Exporting Jobs

Capitalism Magazine ^ | August 19, 2003 | Walter Williams

[luckydevi]

Exporting Jobs by Walter Williams (August 19, 2003)

Summary: It'd make far more sense for Americans to start attacking the real sources that have contributed to making foreign operations more attractive to those at home. It's more effective than caving to the rhetoric of leftist and rightist interventionists who mislead us with slogans like, "How can any American worker compete with workers paid one and two dollars an hour?" when in reality our real competition is mostly with European workers earning a lot more.

[www.CapitalismMagazine.com]

Among George Orwell's insightful observations, there's one very worthy of attention: "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." Let's look at a few examples of corrupted language, thought and information.

Pretend you're a customs inspection agent. There's a cargo container awaiting a ship bound for foreign shores. You ask the shipper, who works for a big corporation, what's in the container. He answers, "It's a couple of thousand jobs that we're exporting overseas to a low-wage country."

What questions might you ask? How about, "What kind of jobs are in the container?" or, "Are they America's high-paying jobs?" Most people would probably say: "You're an idiot! You can't bundle up jobs and ship them overseas!"

A job is not a good or service; it can't be imported or exported. A job is an action, an act of doing a task. The next time a right- or left-wing politician or union leader talks about exporting jobs overseas, maybe we should ask him whether he thinks Congress should enact a law mandating U.S. Customs Service seizure of shipping containers filled with American jobs.

Let's turn to the next part of the exporting jobs nonsense, namely that corporations are driven solely by the prospect of low wages. Let's begin with a question: Is the bulk of U.S. corporation overseas investment, and hence employment of foreigners, in high-wage countries, or is it in low-wage countries?

The statistics for 1996 are: Out of total direct U.S. overseas investment of $796 billion, nearly $400 billion was made in Europe (England received 18 percent of it), next was Canada ($91 billion), then Asia ($140 billion), Middle East ($9 billion) and Africa ($7.6 billion). Foreign employment by U.S. corporations exhibited a similar pattern, with most workers hired in high-wage countries such as England, Germany and the Netherlands. Far fewer workers were hired in low-wage countries such as Thailand, Colombia and Philippines, the exception being Mexico.

The facts give a different story from the one we hear from the left-wing and right-wing anti-free trade movement. These demagogues would have us believe that U.S. corporations are rushing to exploit the cheap labor in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Surely with average wages in these countries as low as $10 per month, it would be a darn sight cheaper than locating in England, Germany and Canada, where average wages respectively are: $12, $17 and $16 an hour.

Let's look at a few of the reasons why some U.S. corporations choose to carry their operations overseas. Much of it can be summed up in a phrase: less predatory government and the absence of tort-lawyer extortion. While foreign governments can't be held guiltless of predation, their forms of predation might be cheaper to deal with than those of our EEOC, OSHA, EPA and IRS. Plus, tort lawyer extortion and harassment in foreign countries is a tiny fraction of ours. With each tort lawyer extortion and expansion of predatory regulations at federal, state or local levels of government, foreign operations become more attractive to U.S. corporations. Free trade helps make those costs explicit. American workers are just about the most productive in the world -- however, our government and legal establishment have reduced that productive advantage.

It'd make far more sense for Americans to start attacking the real sources that have contributed to making foreign operations more attractive to those at home. It's more effective than caving to the rhetoric of leftist and rightist interventionists who mislead us with slogans like, "How can any American worker compete with workers paid one and two dollars an hour?" when in reality our real competition is mostly with European workers earning a lot more.

[Texas_Dawg]

As globalist Henry Kissinger once said concerning America's role in overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Chile, The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves?

And you can rest assured that the overwhelming majority of Chileans are happy he felt that way today.

[Tokhtamish]

Was that the same Kissinger who said a month ago that if deindustrialization continued America would not be a great power 20 years from now ?

[JNB]

The dogmatic free traders just do not seem top see beyond dollars and cents, to them, that is what the US is about. They seem to not realise that the logical end result of more unemployment and a increase in crime is less freedoms than ever before, fully moving the US to a Social Welfare state. In the white community, the signs of dispress have been there for quite some time, being a eminem style wannabe or a "goth", having little hope and no moral self restraint. But sadly the neo-conservatives just do not see beyond the WSJ editorial pages.

[Texas_Dawg]

In the white community, the signs of dispress have been there for quite some time, being a eminem style wannabe or a "goth", having little hope and no moral self restraint.

Gotta love the excuse-making on FR. Beautiful. "Poverty causes crime and lack of morals." Straight out of Ralph Nader land.

[JNB]

How is he saying it is racist? Is the truth racist? Give a young adult no hope, and crime increases. While I disagree with most of his politics, there is a great line in a Neil Young song "There is a warning sign on the road ahead", it seems that a majority of Freepers see it and want these issues adressed, it is ashame neo-con refuse to see it.

[Texas_Dawg]

2. The destruction of the low/semi skilled sector of the American labor force under the impact of deindustrialization.

That's weird. Because in the 1960s my roommate's father laid down in a fishing boat one night and escaped out of Communist China into Hong Kong, later making it to America. I don't think you get much more of a low/semi skilled type than he was. Yet he later got an MBA at an Ivy League School. Then again, he became a Christian after making it to America, about the same time the black and white leftist leaders that took over the black communities talked them out of that crazy notion for the most part. Poverty is about the lamest excuse for crime and amorality I've ever heard of.

[JNB]

I am not excusing this behavior, just saying that is what results when a young person has no hope. Hate to break this to you, but not every person is up to going to a university or wants to go to a university. I fear for the stability of the US even if we approach unemployment rates of the 82 recession, because debt is that much worse, and unlike the 30s, the US has lost most of its moral core.

His Holiness Pope Leo XIII warned about how a society would fall apart in Rerum Novarum, and he was right 100 years ago as he is today.

[Texas_Dawg]

I am not excusing this behavior, just saying that is what results when a young person has no hope.

Wow... if you think hope comes from a job, you might want to check re-check your manual. As far as I know, no one in America has ever been denied hope. Some of had it tough, sure, but "no hope"... never heard of it here.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Try:

I know you very deeply resent the thought that this could be the lot of white people .

and

I know you would like to believe, "Well, that just's because those people have no moral character. That could never happen to white people."

Please don't tell me that you can't see that these are blatant accusations of racism directed at me and others.

[riri]

Globalization will ultimately mean the responsibility of important decisions that used to be determined via democratic processes and institutions will not exist. Democracy cannot exist beyond the nation-state:

I believe it will lead to the weakening of the nation-state and we will look to undemocratically elected organizations such as the WTO, etc.

It's a brave new world and you seem to be comfortable with the idea of a weakened United States. You seem to like the idea of our wealth being redistributed all over the world. And most of all you seem to really like the idea of Americans brought down a few pegs. That is just competely incomprehensible to me.

[riri]

Globalization will ultimately mean the responsibility of important decisions that used to be determined via democratic processes and institutions will not exist. Democracy cannot exist beyond the nation-state:

Should read

Globalization will ultimately mean the responsibility of important decisions that used to be determined via democratic processes and institutions will no longer rest with in this country. Democracy cannot exist beyond the nation-state:

[Texas_Dawg]

I believe it will lead to the weakening of the nation-state and we will look to undemocratically elected organizations such as the WTO, etc.

That's fine, we'll see. Your crowd has been predicting this for awhile though. And just so you know, the WTO has no authority over anything we do whatsoever.

It's a brave new world and you seem to be comfortable with the idea of a weakened United States.

Not at all. That's why I'm happy we've never been more powerful economically and militarily. Ever. And I want to keep it that way. That's why I support the U.S. being free-market capitalist, no matter what anyone else wants to do.

[JNB]

The US is not the nation it was in the 30s when the people pulled together, it was a time of high church membership, and most people then had a moral core. The crime in the 30s actually went down . And hate to break it to you dawg, but the truth is unpleasant, when a young person loses hope, sees no future but low wage jobs, they become people with nothing to lose.

The Calvanistic approach to society is unworkable, and leads to revelutions and upheavals. The hereies of John Calvin helped in the long run give rise to Social Darwinism that in turn gave rise to communism.

[Texas_Dawg]

The US is not the nation it was in the 30s when the people pulled together, it was a time of high church membership, and most people then had a moral core. The crime in the 30s actually went down . And hate to break it to you dawg, but the truth is unpleasant, when a young person loses hope, sees no future but low wage jobs, they become people with nothing to lose.

Ha. So on one hand the most moral and church-going time in our country was when people were poor, yet when people are poor they have "nothing to lose" and crime goes up? Which is it?

The Calvanistic approach to society is unworkable, and leads to revelutions and upheavals.

Ummm... you do realize that the original Americans were overwhelmingly more Calvinist than they were Catholic, right?

[JNB]

The truth hurts at times. Looking at his posts, he was in no way, shape or form being racist. The moral meltdown of white America is well underway, and with that, there will be more crime and anti-social behavior, and yes, many white people(and I am white myself BTW) thought that could never happen.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Looking at his posts, he was in no way, shape or form being racist.T he moral meltdown of white America is well underway

You've got it all backwards. He is accusing me of being a racist. Let's be perfectly clear. In no way, shape, or form have I ever posted anything that could remotely be construed as implying that the problems of the inner city are a product of someone's skin color, or would be confined to a particular skin color.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

The US is not the nation it was in the 30s when the people pulled together, it was a time of high church membership, and most people then had a moral core

I'm confused. Isn't this what you have been saying?

[Texas_Dawg]

Exactly.

[JNB]

Dawg, you seem to have no sense of history and take things out of context. Note I said the US is not the nation it was, the US had the moral core in the 30s to handle economic problems, today, the US no longer has that core. Also people forget the US was a agricultural society before WWI, and was still more than 1/3 agricultural during the 30s, so even poor people still had somthing they could call their own. Contrast that today with so many youth that come from broken familes, that live in appartments, who see no future aside from working $8 hr jobs, and no money to fund the 4 year degree that the neo-cons say everyone must have to be "competitive".

As for Calvaisim, most founding fathers were Church of England(Anglican/Epsicopalin) not Calvainist, though the shaping of the constution was more or less formed from their Masionic beliefs. The US obviously did not believe in the social darwinism in the early years because it had tariffs and regulated trade to keep tax revenues coming in and the economy stable. Obviously the US was aware enough of the danger that unrestricted capitalism posed and created the anti-trust act about 100 years ago.

Again, many people forsaw the problems that would lay ahead in a industrial(and even post industrial society) such as Pope Leo XIII, but again, people refuse dto heed the warnings. Its time to give Chesteron-Belloc theories on economics a new look.

[A. Pole]

No jobs, young adults turn to crime, drugs, break ins, gangs and prostitution.

Drugs, prostitution etc? These are the ultimate free market/free trade things. For free traders everything is for sale, their country, people, everything.