(08-04-2024, 09:22 PM)p_rushing Wrote:

(08-04-2024, 05:38 PM)The Real Marty Wrote: Keeping prices where they are and taxing imports don't go together.  So many of the things we buy are either imported or the raw materials or parts are imported that if you tax imports, prices will go up.

Prices only go up if you are willing to pay it.

Imports have to be reset. There has to be a balance but majority of the stuff doesn't need to come from China. Taxing imports is to drive companies to manufacture in the USA. You don't tax the raw materials, unless those are undercutting USA materials. If you want to buy the same materials China buys, buy them and just manufacture here. No increases needed.

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The companies would already manufacture in the USA if the cost of labor here was lower.  You have everything backwards.

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(08-04-2024, 06:03 PM)OG-JAGFAN Wrote:

(08-04-2024, 11:50 AM)mikesez Wrote: Which part will bring wages to a liveable level?

Deportation will have an instant impact in many cities.  The lower wage gap has been destroyed by all the immigrants.  Employers know they will work for minimum wage so they hire them in all the lower wage jobs.  If the deportation happens there are going to open up the lower wage jobs and to entice Americans they are going to have to pay a little more. It should not be that employees of a company are making minimum wage while the CEO's are racking in 7, 8, or even 9 figure incomes.   It's ridiculous that back in the 60's a man could support his entire family on a factory job. Corporate greed has taken over and no doubt many large corporations are taking advantage of this immigrant situation.  I work part time in a thrift store for my second Job and in the last year the staff has transformed into about 80% Hispanic.  The restaurants and even the local Walmarts in my area are the same.  It isn't the fact that these companies cannot afford to pay their workers a decent wage, it's that corporate greed has taken over and only the few in any company make the real money.  In many states you do not even need a valid ID to get a job now and that was unheard of 5 years ago.

This one is plausible.  You're closer to the point.

Many agree that too many people in the US have wages that aren't "livable".  Either those wages have to go up or the cost of living has to come down.  Your solution plausibly reduces the supply of labor, driving wages up, while also reducing the demand for housing, driving the cost of living down.

I don't favor that though.  The best bet, to me, is simply build more houses.  Smaller, more modest ones.  That will drive the cost of living down and drive wages up and won't force anyone to relocate anywhere.

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