Originally posted by Fujiwara Takumi
of course that's all true, im playing devils advocate and pretending to be a little more optimistic than you guys.
things that are true of economy, in general:
1. services are the first to be cut back, as opposed to products, and agriculture.
2. Oddly though, Americans are some of the few that can probably afford to eat less as a great place to save money.
You can't "outsource" most things:
1. construction
2. farming, for the most part, especially considering america has a lot to offer, far more than canada or mexico.
3. restaurants and food preparation
4. gvmt: mail delivery, road and utility construction, etc
there are many others to site, but these things generally cant be leveled off anymore, they cant be lowered in price, and they cant be produced in other countries. When it comes to that point companies that wish to sell their goods in america will have to deal with america or they wont be able to.
I never considered Nafta a bad thing, but I can see how it potentially could be...We still do export plenty to asia and Europe, however.
I understand the devils advocate
One thing you forget though is that if the economy is in a down turn then construction slows or in some places stops all together.
Farming and ranching has been mostly taken over by corporations who treat crops genetically to yield more or stuff livestock into unsanitary and dangerous pens to fatten them up through a combination of feed supplements and gorging
Restuarants again are easily affected because a low income doesn't mean you can afford to go out and eat very often.
Utility, mail, roads...well they can be affected..probably the least affected would be mail but roads and utilities can be affected rapidly....road construction gains and loses budgeting on a daily basis and fluctuates constantly.
Utilities well like with roads the budgeting fluctuates though not as drastically because of privatized funds and profits...although if they have to lower the cost of the utility then the spending for maintenence or upgrades has to suffer at some point...if not there then in employee cutbacks which means less maintenence and worse conditions.
Our export to Asia has been a long standing agreement, although not any better than NAFTA terms we do see a larger return by way of foreign investors as well as companies coming to the US because of lucrative tax cuts offered to them....so it balances a bit.....but what business is in Mexico in all honesty that is going to make up for the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are moving south of the border?