Replies

Um, your big "buy American" push in the 1980s was a joke. What HELPED (along with lower taxes) to revitalize the economy was that U.S. industry (especially cars, steel, and IT) got so competitive because of the jobs it laid off that it could afford to grow again. Ever hear of Nucor Steel? Probably not. While all the attention was on U.S. Steel's "downsizing," Nucor was creating the world's most efficient plants and the first truly integrated steel rolling mill using scrap iron as a raw material. Nucor's management to plant ratio was LESS THAN ONE. That's good. It means that you don't have layers of white collar bureaucrats between the front office and the assembly line, making products more effective. Nucor's steel output and overseas sales rose, just as did hundreds of IT/telecom firms that were relatively unregulated and which were not "smokestack industries." While the rust belt people complained about losing their jobs, a whole new wave of Americans were getting jobs that didn't even exist ten years before.

The same thing is happening now, for those not obsessed with India.

The same thing is happening now, for those not obsessed with India Then why according to the Department of labor statistics did the number of jobs in the USA fall every month fo rthe last six months. Please for a change cite some facts traitor.

I work with many Indian student employees at a university computer lab. They are smart, quick learners, and have a good work ethic. This is a complete 180 from most of my American kids who think that society owes them everything. Also, another factor in this are the massive costs in benefits for American workers.

Just in our university alone there are hundreds of employees making a killing in salary, benefits, retirement packages, etc..., which far outstrip their productivity. Then, when jobs are outsourced overseas for 25% of the cost, everyone complains. Corporations exist to make a profit! I'm not a traitor, sympathetic to outsourcing, etc..., but this is a reality.

NuCor is a success--but here's a question: are they organized by the USW?

USSteel, Bethlehem, Wheeling-Pittsburgh, et.al, were union shops--not bad in and of itself--but the union contracts for benefits, work rules, and retirement were extremely expensive.

IN COMBINATION with the enviro-regs which required the old-line companies to spend zillions on remediation and upgrades, the old-liners were dead men walking.

The difference here is, NUCOR is putting the whole plant, lock stock and barrel in China. "Management" who made all those gains in productivity, all of the sudden became 'middle management' and the whole operation went offshore.

Everyone, barring the CEO and his immdediate office is headed offshore.

This isn't even a discussion about productivity. If it were, China wouldn't even be on the stage. They are extremely unproductive.

Yet, they get investments where it takes 10 to do the work of one.

Outsourcing is a way around productivity gains, which is the real work of managment. Its not increasing productivity at all.