Dear Editor
Dear Editor Oriental Labor The apparent clincher in George P. Brockway's "How Our Sun May Rise Again" (NL, July 12-26) is his rhetorical question about explaining "the steadily increasing prices...
...It would be dishonorable to treat American workers as Oriental workers are treated, and it is dishonorable to throw our citizens out of a job in furtherance of Oriental exploitation...
...If the real world were as optimistically fast-paced as he pretends, I should think he would at least have suggested a few sunrise industries to relieve my gloom...
...Netzer says that their prices haven't gone up so much as disposable income, which is another question...
...As a practical matter, however, these are beside the point: The present putative Oriental advantage is the result of cheap labor and often unsafe working conditions...
...Like other valuable insights, the principle of comparative advantage was elucidated somewhat imprecisely by its formulator, David Ricardo, and has been refined in the 165 years since 1817...
...It is valid as long as some factors of production are geographically immobile to some extent: physical capital, mineral resources, skilled labor, entrepreneurial talents, whatever...
...household appliances, 4.8 per cent...
...Meanwhile, the prices of new automobiles and footwear went up only 5.1 per cent...
...All the items he mentions have had small increases in price over the years relative to either the overall price level or disposable income...
...The Ricardian argument, moreover, implicitly requires that workers displaced by the transfer of their industries abroad will immediately find comparable positions in industries that (for some reason the theory cannot explain) stay home...
...Brockway is also careless in describing the theory he sets out to overturn (by assertion...
...When I said that various items produced in the Orient are steadily increasing in price, I meant precisely that...
...It may be that, as Netzer says, I am too pessimistic about the prospect of coming up with sunrise industries to replace sunset industries...
...3. No articles about modern poetry, no matter how well written...
...The principle does not depend on the trans-national immobility of capital...
...I agree completely with his call for more pieces on cultural matter, and hope that enough others do as well and let you know so that you may make major changes in your editorial policies...
...Ricardo would not have discarded his law, nor would he have been as pessimistic as Brockway is about the American capacity to come up with "sunrise" industries...
...Dear Editor Oriental Labor The apparent clincher in George P. Brockway's "How Our Sun May Rise Again" (NL, July 12-26) is his rhetorical question about explaining "the steadily increasing prices of electric irons and TV sets and cameras and automobiles, despite their being produced in the allegedly more efficient and assuredly lower-wage Orient...
...4. Run drama and movie reviews in each issue, without fail...
...Culture Again Norbert Gaughan's letter ("Dear Editor," NL, May 31) prompts me to write...
...You can verify this by taking a poll of your readers...
...Specifically, (he following cannot be done too soon, before you lose most of your readers: 1. Eliminate articles on sociology and economics, especially when written by professors of sociology or economics...
...Since his statistics, if they prove anything, prove my point, I'll refrain from questioning his choice of dates or inquiring into the effect of shifting exchange rates or comparing the behavior of the prices of American-made versions of these products with those of the same products produced in the Orient...
...Finally, I must diffidently point out that the rhetorical question Netzer has tried unsuccessfully to answer is only one of three that I asked, and the least important at that...
...5. Fewer articles about rural America...
...Even if the topics were interesting, the articles are almost invariably impossible to read to the end with sustained interest...
...More likely, he would have remarked upon our repeated success over the years in replacing "sunset" with "sunrise" industries...
...To be sure, the international transmission of industrial knowledge and skills, as well as capital, is swifter than it was in the past...
...I have more respect for my readers than Netzer allows...
...professors in these fields must be the worst "writers" in the world, without exception...
...Chinese doctors are good at reattaching chopped-off fingers and arms, because they have so much practice at it...
...2. Ditto reviews of books on the above topics, especially by the educators mentioned above...
...These subjects, contrary to your belief (as judged by how much space is devoted to them in each issue) are supremely uninteresting to most of us...
...Consider the following data on average annual increases from the end of 1970 to the end of 1971: Disposable income climbed 10.2 per cent and the consumer price index for all items rose 8.1 per cent...
...As to the history of the Law of Comparative Advantage, I certainly do not question that refinements have been made in it since David Ricardo formulated it 165 years ago...
...Steadily increasing compared to what...
...Clearly, such immobilities are ubiquitous, otherwise there would be no differences in wages and other returns to factors of production among nations or among the regions of one nation...
...All these are consumer goods that were heavily affected by imports from East Asia, especially the last two items...
...apparel, 3.8 per cent...
...And I really must object that I did not and would not rely on a rhetorical question in the middle of my essay as a "clincher...
...And I'd dearly love to have him explain why certain industries are sunset here but sunrise in the Orient, unless the difference lies largely in wage scales and working conditions...
...But that swiftness tends to raise, not lower absolute standards of living here and elsewhere, although it reduces the disparity among industrialized countries' standards of living, which is a good thing, not a bad one...
...The answer to Brockway's question is that his factual premise is all wet, not for the first time...
...New York City DickNetzer Director Urban Research Center New York University George P. Brockway replies: Dick Netzer is agile at the old debater's trick of answering resoundingly a question different from the one asked...
...The principle, pace Ricardo, does apply within a single country...
...New York City Marc Bennett...
...My factual premise, which Netzer unaccountably thinks is "all wet," is that millions of Americans are out of work because we have exported their jobs, and that billions of dollars' worth of American plants are standing idle because we have exported their industries...
...6. More articles about international political (not social) events...
...and television sets, a scant 0.3 per cent...
Vol. 65 • September 1982 • No. 17
