It is disturbing to note the growing economic illeteracy of Americans. no wonder, we are well on our way to becoming a European styled socialist state, though most Americans would insist that they aren't socialists.
But they seem to think the government should play a greater and greater role in promoting 'fairness', and that businesses can't be trusted and are the source of all that is evil.
But today, I just want to treat one of the 'urban myths', that I hear over and over. America doesn't make anything anymore, greedy corporations have transferred all of the manufacturing jobs overseas. This is universally believed. In fact, the U.S. manufacturing output is as great as ever, we are one of the largest exporters of manufactured goods in the world. But we are manufacturing far more efficiently, with much less labor. For heavily unionized rust belt communities, jobs did go overseas to countries that could operate plants more efficiently.
But the economy is also far more diverse today, software is a major player, that barely existed thirty years ago. Other industries have seen labor forces shrink from improved productivity. IN colonial times, agriculture was the principal occupation, today, it is a very small number of people producing gargantuan crops.
Many decry the 'unfairness' of international trade. A concept, 'comparative advantage' is found in every economics text which explains the benefits, is nowhere to be found in the popular media accounts. We are all enjoying a higher standard of living today, due to the results of international trade. Are there some things that could be done better in our various trade agreements? Of course, but that is true of everything our governments are involved with.
To paraphrase Reagan, business isn't the problem, government is. If the government really wanted to create jobs, it would reduce taxes and overly restrictive regulations on businesses. The alternative is to create make-work government jobs that will actually impair our quality of life. Does anyone really think that a government agency is going to produce I-Pad types of innovations
