Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cdninkorea]

I got my inspiration for this thread from Hapkido-In in this thread, where he said:

[seoulsista]

Sorry can't debate you because I totally agree. Although to be fair the U.S. auto and famring idustries get all sorts of kickbacks by way of subsidies and so forth that keep them afloat.

I go to E-mart and the cheapest fan I can buy is one for 35,000 won but I can go on base and find and almost identical one for $9.99? This country is right next door to the world's factory and yet apart from the dollar street vendors it's so hard to find anything cheap here. I paid 70,000 won for a tape recorder!

[pastis]

You forgot to mention that liberal free-market economics are the chief cause of mass consumerism which is depleting/wasting resources unsustainably and literally destroying the earth, just so that we can all have a "right" to buy our useless (made in China nowadays) sh*t. It's pretty bleak, but I guess the alternative is too, since we're only humans.

Otherwise, yeah I agree there's not much else to do. But let's be honest, cynicism rules. Your so-called "rights" don't mean jack. Only power does and money too. Focus on that instead, the only things that gives you a "right" to a job is that you're making someone else money. Moral: be rich.

[RACETRAITOR]

The US has a protectionist economy, despite all free trade agreements they've entered. Their reason? "We don't want our ____ industry to go out of business."

Kind of good reasoning, but they don't mind fucking over other countries. In short, free trade is the problem, and protectionism is just a sad reaction to it.

[Wangja]

Protecting the US carmakers would have littled effect. One, because until they make vehicles that most people want, their sales will fall. Two, because many of the cars perceived as imported are in fact manufactured in USA anyway: eg, Honda, Hyundai - and probably others.

[Milwaukiedave]

I don't know, I'd rather support free trade rather then governments give money away hand over fist as subsities. I remember a 20/20 (or maybe it was Dateline) episode where they showed most of farming subsities went to large companies (at least in the US).

Korea has their fair share of protectionism. They balk about buying US rice because it "tastes diffrent." I keep asking my wife when we are in the grocery store to ask them if they carry US rice (she refuses to ask, but someday I'll probably do it to embarrass her). My guess is probably not, no one will buy it.

How many vehicles do you see from the US? The answer is very few. I think this is more due to nationalism then protectionism though.

Maybe I don't have a strong argument for free trade, because I'm not totally sure that's what I'd support in every case. It seems to have both advantages and disadvantages.

[Wangja]

No, lack of US cars is nothing to do with nationalsim or protectionism. It's to do with the product.

Who in their right mind would choose an American car when for the same money they could have a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes or Jaguar?

[RACETRAITOR]

I was talking about softwood lumber, but okay.

[Milwaukiedave]

Funny...what brand do most Koreans drive?

Either Hyuandi or Kia...yes you see high end cars lke you mentioned, but in terms of brand your missing the point.

[sjrm]

[Wangja]

In the sense it is owned by Ford, yes.

[Milwaukiedave]

It's hard to say anything is American made anymore though. A lot of parts that are made are foreign and many of the cars are assembled in Mexico.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm not exactly for free trade. I'm for reciprocity agreements. You can export your widgets to my country duty free if we can export our gadgets to yours duty free. That seems fair enough.

Korea pi**ed me off years ago when it wanted to export its cars, semi-conductors, shoes and clothes to the US but still doesn't want to import anything. Ain't kosher.

[jaganath69]

[RACETRAITOR]

Capitalism isn't necessarily about being unwasteful and maximising productivity. If it were, every worker would get minimum wage, service would be terrible, and as many jobs as possible would be outsourced. Capitalism's strength so far has been in providing a liveable income to the largest possible proportion of the population it can.