How about a "Balanced Trade Amendment"?

[Beaker]

The repugs always seem interested in a "balanced Budget amendment"(only during Democratic administrations, though) like a lot of states have, and that Arnold won't be able to meet...

Would it be possible to have something like a "Balanced Trade Amendment" that limits how much of a trade imbalance , if any, that we're allowed to have with any one country? Is it feasible, and what would the possible ramifications be?

[tritsofme]

1. We are a consumer culture that loves cheap goods,

a so called balanced trade amendment would be even more disastrous than a balanced budget amdendment.

[Beaker]

2. Our love of cheap goods is just as disastrous in the long run

and if a way isn't found to change the direction of things, it's going to be our downfall.

[Creideiki]

3. My belief

I think the bigger problem is that we don't have any concept of what reasonable profit for corporations is.

[Beaker]

5. I'd like to see a "Maximum Wage" to go along with the Minimum wage

without a maximum, does a minimum really mean anything?

or perhaps a maximum multiplier, by which the highest salary in a company can compare to the lowest(although A LOT of people would probably suddenly find themseleves "independent contractors")

or something to limit the SIZE of a corporation.

One thing that's certain- something's going to have to change big time, hopefully sooner than later.

[Yupster]

8. What kind of numbers do you think would be reasonable for a maximum wage?

I'm thinking of Jason Kidd.

The New Jersey Nets hadn't made the playoffs in 10 + years. They hadn't had a sell-out in forever.

Then they trade for Kidd, and they go to the finals two years in a row. They sell out their games, and they sell tens of millions of dollars of t-shirts, jackets, shorts, baseball caps, hot dogs and peanuts because Jason Kidd is on the Nets. They make tens of millions of dollars for all the estra playoff games.

Like any professional athlete, his career is probably a short one, and he is always one game away from it being ended, but to your suggestion...

How much should the maximum wage be for Jason Kidd?

[tritsofme]

4. How could we institute such a system

without making prices go way up?

It would hit the poor the hardest, because everything would be more expensive.

[Beaker]

6. How do we continue the status quo-

without making a whole lot more poorer people?

[tritsofme]

7. So whats your solution?

[Yupster]

9. Everything's negotiable

and you always hope your negotiators can make a better deal than they did last time. I don't think a strict dollar for dollar trade balance with countries would be to anyone's advantage though.

On the other hand, it's past ridiculous with places like China where we buy billions more from them every single month for years.

[kcwayne]

10. How about a "Wal-Mart amendment"

Wal-Mart buys 10% of China's exports now, and this figure will probably be 50% in the next several years based on current trends.

Besides the fact that China uses labor gulags to effectively take labor content of exports to near zero, China does not honor patents, and as such as no licensing costs or significant R&D costs, since they illegally copy designs and copyrighted material without compensation to the developers.

This means that it is impossible to make a profit from R&D in any industry that China is playing in, and you certainly can't make a company that can compete with 1% labor costs. There is no incentive to build companies in the US that make products given this environment.

One way to put pressure on China would be to make companies such as Wal-Mart liable to the patent holders for selling products that violate their patents. Wal-Mart might go back to their roots, when they promoted their stores with the slogan "Made in the USA"