Ten Myths about Jobs and Outsourcing

Heritage Foundation ^ | April 1, 2004 | Tim Kane, et. al.

[xlib]

Are you claiming that the trade deficit is responsible for the budget deficit?

[Willie Green]

Are you claiming that the trade deficit is responsible for the budget deficit?

Nope.
But it's not surprising that you'd try some kind of lame misinterpretation along those lines.
Would you care to try another spin?

[xlib]

Seemed like a reasonable question to me. Your previous response suggested that dollars in the hands of foreigners is a bad thing because they spend it on US treasuries. If the Fed is going to incur the debt anyway, it doesn't matter who buys it. So the only remaining reason I could see for your claim that 'trade deficits = debt' would be a causal link between trade and federal deficits.

[Willie Green]

If the Fed is going to incur the debt anyway

"Think what you do when you run into debt;
you give another power over your liberty."

-- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

"I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country."

-- President Andrew Jackson - (1824)

"I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude."

--Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816

[xlib]

Interesting quotes, but beside the point. You said the trade deficit is a debt we have to pay, and you justified it with the example of foreigners buying US treasuries. If, as you acknowledge, trade deficits don't cause budget deficits, then the debt I pay in my taxes is caused by the fed spending more than it takes in; it isn't related to the trade deficit.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

Bump for INsourcing!

Let's get the full picture! Find out how much your state INSources: OFII.ORG

[Texas2step]

It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.

And you put credence in the writings of Karl Marx? I knew something was kinda lefty about your postings. I had no idea exactly how much.

Karl Marx was wrong then, and you're wrong now. But at least you're in notorious company. :-)

[Texas2step]

People remember...free trade destroyed the blue collar middle class 25 years ago

Can stop reading right there. Blue collar workers are wealthier now than they ever have been. Wages are higher. Home ownership is higher. This statement is completely false.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

Go tell your neighbors in NV who work at:

• Alcon Inc.
• Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc.
• Hoffman - La Roche
• Placer Dome Inc.
• Rinker Materials Corporation
• Sodexho Inc.
• Sumitomo Corporation of America
• Tomkins Industries
• Unilever United States, Inc.

Where was your hard drive manufactured? I just bought one at Fry's for $109 (200 Gig). I used to buy these for $200 a pop for 212 Meg. Perhaps you're like me and have a high standard of living that just wouldn't be possible in Pre-Globalization (Think 70s or earlier). Only the rich had stuff I have now.

Should Japan impose penalties on home companies like anti-free-trade people here insist be levied on US companies?

[Scenic Sounds]

How many people no longer have manufacturing jobs and are now working at Wal-Mart?

Whether outsourcing is good or bad depends on the frame of reference. It's a good thing for the employer who is trying to cut costs and it can be a good thing for the customer who buys that employer's goods.

To the extent that politics becomes involved, why should someone who benefits from outsourcing support a candidate who opposes it? And, on the other hand, why should someone who is hurt by outsourcing vote for a candidate who encourages it?

[Luis Gonzalez]

Post #3, like clockwork, FR's resident Unionist Marxist posting Marx's words as if they are Gospel.

Marx stands outside a multinational conference on free trade, and warns that free trade will lead to Communism.

Intelligent people might ask: why would a man interested in spreading communism take the time to warn non-communist countries that free trade would bring about the destruction of their forms of government, and replace them with his?

Simple: Marx was lying...it's what communists do (Willie hasn't figured that out yet).

Well then, if Free Trade would bring about communism and not freedom, why is it then that the first thing that communists do is ban all private industry, and make trade even between two citizens, illegal?

Because free trade is communism's most deadly enemy.

Communists say that private ownership of property is bad, that free elections are bad, that freedom of the press is bad, that private gun ownership is bad, and that free trade will bring the world to communism.

Marx was wrong, and communism is dead.

Well, except in Willie's heart that is.

[Willie Green]

And you put credence in the writings of Karl Marx?

A Texas2step must be a mighty slow dance.
I addressed that over six hours ago in reply #22.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Understand Willie, he's a Unionist, his Union fees are given to John Kerry as campaign donations.

Yet, he thinks that he is a conservative.

Go figure.

[ChadGore]

I'm a 37 year old Engineer, and my entire career has been In-sourced. I've worked here in the USA, as an American Citizen for a very large Japaneese company, and I'm not alone.

Will Lou Dobs @ CNN spend every night between now and the election doing:
" The In Sourcing of America " ?

I doubt his liberal paymasters would allow him to talk about this truth.

[Willie Green]

If, as you acknowledge, trade deficits don't cause budget deficits, then the debt I pay in my taxes is caused by the fed spending more than it takes in;

And a Trade Deficit is essentially the same principle: we import more than we exchange in return.
We pay with money (paper or electronic) that has no intrinsic value of its own.
Our money is actually promisory notes, IOUs, DEBT.
And we are obligated to redeem that debt that is being built up by the Trade Deficit.

[Ciexyz]

American jobs are disappearing into the Third World....

Yup. I feel sorry for the young people of today and the work culture that they face. Me, I'm retired and drawing a pension, modest tho it is. Many kids today will never see a pension. Sad.

[Ramius]

Sooo... the upshot of all this is that we need to keep all these low-skill low-wage jobs here in the U.S. but then insist on paying them more money than their skills are worth?

Lemme guess: you're a big fan of the minimum wage too? Here... we can fix all these problems by just raising the minimum wage to six figures.

[Ramius]

Dang, Willie, you're right. My standard of living would be SO much higher if I had to pay $200 each for my shirts that were made in America.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Willie thinks that a nation that exports (sells) more than what it imports (buys) is in better economical shape than the reverse.

In Willie's world then, China is more prosperous than the US.

There comes a point when you can personally buy more than what you can personally produce, then there is a personal trade deficit.

When I was younger, my financial situation required that I bought things I needed on credit, because I lacked cash flow. I lacked cash flow because my income was low, and my net worth in the dirt.

I grew older, advanced, saved, invested, and grew economically.

Now, I continue to use credit, but as a convenience, and in some instances to gain financial advantage.

I can also purchase more goods than those that I can produce.

I have elevated my financial status to a point where I live in a constant trade deficit.

Is that a bad thing?

Of course not.

It isn't a bad thing for the US either.

[Ramius]

Dang Luis... I think you got the ten-ring with that one. :-)