If this is how they build things in China....

[PLC1]

...do we want to continue to import everything from clothes to toys from there?

Twelve story building falls due to improper engineering

Looks like someone cut corners on the foundation. This one is Made in China Even though it happened in June I have not seen it in the US news.

The embedded link didn't work. Here are some comments that were sent to me via email:

See the snapped pilings. They are HOLLOW. No engineer in his right mind would ever do that. No mechanical, electrical, civil, or any other kind of degreed engineer in the entire world would build a building on "soda straws." Congress yes, an engineer, NO! The Romans and Greeks knew better in the year 25 AD. This is what is taught in basic first year engineering course 101-A for ALL engineers. Guess these folks missed that class. Makes you wonder about the QC in other Chinese products, let alone what the Chinese are doing to themselves with leaching chemicals, mercury levels, radioactive elements, etc. Absent mindedly chewing on a pencil while you are reading this? I hope you checked the country of manufacture and the amount of lead in that paint.
I for one am going to review my portfolio for Chinese Real Estate Holding firms!

 

[top gun]

...do we want to continue to import everything from clothes to toys from there?

Twelve story building falls due to improper engineering



The embedded link didn't work. Here are some comments that were sent to me via email:

You make a point here my friend that you may not have even realized.

Things like these are what allows foreign countries to undercut American wages. Everyone should look at that picture when they feel that maybe the American worker and American workplace rules, codes & regulations are unfair to American businesses.

All too often in the end it is quality that suffers when the price of getting something done is all that matters.

This is exactly why America should want no part of a race to the bottom in wages and workplace safety.

 

[PLC1]

Here's another link with more details.

Jul 04, 2009 – A worker was killed on June 27th, around 5.30 a.m. when the 13 storey Lotus Riverside apartment building complex, still under construction and unoccupied at Lianhuanan Road in the Minhang district of Shanghai city literally fell over on its side.

Interestingly enough, the building fell over half a year ago, yet this is the first I've heard of it. Maybe I just missed the story.

 

[dogtowner]

Here's another link with more details.
Interestingly enough, the building fell over half a year ago, yet this is the first I've heard of it. Maybe I just missed the story.

The PRC is pretty good about pulling the wool over things like this

 

[Gipper]

Free trade practices promoted by both parties is destroying the American middle class. It is impossible for American workers to compete with crap like this...particularly when progressives have been in charge for over 30 years.

 

[PLC1]

Free trade practices promoted by both parties is destroying the American middle class. It is impossible for American workers to compete with crap like this...particularly when progressives have been in charge for over 30 years.

Is "Progressive" the term for someone who advocates free trade?

 

[Gipper]

Is "Progressive" the term for someone who advocates free trade?

What do you think PLC1?

Bubba is a free trader. Did he not sign NAFTA? But, so was Bush.

Now, are Bubba and Bush progressives? Of course.

However, free traders can be found on both the left and right. And, I think they are doing great harm to our country. Our manufacturing base is rapidly disappearing. There is no way American workers can compete with nations who have no regulations, no unions, little taxation, and slave labor wages.

 

[GenSeneca]

free traders can be found on both the left and right. And, I think they are doing great harm to our country.

I couldn't disagree more.

Since you mentioned Walter E. Williams in another thread, perhaps you will listen to him on this issue:

The myth about U.S. manufacturing

Let's look at manufacturing. According to Dr. Mark Perry's Department of Labor employment data, in his article "Manufacturing's Death Greatly Exaggerated," U.S. manufacturing employment peaked at 19.5 million jobs in 1979. Since 1979, the manufacturing workforce has shrunk by 40 percent, and there's every indication that manufacturing employment will continue to shrink. Before you buy into the call for Congress to do something about manufacturing job loss, there are some other facts to be considered.

According to the Federal Reserve, the dollar value of U.S. manufacturing output in November was $2.72 trillion (in 2000 dollars). Today's manufacturing worker is so productive that the value of his average output is $234,220. Output per worker is three times as high as it was in 1980 and twice as high as it was in 1990. For the year 2008, the Federal Reserve estimates that the value of U.S. manufacturing output was about $3.7 trillion (in 2008 dollars). If the U.S. manufacturing sector were a separate economy, with its own GDP, it would be tied with Germany as the world's fourth-richest economy. The GDPs are: U.S. ($14.2 trillion), Japan ($4.9 trillion), China ($4.3 trillion), U.S. manufacturing ($3.7 trillion), Germany ($3.7 trillion), France ($2.9 trillion) and the United Kingdom ($2.7 trillion).

These facts put a lie to claims we hear about how we are a country that "doesn't produce anything anymore," and how we have "outsourced our production to China," and there's been a "demise of U.S. manufacturing." U.S. manufacturing has gone through the same kind of labor-saving technological innovation as agriculture. Should we discard that innovation in the name of saving jobs?

 

[Gipper]

I couldn't disagree more.

Since you mentioned Walter E. Williams in another thread, perhaps you will listen to him on this issue:

I would never disagree with the great Walter Williams. He is truly one of the greatest conservative economists ever. However, his column does not discuss trade practices.

We have lost a large number of jobs in the manufacturing sector. As his column indicates, we have lost 40% since 1979. And no doubt much of this drop is due to increases in productivity, but no way is all of it. Where are these Americans going to find good paying jobs? Many have no skills and no more than a high school education. These people are being left behind and our unfair trade policies have resulted in fewer opportunities for many Americans to reach and maintain a middle class life style.

 

[GenSeneca]

I would never disagree with the great Walter Williams. He is truly one of the greatest conservative economists ever. However, his column does not discuss trade practices.

I'm a huge fan of Walter Williams and I think you should read more of his work, he is a strong advocate for free markets and free trade.

Should we trade at all

No one denies that international trade has unpleasant consequences for some workers. They have to find other jobs that might not pay as much, but should we protect those jobs through trade restrictions? The Washington-based Institute for International Economics has assembled data that might help with the answer. Tariffs and quotas on imported sugar saved 2,261 jobs during the 1990s. As a result of those restrictions, the average household pays $21 more per year for sugar. The total cost, nationally, sums to $826,000 for each job saved. Trade restrictions on luggage saved 226 jobs and cost consumers $1.2 million in higher prices for each job saved. Restrictions on apparel and textiles saved 168,786 jobs at a cost of nearly $200,000 for each job saved.

More Walter Williams:

Anti-Free Trade Paradise

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1996 and 2006, about 15 million jobs were lost and 17 million created each year. That's an annual net creation of 2 million jobs. Roughly 3 percent of the jobs lost were a result of foreign competition. Most were lost because of technology, domestic competition and changes in consumer tastes.

Some of the gain in jobs is a result of "insourcing". Foreign companies, such as Nissan, Honda, Nokia, and Novartis, set up plants, hire American workers and pay them wages higher than the national average. According to Dartmouth College professor Matthew Slaughter, "insourced" jobs paid a salary 32 percent higher than the average U.S. salary. So here's my question to anti-traders: If "outsourcing" is harmful to the U.S., it must also be harmful to European countries and Japan; would you advise them to take their jobs back home?

More Walter Williams:

Fair Trade's Free Foe

There's the "Free Trade but Fair Trade" crowd, and the "Level Playing Field" crowd, and the "America First" crowd, all calling for tariffs and other international trade restrictions. Their supposed adversary is corporate America, seeking to boost profits by either importing goods made by cheaper foreign labor or relocating plants in foreign lands to directly take advantage of cheaper labor.

They claim this accounts for loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs and other economic woes. Their argument has considerable emotional appeal, but they've misidentified the true villain in the piece.

These people are being left behind and our unfair trade policies have resulted in fewer opportunities for many Americans to reach and maintain a middle class life style.

More Walter Williams:

Income Mobility

What about claims of a disappearing middle class? Let's do some detective work. Controlling for inflation, in 1967, 8 percent of households had an annual income of $75,000 and up; in 2003, more than 26 percent did. In 1967, 17 percent of households had a $50,000 to $75,000 income; in 2003, it was 18 percent. In 1967, 22 percent of households were in the $35,000 to $50,000 income group; by 2003, it had fallen to 15 percent. During the same period, the $15,000 to $35,000 category fell from 31 percent to 25 percent, and the under $15,000 category fell from 21 percent to 16 percent. The only reasonable conclusion from this evidence is that if the middle class is disappearing, it's doing so by swelling the ranks of the upper classes.

The days of graduating high school and going straight into a "good paying" middle class manufacturing job are gone. Nowadays you have to work your way up the ladder and if history is any indication, those with the necessary work ethic can move into the middle class after a short amount of time, even with nothing more than a high school diploma.

 

[Gipper]

We do not disagree. And I have read several of his books. He is a free trader and makes an excellent case for it.

Problem as I see it is our governments use of regulations and tax policy which hampers our manufacturers (actually all American businesses) and unions who demand outrageous wages and benefits. My point is if government policies where better focused and unions more understanding, manufacturing jobs would stay here rather than move to China, India, or Mexico.

And, Walter Williams often criticizes the overzealous regulatory and tax policy of our government.

I do not and have not stated here, that we need to impose tariffs on foreign goods. Though our government should do a better job of protecting the American consumer from dangerous foreign products...see Chinese drywall, pet food, children's toys, etc.....

 

[Fisher of Men]

Uh oh. Currently typing in a high rise in China. Floor 18.