"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..
In article et,
Maxprop wrote:

America has sold herself out by not having the foresight to change
with the changing world.

America can compete nicely with just about anyone, but some changes are
necessary. To compete with one's competitors, one must at the very least
emulate them. Better yet one should create a cost advantage for the same
quality, or create a quality advantage for the same cost. The US is
capable
of doing either, or both.

Yeah, but you don't. Instead you try to either convince your market
that an inferior prodict is somehow better via clever advertising,

No one with even a modicum of intelligence is buying that anymore. That's
why the companies building such products are struggling.

or
you run to the Govt and try to get the competition excluded from the
market somehow when option A doesn't work.

Sucks, doesn't it. Protectionism works both ways, but the companies with
inferior products don't seem to understand that principle.

But labor is going to have to recognize some
major realignment, along with top-heavy industry. The $30 per hour jobs
are
vanishing faster than spotted owls, and until organized labor
acknowledges
that low-paying jobs are better than NO jobs, the situation will
exacerbate.

I don't think this works either. You are then in a race to the bottom
with labor in other countries which have much lower living standards
and costs of living.

Dave pointed this out earlier, and I agree.


And CEOs and other top-level execs are going to have to face the fact
that
multi-million dollar annual salaries and golden parachutes aren't
compatible
with the world economic markets of the day.

Yeah, I agree. The cost of screwing up a business needs to be brought
home to those responsible. At the moment it seems that the stock
holders lose, and employees lose, but senior management are immune due
to their payment structures.

It only takes a few years at $20 million per, plus a golden parachute to
feather one's nest rather plushly. Again, it sucks, but what's a mother to
do?


My take? Neither side will give an inch before the whole thing collapses
into a ruined American economy. I hope to be sailing somewhere in the
Caribbean with my money in offshore banks by then.

I plan on being in a nice 3rd World country with a good climate.
Fortunately for me NZ is only a week's sailing away. OTOH right where I
am is pretty good, too.

I bought a piece of just-off-the-beachfront land on a small island a year
ago. You have to understand that in the Caribbean, the higher up on the
hill, the more expensive and desirable the property. So mine is at the
bottom of the food chain, so to speak. But a small dwelling with a good,
solid roof will do me fine. And a boat--gotta have a boat.

Max