Vito wrote:

...... For example, our draconian
environmental statutes add more to production costs than does labor for
many industrial operations such as chrome plating. These regulations are
a major reason heavy industry has fled the U.S.

Umm, yeah right. Let's have more mercury & lead in the water, great idea.

IMHO the part of NAFTA which was actually *good* was the part where we were
not going to export pollution, ie any plants that moved directly overseas
and did not have similar environmental controls (there was a 2600 page book
on just this alone) would have tariffs imposed equal to the price of the
skipped pollution controls.


Now consider what happens when productivity becomes so high that
everything is made by machines, without labor. Without jobs, nobody can
buy anything and without sales there are no profits and ...

That's part of why the economy tends to move in cycles, boom or bust.

DSK