POLITICAL DISCUSSION FORUMS › Forums › US NEWS & OPINION › TRADE WAR… › Reply To: TRADE WAR…
Trump’s tariffs are nationalism and in my opinion have little to do with any economic concern on his part. It is pure “America First” which hasn’t worked whenever it’s been promoted.
China, India and others have become suppliers because they supply goods at a lower cost than the U.S. can at this time.
The solution isn’t to start a trade war but rather to train and use labor in our borders. Our laborers have become second class citizens for the most part. Walmart is the largest employer in the U.S. with 3.2 million workers followed by McDonald’s with 1.9 million. Yes, we have workers in tech, medicine and other industries that require sophistication and a high degree of education, but those numbers pale in comparison to Walmart, et al.
I cannot envision a world where labor is evenly divided. There will always be areas and countries that will do their best to undercut the competition, but without a trained workforce the U.S. has no real defense against such competition.
After I had been in food management for awhile I decided to do something about the horrendous turnover in my employees. They were, for the most part, teenagers and untrained as to a work ethic. I started to concentrate on two areas; being very selective as to who I hired and to train them. I paid my employees who were trained and showed good work habits more than my fellow managers. Corporate complained that my cost of labor was higher than most other units but I pointed out that I was lower in all other costs that I had any control over; foods cost, supplies costs, cleaning costs and even infrastructure cost due to my employees taking care of everything. My turnover was drastically lower than almost everyone of my fellow managers.
This is a minute example of how training as well as selection can affect how businesses operate.
". . . those who claim to know the Mind of God, who will tell you what God thinks and how He will judge and condemn others—those people are the greatest of all blasphemers." Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast