Write to your senators and congressmen, tell them to stop endangering our health

[behemoth]

Some truly leading edge intellectual thought experiments going on in this thread.

Rick, i've seen this image used like 6 times in the last few months.

Time for a new one.

[Destructo6]

Close the border huh.... how about writing/calling and asking to prosecute those that said it was ok to torture people, and yes waterboarding is torture. That's why we prosecuted the japanese soldiers for doing it after ww2.

What are you talking about? He said, "close the borders to prevent swine flu," and you respond with, "hang Bush!" Pull your head out of your butt and respond to the question/topic posed and not to what you would rather discuss.

The government is not likely to close the land ports of entry. The swine flu is already here. IIRC, the largest set of cases so far has been a group of kids who went to Cancun for spring break and brought it back via plane, through an air port of entry.

BTW, I work on the border and haven't seen or heard of any cases so far.

[maxama10]

Close the border huh.... how about writing/calling and asking to prosecute those that said it was ok to torture people, and yes waterboarding is torture. That's why we prosecuted the japanese soldiers for doing it after ww2.

Seriously why aren't you banned yet?

[Hilltop Customs]

epic thread

Did someone really doubt the economic repercussions of closing the boarder with a neighboring country? A country we utilize for cheaper labor of to produce our very own products?



@ the OP
theres so many reasons why closing the boarder wont work.....easiest to explain is: containment doesnt work if what your trying to contain(the virus, I hope) is already spread worldwide. Then theres the detrimental effects of closing the boarder...aka economic repercussions.

seems like there are some other reasons for wanting to close the boarder.....because the most realistic method to stop the rapid spread would be shut down air travel(completely). Oddly enough, we jumped straight to close the boarder. Not that either would be required/justified by a mutation this insignificant.

I wonder, what would all the people who point fingers do if this was Beef Influenza which started in the US?

[Lohman446]

epic thread

Did someone really doubt the economic repercussions of closing the boarder with a neighboring country? A country we utilize for cheaper labor of to produce our very own products?

No, I questioned why we allow countries using labor in substandard conditions and substandard pay to compete with us. Do you not beleive that costs American jobs?

[teufelhunden]

You guys are great skimmers. If you didn't notice, I addressed the air issue as well as why stopping the flow of people into the US from Mexico is still a prudent thing.

As for the other stuff, I only skimmed that too - accordingly, not commenting.

[SCpoloRicker]

Rick, i've seen this image used like 6 times in the last few months.

Time for a new one.

Get to the shoopin' then, wrist monkey.



Consider this your creative brief: bring me teh lulz.

Deadline: 10:00am PST 4/30.

[behemoth]

Shoop?
Copypasta!

[Hilltop Customs]

No, I questioned why we allow countries using labor in substandard conditions and substandard pay to compete with us. Do you not beleive that costs American jobs?

No, I believe our artificially inflated cost of living costs us jobs. Just because employees are paid less in other countries doesnt automatically mean they are receiving substandard pay relative to their cost of living.


teufelhunden: screening passengers from flights originating, or connections through, mexico means nothing if the virus has spread to other countries. Theres sick people in NY right? What happens if a sick person in NY flies to LA? Entire flight of unscreened passengers exposed to a sick person. Those people now go out into LA....or maybe take another flight to their final destinations. Or, since we cannot force screening in all countries....a sick Mexican flies to France, then people infected at the French airport fly all over the world, including the US.

The only means of truely slowing the rapid global spread is to shut down the airline industry, but the pig flu isnt serious enough to take those measures. Its the media blowing it way out of proportion.

[Lohman446]

No, I believe our artificially inflated cost of living costs us jobs. Just because employees are paid less in other countries doesnt automatically mean they are receiving substandard pay relative to their cost of living.
.

Agreed on the automatically, but they are in reality. Though it does not always equal in the cases I am considering it does. Consider what is considered "middle class" in Mexico (I once had a cab driver explain to me he worked 60HRs a week so his kids could have TV with cable), or some of the Asian regions (where meat is sold in portions as small as grams so people can afford it once a week). The point is that in most measurable standards many of these countries we import from do in fact exploit there poor

[Hilltop Customs]

True, but products which are made by workers who are receiving sub-standard pay and work environments are impossible to recognize. So our only real influence, our buying power, has no way to differentiate between a sweat shop and a regulated factory. In the end it comes down to cost....because everyone wants to get the most out of their money, cheaper goods will sell.

If you try to enforce regulations of higher pay and better conditions in countries that are used for their cheap labor, the work will simply be transferred to another non-regulated country. The recurring cost of labor is HUGE, so moving shop is a worthwhile investment. Considering that, for the most part, labor intensive jobs will generally source the cheapest labor as a cost cutting measure, trying to force regulations wont work until there are global regulations....and even those wouldnt be enforceable, so they wouldnt be followed.

[Lohman446]

True, but products which are made by workers who are receiving sub-standard pay and work environments are impossible to recognize. So our only real influence, our buying power, has no way to differentiate between a sweat shop and a regulated factory. In the end it comes down to cost....because everyone wants to get the most out of their money, cheaper goods will sell.

If you try to enforce regulations of higher pay and better conditions in countries that are used for their cheap labor, the work will simply be transferred to another non-regulated country. The recurring cost of labor is HUGE, so moving shop is a worthwhile investment. Considering that, for the most part, labor intensive jobs will generally source the cheapest labor as a cost cutting measure, trying to force regulations wont work until there are global regulations....and even those wouldnt be enforceable, so they wouldnt be followed.

They would be enforceable to some conditions - such as tarrifs. Look, I'm ok with "free" trade with countries that allow a reasonable standard of living. However, there are a lot of countries that don't. We just like to be able to buy $10 shoes, jeans, and other items. In the end American greed is costing us, we will not pay the money it would cost us if we did not employ labor at near slave standards.

As long as we make it cost effective for standards to be in place they will be. Either you will have standards or we will tarrif the amount of $$ it would have cost to have standards. With that substandard conditions loose there economic advantage.

[Hilltop Customs]

I think work standards would be impossible to enforce......then again who would enforce them? You cant expect people to foot the bill of standards enforcement AND the higher prices of goods the standards create. People are too greedy and too self-based to recognize and try to actually help others at their own expense. We are too busy getting ourselves burried in debt help anyone anyhow.

I mean look at this thread....no thought of sending medical attention to try and help in the area with lower medical standards, where death rates will, no doubt, be much higher than anything we experience. I mean comeon, we take some Tylenol or other medication to help break the fever/dilute the symptoms and we will likely be fine.....where others may not be so lucky to have those medications.


I wonder how low pork prices are going to dip...have to stock up. Whole pig roast anyone?

[Lohman446]

I think work standards would be impossible to enforce......then again who would enforce them? You cant expect people to foot the bill of standards enforcement AND the higher prices of goods the standards create. People are too greedy and too self-based to recognize and try to actually help others at their own expense. We are too busy getting ourselves burried in debt help anyone anyhow.

I mean look at this thread....no thought of sending medical attention to try and help in the area with lower medical standards, where death rates will, no doubt, be much higher than anything we experience. I mean comeon, we take some Tylenol or other medication to help break the fever/dilute the symptoms and we will likely be fine.....where others may not be so lucky to have those medications.


I wonder how low pork prices are going to dip...have to stock up. Whole pig roast anyone?

Its doable, we have different nation trading status as it is with various countries - I am thinking of Cambodia's "favored nation" trade status recently revoked.

The end result would likely be inflation on consumer goods for a year or so as product prices adjust to not being able to use labor in such conditions.

[billmi]

The up-side of Swine Flu...

If we ignore the fact that on average 98 people die of different types of flu every single day in the US, we can get really excited about one of those people having died from swine flu, and if we get the American people scared enough about a health crisis, it will be easier to get support for changing to a national health care program. Then we can be like Mexico where health care was nationalized and swine flu has killed a lot more people.

Hmmm... somewhere in this post my logic train has de-railed.

Since the World Health Organization is not recommending any restrictions on international travel, it might be jumping the gun a bit to close the Mexican border.