New Awakening About Free Trade

Eagle Forum.org ^ | 4/18/07 | Phyliss Schafley

[BnBlFlag]

Mrs. Schafley gets it on "Free" Trade!

[cripplecreek]

My uncle has a problem finding people trained for the specific internet tech jobs his company does but he’s found that a lot of Americans are willing to accept a lower starting wage in return for some on the job training.

[expatpat]

I think a big factor here is the large number of foreigners in US universities. When they finish up, many want to stay and work here and many companies want to hire them.

[misterrob]

No she doesn’t. She wants global companies to have to employ Americans instead of maximizing returns to their share holders. Cisco, Intel, Boeing et al, are no longer “american” companies but rather they are global organizations. India and China are rising economies and these companies want a piece of the action.

Now, there are tax policies in place in this country that make it more expensive to use US labor. The payroll taxes assessed on employers raise costs up to 10%. The taxes on profits make it attractive for companies to send jobs elsewhere. There are also tax subsidies used by other countries to help out companies within their borders that provide advantages over US based organizations.

[misterrob]

The foreigners pay full price on tuition. Universities will always look at them first.

[Rodney King]

The foreigners pay full price on tuition. Universities will always look at them first.

When I was in grad school, they all had nearly free rides, while the Americans were paying full tuition.

[BnBlFlag]

While I am an investor and no longer “work” for a living and have enjoyed much income off of Chinese and other Asian interests, I am still an American. We cannot remain a free and prosperous country when bereft of good paying industrial and professional type jobs that support our middle class.
People need to realize that it is our large property owning and tax paying middle class that has kept us free. As this segment decreases and our largely imported under class increases, the trend toward Socialism gains momentum.
Our Country is disintegrating before our eyes both economically and socially. If this Dodson’t change shortly, we’re finished as a great power (Or maybe any kind of power).

[BnBlFlag]

dodson’t = doesn’t

[misterrob]

I see the dangers here but what are the solutions? Keep on taxing businesses? Telling them that they have to hire Americans for the national interest even though they operate on a global basis?

The cost of US labor makes it hard to export goods.

[dragnet2]

I.B.M. reduced its American work force by 31,000 while increasing its Indian staff to 52,000. Citigroup, which already has 22,000 employees in India, plans to eliminate 26,000 jobs in the U.S. and increase its Asian work force by another 10,000 where the pay is lower.

Follow the money, of course, explains this massive shift in jobs. It's cheaper to hire and produce in India than in the United States.

The unhappy results of these policies are now apparent; they richly benefit the corporations but are devastating to the American middle class.

Slowly shaking head.

[BnBlFlag]

.....what are the solutions’?
One is straighten out this tax mess you referred to. Another would be to stop all subsidies that actually encourage companies to relocate plant and equipment overseas. Lessening burdonesome regulations would be another. Those would be a very good start.

[annelizly]

I think the answer is to impose import tarriffs that are so high that it makes it no longer profitable for american companies to outsource ANYTHING!:)

[Pelham]

Who needs a job? We’ll all just tap our home equity and drink beer and watch TV all day. Free trade rules (belch).

[Pelham]

There you go, using evidence instead of towing the party line.

[Dolphy]

Republicans can't win the White House in 2008 without Pennsylvania, Ohio or Wisconsin, all of which have lost thousands of jobs to outsourcing.

Michigan has lost thousands and thousands of jobs...many to Southern states where it's less costly to do business.

The unhappy results of these policies are now apparent; they richly benefit the corporations but are devastating to the American middle class.

Too bad the point can't be made without resorting to Marxist rhetoric.

[RockinRight]

Therefore also making it virtually impossible to EXPORT anything, either.

[RockinRight]

You can’t, and shouldn’t “force” companies to only hire Americans. However, as you point out, it’s actually DISADVANTAGEOUS for many companies to do so under current tax and regulatory law.

[Old_Mil]

Milton Friedman accurately labeled H-1Bs a government "subsidy" to enable employers to get workers at a lower wage.

Wonder when the first free trader is going to stop by to call Friedman a "protectionist." Multinational corporations have found that it's cheaper to have a workforce that doesn't bring with it the expectation of receiving a wage that will let it live a middle class lifestyle. That's what's driving outsourcing, H1Bs, and the whole lot of it.

[Kevmo]

Good place to bump this thread. I saw some of that operating when I was in school.

[Howard Jarvis Admirer]

Stop talking like an oldtime Republican (like Abe Lincoln, William McKinley, or Teddy Roosevelt) about tariffs to protect the American working man - diversity and free trade are more important than American jobs and industry, don’t you know.