Free trade connects offshore businesses together without the discrimination or interference of government’s tariffs or subsidies to trade services or products. Free trade is important due to the fact that traders will have fewer barriers to go through. When more barriers are put in place and enforced, trading becomes difficult and a hindrance to both parties. The transit duration could possibly be extended due to more barriers, which would affect the receiver.
Free trade is not important because it allows a company to outsource or offshore easier. By eliminating certain barriers, a company can easily send work or satellite branches to other countries. By doing so, the companies eliminate jobs in the United States and employ personnel in a low-wage country. Comparing the low-wage country to the United States, the employees in the low-wage country are paid well; while the company that outsource or offshore the work pays lower wages and little to no health benefits. The company may or may not use the difference of the wages to assist in other research and development for that company. Meaning, the money that is saved from outsourcing and offshoring is not necessarily used to hire other employees inside the United States to further develop products or services. The savings could pile up to pay higher wages to executives, show massive profits to stockholders, or accomplish any other desire of the company.
I have a few questions that, after reading the assigned sections, have sparked my curiosity. What would happen if all borders, ports and barriers were closed in the United States? Would we, as a nation, be self-sufficient in every need? Would we be in a state of panic because we have been dependant on other countries manufacturing the products we buy? By asking these questions, it really made me think of what I could do to prepare myself if something like this happened.
Friedman describes how a “new middler” (new middle class) must be versatile to accommodate how the flat world is changing the country. The “old middler” (old middle class) was an individual that highly specialized in one thing. When the highly specialized occupation moves to an outsourced or offshored position, the individual that was highly trained in that task becomes unemployable, because the skills he or she possesses are not needed anymore in the country. When the individual finds and occupation, usually the wage is considerably less than before.
The “new middler” must have various skills to be successful in a flat world. Because the new flat world has such a diverse technology base, the “new middler” must know and understand various aspects of technology and skills.
The “new middler” needs a desire to learn all of the time. New technologies are released all of the time, and if I am not proactively learning and understanding the new technologies, I will fall behind and find myself in a challenging spot to keep myself employable. In order to keep myself employable, I must continually act on a process of what I call forever learning. Forever learning is a concept that has shown me that no matter how much I know or understand about a topic or subject, there is always something else to learn. Whether learning in depth about that specific subject or topic or choosing different topics of interest to further enhance knowledge and understanding.
Friedman describes one of his concepts of being employable as CQ + PQ > IQ. Where CQ is curiosity quotient and PQ is passion quotient. The two quotients coupled together are greater than the IQ. Friedman introduces this concept and argues that an individual that possesses both curiosity and passion outperforms an individual with a greater IQ.
Curiosity can keep an individual focused on a new task, method, or technology. Curiosity also assists in learning new things. When I am curious about a subject, I read and study about that subject. Passion is a strong emotional desire toward something. Hopefully after having curiosity about a subject, passion will kick in and I will develop a desire to fully understand that subject so that I will be well versed in it. Being passionate and curious about new things can train us to be in a state of forever learning and be forever employable.
Your question: "What would happen if all borders, ports and barriers were closed in the United States?" peaked my curiosity. I think that if the U.S. closed its borders, we would be living in a much different world because everything is so integrated worldwide now. Much of what we purchase is manufactured overseas and with closed borders we would not have access to that. One would argue that this would create more jobs at home, but I would argue that it would still raise prices and ultimately prevent other budding economic forces (like China and India) from selling products they engineer. I feel that in time those countries will be creating much of the products we and the rest of the world use.
ReplyDeleteIf we closed all of our boarders, prices would skyrocket for just about everything. Many people would starve to death, and things would get pretty bad. That question made me realize that trade is essential for our nation. How "free" it should be is another issue though.
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