Bush: Outsourcing painful, but remedy is worse

CNN.com ^ | Friday, March 3, 2006 Posted: 1640 GMT (0040 HKT)

[Gengis Khan]

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Praising India's expanding economy, President Bush warned Friday that fears about job outsourcing to other nations should not prompt the United States to limit global trade. "It's ... important to remember that when someone loses a job it's an incredibly difficult period for the worker and their families," Bush said in a speech in New Delhi. "It's true that some Americans have lost jobs when their companies move their operations overseas," he said. "Some people believe the answer to this problem is to wall off our economy from the world through protectionist policies. I strongly disagree."

[gogoman]

Any measure of economic freedom must also factor in property rights. I don't think China would score very high in that area.

Exactly. The Chinese have a "leasing" system, since people can't own property (China is Communist for those who have forgotten), you can only lease it. You have rights to certain property for given amount of years, like 100 years or something. Similar to Intellectual Property rights like patents. But we all know how well IP is being handled in China right now. But I think there has been greater protection over the past 5 years. Less piracy on the streets too.

[nopardons]

What part of posting factual history makes me a member of the "American Last" crowd?

Why should I move to Mexico? I have a maid and a platoon of gardeners here.

[nopardons]

Oh, and BTW, my gardeners are all Americans, white, and don't speak Spanish.

[ScreamingFist]

LOL!

[jveritas]

It is a 0.2% difference! Does Japan use the same stringent methodology to measure the unemployment rate as we do? I know that the European countries use a less stringent method to measure or else their real unemployment rate will be even larger than what is now.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

We cannot wall off our economy any longer. It's a new world. Compete or fall by the wayside. It's harsh but it's the reality.

BS. How can we compete with our hands tied behind our backs by high taxes and regulations. Don't get me wrong I'm in favor of open and fair trade (not free trade agreements which usurps our Constitution) but with corporations paying out the behinds for BS corporate taxes that they only shrug and pass onto the consumer. Our policies are so screwed up.

[gogoman]

It is a 0.2% difference!

Japan is far more protective of its domestic industries than the US. It also has a low unemployment rate. Again, low unemployment is related to domestic economic policies not to international trade.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

There is a handful of very recent active posters trying to turn FR into a liberal supporting website.

You and MNJohnnie, for starters....

[jveritas]

In the last two years the US has created more jobs than Japan, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy combined.

[nopardons]

I don't "ramble", neither was my post a "rant"; just signed up today, n00b.

The whole FORTRESS AMERICA stuff is a sham. The protectionist want all kinds of job guarantees and benefits. Just look at the posts on this thread, made by you and the others on your side.

[ScreamingFist]

It's getting so obvious that even I can't ignore it.....

[nopardons]

You didn't reply to a single point in my rely. All you did was post your own propaganda, to further your own unsupportable agenda.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The US government doesn't owe you a job.

No, they don't, but you know what? They need to get the F out of the way so that the risk-takers, the entrepeneurs, and the investors can be unleashed and create the jobs in this country.

When you have corporate tax rates approaching 40%, double-taxation of capital-gains, SS/Medicaid/Medicare, payroll taxes, and whacked-out environmental and labor laws, then you better believe we're going to "whine" and complain about it, because it's BS and it only hurts us in the long run. Factories are closing down because of this. We can compete with anyone, I know that. But how can we when these socialist programs and laws are in place that impedes us?

[rcocean]

Cool. Glad you have all that hired help.

You seem to quite proud of your wealth.

Too bad your "I'm all right jack, screw you" philosophy is a recipe for disaster - both this for this country and the Republican party.

[nopardons]

You're easily amused. ;^)

[ScreamingFist]

In other news, we now have FReepers ,with maids and gardeners, that just happen to hang out on FR (night and day) that can expunge on the terrible consequences of NON-globalism, as they profess that all their hired help is.....white. You can't make this up, LOL!

[nopardons]

I'm not "proud" of it; just replied to your silly statements, in your post to me.

I wish that EVERYONE would do well. Sadly, you don't.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Got that right!

[hedgetrimmer]

While unions continue to strangle the economy and various mfrs' ability to compete,

Unions use the same mechanisms to influence American politics as various mfrs do. When corporations stop being granted rights as citizens, unions will also. Mfrs' are not willing to give up that influence over politicians, so they have to allow unions to exist as a political entity just as corporations are, with the same kind of influence over politicans as corporations have. In a Constitutional government, corporations or ngos or unions don't have power as citizens do. Return to constitutional government and every citizen wins.

[snowsislander]

It is a 0.2% difference! Does Japan use the same stringent methodology to measure the unemployment rate as we do? I know that the European countries use a less stringent method to measure or else their real unemployment rate will be even larger than what is now.

Here's a graph for the Japanese unemployment rate from 2003 to present:

The BLS system unfortunately doesn't seem to have a good way to make sure that if I use one of their graphs that you will actually see the same graph, so here is the same data for the U.S. in both graphic and tabular form just to be sure:

Series Id:           LNS14000000 Seasonal Adjusted Series title:        (Seas) Unemployment Rate Labor force status:  Unemployment rate Type of data:        Percent Age:                 16 years and over
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2003	5.8	5.9	5.9	6.0	6.1	6.3	6.2	6.1	6.1	6.0	5.9	5.7
2004	5.7	5.6	5.7	5.5	5.6	5.6	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.4
2005	5.2	5.4	5.1	5.1	5.1	5.0	5.0	4.9	5.1	4.9	5.0	4.9
2006	4.7

As you can see from the data, over the last two years generally Japan's unemployment rate has been more than 0.2% below ours. For instance, in 2005, Japan's unemployment rate never exceed 4.6%, whereas ours was generally about 5.0%, with lows of 4.9% in August, October, and December.)

As to stringency, well, actually, I don't think either the U.S. or Japan uses a particularly stringent method (in fact, I think Germany's new methodology for calculating unemployment rates could be considered more stringent than either Japan's or the United States' and it is currently 12.2%), but I believe that the U.S. and Japanese methodologies are now not all that far different with the latest revisions to the Japanese system. While I always have exactly the same question as you raised about how comparable rates actually are, I have less concern now about comparing the U.S. and Japanese rates.

Unfortunately, I don't have time presently to dig out the description of the exact methodologies for you, but both are available on government websites (for the U.S., it would be found on the BLS, and for Japan it is probably on the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare website.)