The Jobs Crisis and the GOP

WND.com ^

[Theodore R.]

The jobs crisis and the GOP

Posted: March 10, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

President Bush and his advisers are puzzled and worried.

Economic liftoff took place right on schedule in July when the tax cuts took effect. In the last six months of 2003, the economy blazed along on a growth path of 6 percent. But where are the jobs?

Last week's jobs report, with hundreds of thousands giving up the search for work, and manufacturing jobs disappearing for the 43rd straight month, jolted the White House. What is going on?

They're calling it a jobless recovery. Wrong. Millions of jobs are being created. They're just not being created here in the United States.

The reasons can be traced to these four acronyms: NAFTA, GATT, WTO, PNTR. These are the trade treaties and global institutions that have permitted the historic substitution of foreign labor for American labor, to the enrichment of the transnational companies that look upon the Congress as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Numbers do not lie. In 2003, America exported $1 trillion in goods and services. Almost 10 percent of GDP. Excellent. By the Clinton-Bush I rule – $1 billion in exports creates 20,000 jobs – that $1 trillion worth of exports created 20 million jobs. Exports are good for America.

The problem? We imported $1.5 trillion in goods and services. That created or supported 30 million jobs abroad. But even this understates the case. For foreign workers can be hired at a fraction of the cost of a U.S. worker. Our $1.5 trillion in imports is probably supporting 150,000,000 jobs abroad.

The U.S. trade deficit is the greatest foreign aid and wealth transfer program in history, and our workers are paying for it by the loss to their families of the American Dream.

Consider China. With some $150 billion in imports from China last year, we supported 3 million jobs there. But as China's wages are a tenth of U.S. wages, or less, we are probably talking about 30 million or 40 million jobs in China that are tied to exports to the United States.

For the Bush Republicans, the chickens are coming home to roost.

As Robert Novak reports, North Carolina welcomed Sen. John Edwards home after his unsuccessful campaign as a hero. Why? At the end, Edwards was a fiery adversary of the Bush-Clinton trade deals, a denunciator of NAFTA, a champion of workers. Indeed, just as almost all the Democrats ended up the campaign sounding like Howard Dean on Iraq, on trade they had all begun to sound like Dennis Kucinich.

North Carolina may now be in play in November, says Novak. If so, and Bush loses the Tarheel State, he loses the presidency.

At a weekend conference on immigration and jobs hosted by The American Cause, which this writer chairs, one speaker blurted out that while he voted for Bush in 2000, he would never do so again. The room erupted in applause, though virtually all there were conservatives, and all had once been Goldwater-Nixon-Reagan Republicans.

The crisis of the Bush dynasty is that, like the Bourbons of France, they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. They do not understand that we have entered a new world where the old ways no longer work. They yet recite the old litanies that lost their relevance in the Reagan decade.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and India abandoned state socialism, and China threw open its doors, a billion workers were thrown onto a global job market to compete against Americans who earn 10 and 20 times their wages.

The trade deals the U.S. government then negotiated, at the behest of U.S. corporations, were not really trade deals at all, but enabling acts. U.S. corporations were told: You can now shut your U.S. factories, shed your U.S. workers, build your new plants in Mexico, China and India, and bring your finished goods back to the United States, free of charge. Go for it!

As Paul Craig Roberts writes, what is happening is not "free trade" in the Adam Smith sense where Portugal makes wine and Britain makes textiles and ships. What is happening is the mass transfer of the "factors of production" from First World countries to Third World countries.

What is happening in the world is what happened in America after World War II, when factories moved to the Sun Belt in search of non-union labor that would work as hard for half of what the high-paid workers in the industrial heartland demanded and got.

Asia is the new Sun Belt, and America is fated to be the "Rust Belt" of the world, as China becomes the factory floor of the global economy and India, through outsourcing, its back office.

Republican free-trade dogma inhibits action to protect U.S. jobs. The GOP is hogtied and hamstrung by its ideology in dealing with the crisis. Its only response is to mutter with Dr. Pangloss that it is all for the best.

The GOP is fortunate its opponent in 2004 is John F. Kerry, who is as clueless as they are on the new world economy that has been designed, and is operating, to loot America of her patrimony.

[Theodore R.]

Pat is so right: if NC goes to Kerry, all the rest is immaterial.

[Theodore R.]

I forgot to plug in Pat Buchanan's name as the author of this article.

[NotchJohnson]

I was watching Dennis Miller last night abd there was aformer Clinron aide talking down the economy (as Clinton did in 92) My question is what in the world would democrats do? This question goes to the economy as well as war.

[Alberta's Child]

The GOP is fortunate its opponent in 2004 is John F. Kerry, who is as clueless as they are on the new world economy that has been designed, and is operating, to loot America of her patrimony.

The difference is that a Kerry victory in November will actually have one positive effect. All talk of "outsourcing" and "jobs crises," etc. will vanish the minute he is inaugurated, and he'll be held up as a champion of the American working class even if the unemployment rate rises to 98% after his first year in office.

The author of this article misses some major points. In addition to the acronyms he mentions (NAFTA, GATT, etc.), he should also include FICA, OSHA, EPA, SFTL (Stupid F'ing Trial Laywers), etc.

I would also point out that "the American dream" is not really something we should aspire to -- since it is probably the one insurmountable obstacle in this issue.

[coffeebreak]

There is no job crisis. The unemployment rate is 5.6% which is excellent. Just because the democrats SAY there is a jobs crisis doesn't mean there is.

[The Duke]

There is no job crisis. The unemployment rate is 5.6% which is excellent.

At least that's what the professional liar class is tellin' us. My nose tells me different, though, and my nose don't lie.

[Keen-Minded]

Get your head out of the sand!

There are 8.2 million workers looking for work. They have been out of work an average of 20.3 months. Most of these workers are no longer included in the unemployment statistics.

This is a major issue for GWB. His Father lost because he didn't see it as a big issue either. I hope GWB wins, but I concerned he may not realize the magnitude of this problem. I have several friends who have been out of work and do not think highly of this administration.

[The Clemson Tiger]

I'm not an economist and I don't pretend to understand it. But unless this outsourcing issue is handled better than it's being handled now, we'd better get ready to see a lot of new Democrats in office come 2006 and 2008.

People whose jobs are threatened/lost don't vote for the status quo.

[Keen-Minded]

AMEN!!!

[#3Fan]

BoLS show 3 million jobs created. The unemployment rate is lower than normal now too.

[Peter J. Huss]

Wow. Good piece.

What is the end game? The US dollar will continue to slide and inflation will eat away at Joe and Jane's' ability to purchase basic goods and pay on their debt, which is at record levels.

After a lot of pain (including a rise in chronic unemployment, bankruptcies, crime, divers, and numerous other social ills), domestic industry starts to fill the demand that the high priced foreign goods cannot (only because the masses here can not generally afford them). Jobs are created again and the economy starts to recover.

[CasearianDaoist]

So true. I think they have already lost it. They need really go figures and lots more professional jobs added. I cannot understand why the GOP is getting blindsided by this.

[lainde]

bttt

[TXBSAFH]

Jobs are being created, in India and China.

[GingisK]

There is no job crisis.

It is clear that you are not an engineer.

[Walkin Man]

How about Ohio, do you think the President will win there?

Or Missouri?

People are sick and tired of hearing how great the economy is and yet still not being able to find a decent middle class job.

And then to have the President or his men call them economic isolationists and say its a good thing for America to outsource our jobs is like a slap in the face.

May people are going into the voting booth in this fall to pay back the party that has said and done these things.

[GingisK]

BoLS show 3 million jobs created..

Almost no engineering jobs. Engineers becoming dishwashers is not how to maintain a strong economy or technological advantage.

[LS]

The problem with this analysis is the imports did NOT repeat----NOT----"create" anywhere near 150,000 new jobs because, as we are constantly reminded, the jobs overseas pay a fraction of what people will work for here. So in fact the imports may have created a million jobs. So what? A million jobs at $1 an hour? Is this really what Patsy wants?

These jobs WILL NOT GET DONE at higher prices, because they are not competitive at higher labor prices. They are not worth the investment.

So the accurate way to look at this---regardless of the political spin---is that we are in a restructuring economy in which many of the jobs no longer are valued as they used to be. We can either export them at cheap wages, or watch their parent companies disappear entirely. There is no other alternative. NO ONE is going to pay $80,000 a year for many of these jobs, period.

[TXBSAFH]

Or in IT, or in manufactoring.......

[LS]

Your nose is broken. Get it fixed.

5.6% is remarkable, and, more important, it does NOT include the MILLIONS of self-employed people who don't fit on these "jobs" reports. I see them every day---healthy, happy SELF-EMPLOYED people who are on their own timetable and don't have to answer to a boss or a "PC" corporation. It is, in fact, the wave of the future. It's called "entrepreneurship."

[lewislynn]

My question is what in the world would democrats do?

What they wouldn't do is come out like corporate lap dog idiots and tell you that losing your jobs to foreigners is good for you and America.

[Consort]

Democrat business owners are laying off/not hiring workers, Liberal stockbrokers are scaring away investers.....it's a Left-wing conspiracy.

[#3Fan]

Almost no engineering jobs. Engineers becoming dishwashers is not how to maintain a strong economy or technological advantage.

Can you prove that all the jobs lost were engineering jobs? (And don't call those bubble computer jobs "engineering" jobs)

[lewislynn]

"the American dream" is not really something we should aspire to -- since it is probably the one insurmountable obstacle in this issue.

Obstacle in what issue?...Employment?

[The Duke]

You don't have to tell me ANYTHING about self-employment or entepreneurship. I own my own corporation. In fact, our specialty is sending jobs offshore. I certainly don't like it, but it's the only job that GWB has left me to do.

[Toespi]

Like clockwork, a Republican takes the White House and jobs take a hit, especially blue collar workers who almost always vote democrat. Great way for the dems to hold onto their base and unions love it.

[GingisK]

NO ONE is going to pay $80,000 a year for many of these jobs, period.

This is why the practice needs to be illegal: Once there are no longer any engineering jobs in the US, the technological leaders will be those to whom the jobs are outsourced. Once that becomes the "status quo", the United States will get all of its technological products from overseas, including the weapon systems used by the Armed Forces. Those to whom we outsource will not be providing the US with "top of the line" hardware, as that will be reserved for their own use.

Catch the drift? The end of the United States as the world's technological leader is rapidly approaching. So is its status as the ultimate world power. So is you standard of living. This may take a few years, but there is no other ending possible. By the way, this is the plan your leaders have for you.

[rwfromkansas]

Actually, there has been a net gain of jobs during the Bush administration domestically.

[Truth29]

Even if your analysis is accurate, Bush must do something to defuse this issue or he will lose millions of votes. The dems are succeeding in blaming the GOP for the peoples' job ills.

[KantianBurke]

"Democrat business owners are laying off/not hiring workers, Liberal stockbrokers are scaring away investers.....it's a Left-wing conspiracy."

That's probably the silliest thing I've read on FR in quite some time. Hiltlery and whoever wrote up her "its all a part of a VRWC" would be proud.

[rwfromkansas]

There are always workers looking for jobs.

Big deal.

Employment is wonderful, lower than Clinton's.

It will be an issue, but not a winning issue for Kerry unless some more major losses occur.

[TheGeezer]

How do people whose unemployment relief expires eat?

My brother was laid off a year ago. He has gone into business for himself and is doing well. He has to drive long distances, but he now has TWO Birkenstock shoe stores and is doing very well. Ironically, I can't afford Birkenstock shoes (they start at around $100/pair for the crummy ones), but my brother is selling them hand-over-fist to yuppies and X-gens. If the economy is so bad, where are these buyers of premium shoes coming from?

I watched the local access channel here, and the local school system was touting its vocational-ed program. One of the students was talking about auto mechanics, and how a mechanic is no longer a mechanic, but a technician who must be computer-savvy as well as mechanically inclined. In other words, more education is needed to earn a living today.

There are opportunities out there...but the contract limited, job-definition union days likely are gone forever. The jobs reports lack stats from those who are making their way on their own just fine. DemocRats will exploit the appearance that things are perishing, that's their strategy. But when the truth outs, and I think it will, that DemocRat liberals couldn't care less about prosperity unless it benefits the millionaire limousine liberals like Kerry, Kennedy, Heinz, Castro, et. al., pause for thought will allow the race to tilt to the side favoring less government, generally, and national defense. And that side is with the President.

[rwfromkansas]

"Employment is wonderful, lower than Clinton's."

I means UNemployment

[rwfromkansas]

Right. Things will work out.

I just hope before the election, but that is not likely.

[rwfromkansas]

But, right now, things are pretty good and we are in recovery so despite some minor problems with the jobs situation, we should be fine unless they get worse.

[stig]

There is no job crisis. The unemployment rate is 5.6% which is excellent. Just because the democrats SAY there is a jobs crisis doesn't mean there is.

I lean the other way. But if you are right and this is what the president is trying to say he's not doing a very good job of it.

Also if family income is down meaning people are working but not making anywhere near what they once were that doesn't help President Bush.

[TXBSAFH]

So.
This issue is the one the rats and the lib media will hammer GWB with for the rest of the year. It is the one that can win for them. What is perceived will often beat reality. Action needs to be taken and the voters need to see action taken by this administration

[Salgak]

Funny, the exact same thing happened in the early 1970s, after Vietnam spun down and the Dhimmicrats killed the Apollo program.

An Engineering Degree is no more a guarantee of life-long employment than any other credential.

Reality: deal with it

[familyofman]

"There is no job crisis. The unemployment rate is 5.6% which is excellent. Just because the democrats SAY there is a jobs crisis doesn't mean there is."

Covering your eyes and ears and saying it - won't make the issue go away. What is needed is a response that makes sense to the voting public.

Enough of the "outsourcing is good for you in the long run" pablum. The voters are not going to buy it. Today's announcement of a record $43.1billion trade deficit for January is just more fuel for the fire.

Wake up and face the facts - there is a jobless recovery and "job crisis" - NOW.

[Consort]

That's probably the silliest thing I've read on FR in quite some time.

Only if you're gullible or have no sense of humor. Chill out.

[rwfromkansas]

Certainly.

Outsourcing is a tiny portion of jobs in reality. America is not an industrial economy anymore, but an information economy. That is why I am not being stupid and going into manufacturing. Times change. That isn't bad (unless our military production goes elsewhere....) America will adapt and survive as it always does.

Some of these doom and gloomers need to read Reagan's hope for a brighter future.

AND THAT is what Bush needs to hammer in the general election campaign starting in a month or so. He also needs to point out and hammer it when jobs are created. He needs to point out that the Dems have no actual plans to do anything to fix the problem.

[lelio]

BoLS show 3 million jobs created.

How many of those are:

• Government jobs? (100% of the 21k growth last month was)
• Low paying retail jobs
• Temporary

[rwfromkansas]

Wake up and realize that this is not 1900; this is 2004.

[GailA]

The weather has been bad in much of the US the past couple of months, that depresses the job market I think. Weather is breaking, building will start up.

Our small town pop of 10,000 is in the process of getting a new Lowes, a new Wal-Greens, and another small business. It added a Perkins, a Lenny's sub shop, and a paint/flooring center last year. Just across the border in Miss they are adding 450 new jobs for a new FedX facility. Wal-mart is always very busy.

[TXBSAFH]

That may not be enough. Joe Lunchbucket does not have the attention span for that. The argument will be outsourcing bas, GWB does nothing about it, GWB bad.

[GingisK]

Can you prove that all the jobs lost were engineering jobs?

I'm an engineer. I am very lucky to have a job for the moment. If you merely go to the job search sites for engineering jobs, you would find that there are very few listings nationwide. Many of my friends have been without work for nearly two years. None of these jobs are "bubble computer", but rather hardcore embedded software engineering and circuit design. I have been in this field for over thirty years following five years in college. (Physics, math, electrical engineering, computer science. Computer science, not IT. I'm talking algorithms, operating systems internals, compiler design theory, queing theory, and so on.) The jobs are indeed evaporating.

The work done by myself and my friends is engineering in the full sense of the word. We use math, physics, chemistry, and other hardcore disciplines to accomplish our work. (I've never written a web page in my life.) I design hardware devices that contain microprocessors and write software for them as well. We are the guys that design and program cell phones, cable TV settop boxes, telephone switches, automobile systems controllers, PC Computers and related hardware, laboratory equipment, medical equipment, aircraft avionics, guided missle guts, air-traffic control systems, and so on.

If the bulk of America is making the same mistake you are in thinking that only "frivolous" computer jobs are affected, then I'm sure voters will simply not do the right thing. America's technological advantage will be squandered, surely enough. There just won't be any incintive to suffer though engineering school.

[Keen-Minded]

I suggest that everyone watch Lou Dobbs every night. He has a very informative show about outsourcing and fair trade issues regarding our economy (It's the only show I watch on CNN).

He has a great concern for where our economy is headed; the impact on workers and how cheap labor is the driving force.

[Keen-Minded]

You're right on!

[GingisK]

An Engineering Degree is no more a guarantee of life-long employment than any other credential. Reality: deal with it

I was there at the end of the Apollo Program. The number of engineering jobs rose from that point in time. Only recently have engineering jobs become difficult to find.

You in in a Nation that is failing. Do something about it, or deal with it.