I think you misunderstood him. What he was saying is that conservatives tend to be in support of free trade because in the long run at the macro scale there is no change to overall employment..... however, what they don't realize is that there is very real tangible change on the individual scale where people's fortunes fluctuate up and down during times of job "displacement". Basically, he called conservatives like yourself dumb because they are unable to do anything but add and subtract, and when that's all you do, job displacement looks great.
The argument you've made basically boils down to "we've seen this before and it didn't hurt us". However, your assumption that we have seen this before does not seem accurate. In the past we've seen exportation of unskilled labor, mostly factory jobs. The argument at the time was that we will retrain and become more skilled and a higher quality workforce than other nations, which will in turn raise our standard of living. However, now we're seeing job loss in white collar educated positions. How can you tell someone who has a PhD already that they need to retrain? that they're not educated enough? As such, it's hard to say this is not the beginning of a long downward spiral, where the money at the top of the paradigm begins to shift to other nations over the long run. You may make the case this is good for world stability as a whole, but I'm not so sure it's good for citizens of the U.S..
For the most part I agree with your concerns (though I am ambivalent when it comes to issues of free trade). That said, I would like to disagree with your point on automobiles. Cost of owning a car is exactly the type of thing that the current system of trade helps. Lower cost imports keep car prices down so that middle and working class people can afford them. Arguably, one could say that if these people don't have jobs to begin with, they can't get the cars, but I don't think that's what you were trying to say, right?
I 100 % agree with your sentiments on housing and health... although I'm not sure that we can't both have free trade and social benefits at the same time.
ah, yes, but as we all know, all the other numbers can be created from 1's and 0's, so Microsoft still wins out in the end. Maybe they'll even sue SCO over it.
By the way, you should really acknowledge your sources.
And I quote:
"(By relying so exclusively on Microsoft products, virus authors say, we have created a digital monoculture, a dangerous thinning of the Internet's gene pool.)"
Page 4 of the article. I think you can imagine your own RTF... acronmym without me writing it.
Actually, for the most part I was pretty impressed with how much they didn't screw up. Although, my expectations were prett low. I was expecting it to be like the screenplay of "Hackers" rewritten for the New York Times. Other than the use of the word "elite" (ugggh!) and maybe not quite 100% accurate on the definition of script kiddies, it was a fairly good read. That said, I can't say I learned all that much from it, but I think I and the rest of the slashdot crowd is a bit more knowledgeable on the topic.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you misunderstood him. What he was saying is that conservatives tend to be in support of free trade because in the long run at the macro scale there is no change to overall employment..... however, what they don't realize is that there is very real tangible change on the individual scale where people's fortunes fluctuate up and down during times of job "displacement". Basically, he called conservatives like yourself dumb because they are unable to do anything but add and subtract, and when that's all you do, job displacement looks great.
The argument you've made basically boils down to "we've seen this before and it didn't hurt us". However, your assumption that we have seen this before does not seem accurate. In the past we've seen exportation of unskilled labor, mostly factory jobs. The argument at the time was that we will retrain and become more skilled and a higher quality workforce than other nations, which will in turn raise our standard of living. However, now we're seeing job loss in white collar educated positions. How can you tell someone who has a PhD already that they need to retrain? that they're not educated enough? As such, it's hard to say this is not the beginning of a long downward spiral, where the money at the top of the paradigm begins to shift to other nations over the long run. You may make the case this is good for world stability as a whole, but I'm not so sure it's good for citizens of the U.S..
For the most part I agree with your concerns (though I am ambivalent when it comes to issues of free trade). That said, I would like to disagree with your point on automobiles. Cost of owning a car is exactly the type of thing that the current system of trade helps. Lower cost imports keep car prices down so that middle and working class people can afford them. Arguably, one could say that if these people don't have jobs to begin with, they can't get the cars, but I don't think that's what you were trying to say, right? I 100 % agree with your sentiments on housing and health... although I'm not sure that we can't both have free trade and social benefits at the same time.
By the way, you should really acknowledge your sources.
Anyone else curious how many of the kids interviewed in this article are members of the slashdot community?
And I quote: "(By relying so exclusively on Microsoft products, virus authors say, we have created a digital monoculture, a dangerous thinning of the Internet's gene pool.)" Page 4 of the article. I think you can imagine your own RTF... acronmym without me writing it.
Actually, for the most part I was pretty impressed with how much they didn't screw up. Although, my expectations were prett low. I was expecting it to be like the screenplay of "Hackers" rewritten for the New York Times. Other than the use of the word "elite" (ugggh!) and maybe not quite 100% accurate on the definition of script kiddies, it was a fairly good read. That said, I can't say I learned all that much from it, but I think I and the rest of the slashdot crowd is a bit more knowledgeable on the topic.