Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York made a blog
entry at FromTheRoots.org last week drawing attention to the loss of American jobs to overseas workers.
I like the spotlight that Lou Dobbs of CNN and others are shining on overseas outsourcing. I dislike the idea of my job or other jobs going overseas.
Listening to Bush Administration economists and economists generally from the Republican camp, you hear the same things over and over:
Globalization is a positive force for the world. However, it does require temporary sacrifice for Americans in order for positive outcomes to be achieved. This sacrifice will have to be undertaken by American workers, in terms of unemployment, costs of retraining, costs of relocation and perhaps even long term joblessness and loss of wealth.
My question is: Why does this sacrifice have to fall wholly on the backs of working people, when business executives and business owners are so disproportionately receiving the gains? As the price of labor falls due to overseas outsourcing, executives and corporate shareholders (who are disproportionately the wealthy) reap the benefits. Why is it, therefore, that the workers must make the sacrifice?
If globalization is inevitable and must proceed forward as Bush Administration economists tell us, the burden of costs must be shifted from the worker to overpaid executives and over-compensated business owners, those who are deriving wealth from sending labor and national prosperity overseas.