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The US exports a lot of high value items, and it's going to increase as the dollar continues to fall. The problem is that all this activity can be done by (guessing here) less than half of the US workforce, and the bigger problem is the consumption / credit binge, which is now thankfully coming to a close.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Thu Jul 26th, 2007 at 10:34:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Many of those high-ticket items will have components made in China and - possibly - assembled in the US. Others will have been made entirely in China but shipped as US products contributing to US GDP.

You've effectively said that half of the working population in the US is surplus to the requirements of financial utility.

And implicitly that as long as someone is prepared to do real work somewhere, for peanuts, the markets can continue levitating their way further and further from the needs of that surplus 50%.

Who will be left with nothing at all.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Jul 27th, 2007 at 05:37:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The expansion of the (unqualified) service sector is just an indication that productivity is too high in resources and industry.

But MfM mentioned yesterday that to produce ethanol to an SUV you need land that would feed 80 people under subsistence agriculture. So, if we run out of oil I expect the need for labour in "productive" sectors will grow a lot.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jul 27th, 2007 at 05:47:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They always did like their slave plantations in the deep South.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Jul 27th, 2007 at 06:43:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, I'm saying things are bad, but at the same time I'm speaking out against the "US doesn't make anything anymore" doomerism on the one hand and foreign shadenfraude on the other.

We could have decent lives on a 16 hour work week, of course it won't happen for reasons we're all aware of.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Fri Jul 27th, 2007 at 12:36:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Bingo!

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jul 27th, 2007 at 01:55:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And implicitly that as long as someone is prepared to do real work somewhere, for peanuts, the markets can continue levitating their way further and further from the needs of that surplus 50%.

I think this has to be considered a large contributor to the polarization of wealth, mostly because it's happening in Europe as well (where it isn't being accelerated by tax policy as in the US).

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Fri Jul 27th, 2007 at 12:40:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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