Just to prove how absurd the notion of "cheap labor" being a factor in international trade, here we have an article explaining how low labor rates in Germany, relative to the club med countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc) is straining the euro agreement to the breaking point. German labor rates are in fact, nominally higher the the other locations, but German management and when needed austerity introduced by management, makes german manufactures preferable overall to the other eurozone members. Thus Deustchland uber alles when it comes to economic activity.
It is a nice trick: misidentify the problem as labor rates, pick a fight that you cannot win, everyone argues about labor rates, and nobody notices the fat cats getting fatter while the workers get less and less, no matter what the outcome. And note the already recognize they cannot win! Note from the article:
Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research said the Club Med states and Ireland cannot deflate wages below German levels without causing havoc to their economies, so the EU policy creates a profound bias towards a deflationary slump for the whole system.
This is all too bad, because the Irish had originally rejected joining the EU, then on a second push, joined up. Immediately they were again enslaved under the English, and it would have been all the more clear if Tony Blair had become president of the EU.
I was at a St. Patrick's Day party 17 March for a lad whose granma had a price on her head for her work in the 1927 uprising that threw off British rule. Her offenses were capital, so she was in USA in exile for the rest of her life. The Irish could not keep free for even 100 years. Sigh.
The Irish leadership complains that they cannot deflate their workers wages low enough to compete with German workers... what madness! The problem is not Irish workers wages, it is Irish management sloth. Note that the Irish leaderships solution is Ireland become competitive by artificially lowering Irish wages. I am not picking on Ireland, this solution is exactly what the USA leadership proposes vis a vis USA problems with China.
People say there are unions, therefore there are problems. The fact is there are problems, therefore there are unions. Show me a union house and I will show you a poorly managed company. Show me a well managed company, and you will see no unions.
What USA is missing is an independent union element. They have all been co-opted by the state.
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