Are you out of work?
Do you want to know why you are out of work?
Walk around your house. Pick up anything that is manufactured in a factory. Turn it over, look at the label, and see where it was made. Chances are distressingly good that if you reach out and touch any manufactured item in your home, it was not made in the USA. Try it for yourself and see.
My own quick walk through of my house turned up the following:
Kitchen:
Osterizer Blender – assembled in Mexico
Starbucks coffee grinder - China
Slow cooker – China
Electric kettle – China
iPod - assembled in China
Panasonic phone – China
Office:
GE phone - China
HP computer – China
Sony TV - Japan
Yamaha Speakers - China
Keyboard and mouse – China
Minolta Digital Camera – China
Gel writer pen - Japan
Energizer Batteries – Japan
Spiral Note Book - Vietnam
Paper clips - China
Goose neck lamp – China
Packard Bell Monitor - Korea
Swingline Punch and stapler - Mexico
Motorola Modem - China
Misc.
Rheem water heater - Mexico
Viajet Water Pic - Taiwan
GE Alarm radio - China
Swarovski Crystal figure - Austria
The few things I found that were made in the US were:
One spiral notebook
Ace Hardware Utility Knife
Kidde Fire extinguisher
3M scotch tape
Now I’m not for a moment suggesting that the answer to the country’s employment woes is for everyone to simply go to work making blenders and water heaters. But think about it. If you as an American are unemployed, couldn’t it possibly have something to do with the fact that the companies which manufacture the things you buy do not hire Americans to make them?
Now think of the last time you complained about the government. If it had to do with paying too many taxes or government interference in your life, your anger is misplaced. The reason you are unemployed has little to do with tax rates or too much government regulation. The reason you have no money in your bank account is because the government allows – and even encourages – corporations to move their operations overseas. If you are out of work, you should be angry at your elected representatives, not because they tax you or put regulations on business but because they continue to promote "flat earth" "free trade" policies that reward companies for closing factories in your neighborhood and relocating them in foreign countries. You should be angry at the corporations who expect you to buy their clocks, TVs, and blenders but which refuse to hire you to make them.
Social scientist bemoan the fact that modern urbanites are so far removed from the source of their food that they no longer have an appreciation for the amount of work that goes into producing it. Have we similarly become so far removed from the sources of manufacture that we can no longer see the basic truth that any product that is not made within 100 miles of where we live, no matter how cheaply it is priced, does not benefit us? A corporation may be able to lower the cost of their product (and increase their profits) by moving its factories to Singapore. But how do cheaper goods help you if you have no job with which to earn money to buy those goods?
What to do?
For starters, I would end all subsidies to corporations that move their operations overseas. If companies wish to lower their labor costs by relocating to countries where labor is cheap, that’s their prerogative. But there is no reason why we have to reward them for doing so by lowering their taxes. Multinational corporations should only have their taxes lowered if they hire Americans to make their products.
Next, consider re-instating tariffs. Once again, "free trade" is not free if it results in multinational corporations being able to pad their profits by always manufacturing their products where labor is cheap and selling them where labor is expensive. All that does is cause the standard of living of workers in richer countries to fall.
Thirdly, I would consider putting limits on corporate compensation, particularly those who refuse to hire Americans. In 2007, CEOs of major corporations were paid on average 344 times the average worker’s pay. http://www.csmonitor.com/...
On its face this statistic is obscene. But when you add in the fact that many of these executives increased their company’s profits by refusing to hire Americans, it borders on the criminal. Capitalism? Great. Private ownership of the means of production? Fine.But why should any private business be rewarded for refusing to hire the people to whom they wish to sell their product? It makes no sense.
If you are angry about being unemployed, I salute you. Now turn off your Japanese TV, put down your Chinese iPod, and start asking yourself why you are out of work and what you plan on doing about it.