From the article: The U.S. Trade Deficit
The U.S. slipped from #1 to #2 position in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report for 2010. (Switzerland is #1). The U.S. fell as a result of the crisis in its financial markets and weaker macroeconomic fundamentals.What can be done to make the U.S. more competitive, and create more U.S. jobs? What Do You Think?
current economy
- the obvious question to me is, why is this recovery taking so long. i believe the answer is twofold. one, u.s. businesses have moved a huge number of jobs overseas, this action has flattened demand because many families do not have the disposable income that they once had. anytime you squeeze workers wages and benefits it has a negative affect on demand. two, most americans of today do not look at the label-of-origin when they buy. there are still many companies in the u.s. that are very competitive, but the purchaser must look to see where the product is made. if you buy a foreign car for example you are basically sending 75% of the money to that country. and then wondering why there are so few jobs in america. when we buy as much as we can from american companies we are strenghtening our economy. when we buy from a foreign country we are strenghtening their economy.
- —Guest r mill
Support American Business
- I believe the key is in supporting American Businesses. Let me explain myself... One of our main problems is the incredible debt that we have acquired. When we import so much from foreign nations, we have to borrow. The greater the margin between our imports and exports, the greater amount we have to borrow. By decreasing our dependence on other nations and buying from our own businesses, we can reduce our importations dramatically. This in turn will reduce our dependence on other nations and will increase demand for american products which in turn will increase the demand for American jobs. One professor estimated that if the trade deficit were cut in half, about 5 million jobs could be created. To put that in perspective, 5 million jobs created would slash the unemployment rate by well over 3%! The american economy would thrive, and exports could possibly jump to. Overall, support of American goods and services could be the key factor in jump-starting our economy.
- —Guest ManForAmerica
United states Export
- I know state government creates different programs to support the exporters, I really think this is great, because export is billions of dollars profits which are not fully explored. There is not too much competition within USA, therefore now is the best time to explore the export especially if you are a manufacturer.
- —Guest ally
all gov"ts are corrupt and we r suckers
- big bussiness and gov"t are playing us for fools (which we are) .They make the rules and control the game. All good ideas to wipe out unemployment and also welfare will never be put into law because the big guys will never let it happen.One simple law with the stroke of THE PEN by the President can do it. Here it is " Anything sold in America and can be made in America ,must be made in America by American citizens." Any company from any country can only sell their product if they set up their factory or factories here and hire American citizens .
- —Guest g6234
Creative Idea's from the people!
- In general the public (we the people) are creative beings! When the people are allowed to create a business via their own ingenuity/ entrepreneurship, the public will eventually support via of supply and demand. New idea's new inventions catch on fast especially when it advances us into the future. So why not create an economy where ideas and inventions are valued over becoming employed! Where businesses are started based on the ideas and inventions of it's people! Children should go to school not to be taught based on a systematic system but to have their creative talents and abilities developed; thus at an early age inner ideas can become outward creations; thereby establishing businesses at a younger age verses becoming employed. Where people have businesses and they work together for the greater good verses making someone rich via being employed. Thus, all the businesses will support one another and support their nation and advance over seas and to other countries
- —Freedup
With a New and Sustainable VISION
- EDERP is the Eight Dimensional Economic Recovery Plan for America; it establishes the Eight Pillars of our economic engines; creating sustainable and fundamentally sound economic engines and drivers for our economy.
- —Guest Kimberly
Improving Communication
- Most Americans already speak English, a powerhouse language in international business and diplomacy, so why don’t we have more schools introduce many different, foreign languages to compete in this global society? Then we could hire American translators especially in areas like the Middle East where misunderstandings can have disastrous consequences. We can BUY in any language, but we might have better luck if we SELL using the languages of our customers. It wouldn’t hurt if our diplomats were bilingual either, as I have heard that some of them are not…and so on. We have a reputation for expecting the rest of the world to use English. What a breath of fresh air if other countries could see that Americans cared enough to learn their languages, assuming that we get serious about second languages. Networking and the ability to communicate will improve if we understand both sides of the conversation. This may seem like a minor change, but we need every possible advantage. Mandarin, Ara
- —Sierralucy
Joe O
- What do I think? She clearly doesn't know what she is talking about or is not expressing it in a way that makes any sense to anyone who knows about imports and exports. Our service exports are fractional, meaningless
- —Guest Joe O
there are qualified in the usa
- Sometime I think that businesses that say they can not find qualified is an excuse to export jobs or import workers because businesses want to pay the least amount for profit. While this is what any entity should be concern about (profit), when this is the only thing it leads to export of jobs or import of workers. Can it be that so many coming out school and so many unemployed can not fill these so called unfilled because of unqualified. Continue say and performing the same why and the result will be the same. Adding federal penalty for importing workers while above 5% unemployment and penalty for exporting work while unemployment is above 5%. Sometimes I think USA forgets it has US citizens inside USA.
- —Guest ac
RBMacdonald
- There are quite a few comments suggesting that the value of the yen (renminbi) should be revalued upwards. America is a consumer society. What will happen will be more expensive consumer goods from China. No longer would people in the united states be able to dress in less expensive clothes from China. Then there would be higher prices for electronic goods. The list is long.
- —Guest Bruce Macdonald
Excellent summary
- Finally a well laid out piece with a clear background and summarized nicely, well done.
- —Guest Taiwaner
No wonder there is such a problem...
- .. It appears that hardly any of the comments on here make any sense whatsoever! Clearly North America hasn't spent the huge deficit on Education.
- —Guest Brit brains
nnone
- The first rule of business use to be "find a need and fill it". Today we make a product then advertise like crazy and saturate the market. The biggest commodity today is money and credit. Product and services are poor quality and overpriced and sold on credit. Is it any wonder the economy is failing?
- —Guest Crystal A. Mourad
To Clarence Swinney:
- Please write your responses in your native language. Google translate should be able to make them at least comprehensible.
- —Guest Jerry Tremble
make corporations pay for outsourcing
- I whole heartedly agree with the other John.However I would add that corporations and anybody else who outsource American jobs should be banned from selling their products in the Americam market that is making them rich.Exclude the worlds largest and most dynamic market and watch most of them come home.
- —Guest Jon Eric
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