Does US labor legislation drive US manufacturers out of business?

[Boojatta]

Could tariffs on manufactured goods imported from jurisdictions with weaker labor legislation help Americans keep their jobs in manufacturing industries?

[Arctic Dave]

1. Vague, specifics please.

[Boojatta]

5. Do you expect a discussion thread to begin with a very detailed

and very specific question that might also depend upon a lot of background knowledge?

[Boojatta]

6. How about minimum wage?

If you convert minimum wage from US dollars to another currency at current exchange rates, then do you get minimum wage in a jurisdiction that uses the other currency?

[Arctic Dave]

8. The answer is no. However you also would have to

equate cost of living. What are you getting for your dollar.

[Boojatta]

9. Typically the cost of living is higher in big cities than small towns.

Are there different minimum wages in the same state for big cities and small towns?

[ColbertWatcher]

2. No, American businesses are being run by lazy-ass bastards...

...a company may have been run by a normal person in its beginning, but once it is absorbed into a larger, much stupider giant multi-national corporation run by a certifiable sociopath it no can longer remember its roots or the community that helped it grow.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Sure if you want to push a republican point

You want back up your statement or explain it?

[Boojatta]

4. I'm more interested in your claim that it's "a republican point."

Perhaps I will make a habit of writing the words "anti-globalization demonstrators (i.e. Republicans)." I can refer people who question such phrasing to you for supporting details.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. I think you confuse labor legislation and trade legislation in your question

Denmark for example has a trade surplus but has a normal starting wage around 100 kroner
an hour, thankfully to the unions. Labor legislation is hardly a factor in the US.

100 kroner is now around $23 dollars an hour, however things cost a lot there too.

I still don't know where you are going with this?

[Boojatta]

11. I'm talking about the rules of trade between jurisdictions that

have significant differences in labor legislation.

If US labor legislation isn't intended to eliminate manufacturing jobs in the US, then differences between US labor legislation and labor legislation in such places as China and Mexico might be a reason to impose tariffs on imports from such places as China and Mexico.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. Name one US labor legislation that effected trade

Name one.

[Boojatta]

15. Sorry, but I don't understand that question.

Are you requesting that I name one US labor law that affects trade? If that's your request then I can comprehend the request, but naming a law isn't going to demonstrate that it affects trade. Perhaps it would be a mistake for me to claim that a particular labor law in America affects trade. However, it seems evident to me that any difference in legal frameworks under which competing firms are operating potentially affects their competitive positions with respect to each other.

Perhaps an analogy will help. Imagine that you are competing in the Olympics and that you are required to obey a special set of rules that some of your competitors are not required to obey. Surely you would then agree that your competitive position is potentially affected by the existence of differences between the rules imposed on you and the rules imposed on some of your competitors.

[hfojvt]

13. I had to laugh when I was in Switzerland

I was like, 'why is Ricola cheaper in America than it is in Switzerland?' As a Swiss made product, it must be cheaper to ship it to Chur than it is to ship it to Wisconsin, and yet, after all those extra shipping expenses, it costs less in Wisconsin. Go figure :crazy:

[Mr Rabble]

7. I think I can answer both questions:

US labor legislation is basically designed to beat down the workforce into a 3rd world wage structure. It's working rather well.
As a side effect of these policies, the manufacturing base is shifted to the 3rd world- further increasing the plight of the domestic workforce.

Tariffs on foreign goods would actually be good for domestic businesses, and provided they were properly regulated, could help to rebuild the workforce. There are endless examples of economic growth taking this path. I imagine that we will in fact see a move toward this in the near future, as the domestic picture worsens.

[TexasObserver]

14. No, failure of US trade policy to create a level playing field does.

Bush is financing his war with debt financed by Japan and China. He can't do anything about their predatory trade practices, and as a result, US goods do not get to compete fairly with good from those countries. Both manipulate their currencies by government policy, to make their exports to the US more economically attractive than US exports to them. They also enact measures to protect their industries from US competition.