Questions for conservatives

[dead0man]

Yes, of course, there is a long-term shift away from manufacturing. As a result, you can, actually, breathe in most US cities now - you've sent all the smog away to Beijing. Why is it bad?

We manufacture more in the US than ever before and more than any other country (including the PRC).  Mainland China is dirty because they don't have proper environmental controls (despite signing Kyoto) and neither the govt nor the people care all that much.

..and yes, we need to get used to higher unemployment numbers.  They will continue creeping higher and higher as we become more and more efficient.  This is (overall) a good thing.

[dead0man]

..and yes, we need to get used to higher unemployment numbers.  They will continue creeping higher and higher as we become more and more efficient.  This is (overall) a good thing.

This is nonsense: both because efficiency doesn't mean higher unemployment and because higher unemployment is, most definitely, a bad thing. Though, of course, that's a subjective statement: may be you like people suffering, I don't know. So let me modify this: it's a bad thing for those of us who are not sadists.

I don't think I was clear.  We are becoming more efficient, that is a good thing.  No, being more efficient doesn't require there to be higher unemployment, obviously, but we are certainly heading for a time when we will need fewer and fewer workers.  I certainly didn't mean to imply (and I don't really think I did) that higher unemployment is a good thing.  The "good thing" is us being more efficient and that there will be fewer people that have to work.

..but my point in posting was that we still manufacture a lot (more than ever and more than the PRC).  Our air isn't clean because manufacturing left.