our political leaders. Capitalism is designed to make money and provide incentive for people to work to accomplish their own goals but money can’t always buy happiness.
I used to only believe in competition and capitalism but now I understand more the value of communism and sharing of thoughts and ideas. That Amish girl I know grew up in a communistic society and she just enjoys helping people without getting money involved. I think the best society will blend communism and capitalism together but it’s pretty tricky to do and most people are very black or white in thought and can’t see that gray area of combining two extreme ideas like capitalism and communism together. Most people are either non-competitive sharing types or are very competitive self goal oriented. China and the US can learn from each other but most Americans think our way of life to be superior but it’s not.
Collectivism vs Individualism
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070718/sc_livescience/studyamericansdontunderstandothers
It’s hard for us since we Americans grow up in a capitalistic society and have always been told that communism is evil, that a government like that will take all your rights and money away from you. I have read books like Animal Farm and the Grapes of Wrath that are helpful in seeing other’s perspectives and the communistic viewpoint both good and bad. Having gone to Denmark when I was a kid and Norway more recently, I see the good and bad of a more socialistic protectionistic high taxing society. There are more inefficiencies in a socialistic society but also less violence, less destruction, less poverty, but also less wealth and sometimes the government’s standards and quality are lower than what people really want.
Last night I was reading about monogamy and polygamy and how monogamous societies are more stable since more men have partners and are then less prone to violence. But human beings have tradionally been more polygamous which is more common in the middle east (and Mormon religion in Utah) and that animals where the male is larger than the female tend to be polygamous and men are much larger than women on average so we likely evolved from polygamy. Women benefit from polygamy since they have access to a wealthy or more attractive male that can help them or their offspring survive. Men benefit from monogamy since a poor man can still find a woman to get married too which makes society overall more stable.
Monagamy is like communism where men share with other men for all the women.
Polygamy is like capitalism, much more competitive, where only the best men get all the women.
Religions tells us to live a certain way and most point to monagamy and a more communistic sharing of resources to help the poor and improve all of human kind.
Evolution teaches competition and having the strongest survive to improve ourselves as a species.
It is all very conflicting!
So Globalism and Protectionism for me is just like religion and evolution, polygamy and monagamy, competition and collectivism, capitalism and communism. There are good and bad things in each of them and I guess as a people we have to decide what we think will be best for us in both the short and long term.