The sustainability of innovation as job creators

[Stratego]

One of the common arguments against protectionism is that America should not be trying to hold on to manufacturing jobs that are going overseas. The idea is that we don't really want the shitty manufacturing jobs anymore; we're going to stimulate the economy through innovation. We should be building new jobs that no one else has ever had before. Forget the old jobs.

But, is the fruit of innovation enough to sustain employment? A breakthrough like the world wide web doesn't come very often. Plus with every successful idea, there are many failures in between. If we're trying to sustain our economy through innovation without protecting existing backbones of the economy, such as manufacturing, we're going to go bankrupted.

[Boris Johnson]

Yes, everyone knows Asians cant innovate, you'll always have that up on them.

[Stratego]

Whether or not Asian can innovate is irrelevant. The point is that America's economy cannot be sustained by always looking for innovation because innovation is costly. We need to keep some of those manufacturing jobs here too.

[Boris Johnson]

[eric]

[eric]

[Boris Johnson]

[The Dharma Bum]

Free trade and capitalism are incompatible with the continued success of the US. Anything we "innovate" is just going to get manufactured wherever the labor is cheapest, too.

How's that going to be any different? The only choices are to wait and continue to plummet until American wages are competitive on the world market or to adopt some form of socialism.

[Boris Johnson]

[The Dharma Bum]

Well, you tell me how "innovation" is going to create millions of high paying jobs? I will just create more companies to manufacture their innovative products in China. The only way a decent standard of living is going to be maintained for most of the population here is to adopt some type of socialist economy.

We need a planned economy, wage controls, and protectionism or we will have to accept mass poverty. I don't think the masses are going to accept that.