Obama And Romney Are Wrong: Outsourcing Is Actually America At Its Best

Forbes ^ | 07/28/2012 | Harry Binswanger

[SeekAndFind]

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are currently fighting over who is the more patriotic. Obama slams Romney for having outsourced jobs to China during his Bain Capital days. Romney punches back by labeling Obama “Outsourcer in Chief.” The latest is that both John Boehner and Harry Reid are voicing outrage over America’s made-in-China Olympic uniforms. “Burn them!” thunders Reid.

Republicans and Democrats strangely agree that outsourcing is unpatriotic, and that the moral and patriotic thing to do is to “Hire American” and “Buy American.”

Well, no. Not in a thousand years. The fear of outsourcing and international trade is economic nonsense and moral blindness. More than that: this anti-profit attitude is un-American.

Despite the ongoing Europeanization of America, America still symbolizes the land of freedom, entrepreneurship, profit-making, above all, individualism.

But collectivism is the premise of “Hire/Buy American”: we are to view ourselves and others not as individuals, but as units of a nation. Businesses are urged to pay more in labor costs, simply to hire workers who are American; consumers are urged to forgo Walmart’s low prices, pay more, simply because the pricier goods were made by “our guys.” This is not rational patriotism, it is not Americanism, it's primitive tribalism.

American individualism means making buying decisions on the basis of economic merit, giving no regard to the nationality or race of the seller. Let’s not hide behind patriotic-sounding slogans. Let’s name things straight for a change: giving preference to American sellers over foreign sellers is the same mindless injustice as giving preference to sellers who are white over those who are black.

Economic nationalism is as morally outrageous as racism. Buying on the basis of nationality or race is the same collectivist evil: judging men and their products by the group from which they come, not by merit.

[BfloGuy]

Are you excusing free trade with unfree markets, never mind enemy countries?

I am "excusing" free trade with unfree markets. I am concerned with American consumers looking for the best price. All economics must be looked at from the point of view of the individual consumer.

As for the enemy thing, let the government declare a country as the "enemy" with all that entails [Cuba is a good example] and I'm cool with it.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

But wealth has to be produced before it can be traded or stolen. Without production, there is nothing to steal. Production not theft is the motor of human history. Man did not rise from the cave to the skyscraper by stealing his neighbor’s roots and berries. The buildings, cars, and computers were not there to be stolen–they had to be thought of, invented, produced.

Inside the Chinese Boom in Corporate Espionage

"China did not invent intellectual property theft; it’s just doing it on an unprecedented scale."

I guess as long as Deng's version of Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) doesn't steal our roots and berries it okay that Red China is stealing everything else on an unprecedented scale.

(I skimmed the posted article -- I hope the author did not ignore Red China's crimes and blame it all on us.)

[Olog-hai]

So you’re not concerned with the security of the country. And you are blind to the existence of enemies. The USA did not lose all its enemies in 1945, you know. Unfree markets attack free markets like ours when they trade with us; it’s an old form of warfare.

More Americans are concerned with being able to find a job than for the “best” (which doesn’t always mean lowest in terms of bottom-dollar) price. There is a reason why the consumer economy is down.

[Olog-hai]

Guess again.

[GeronL]

the essentials

meaning the basics, the really vital stuff, not everything

[Olog-hai]

No, it’s not hilarious. Nobody’s denying the overregulation and overtaxation; the awareness that the USA has the highest corporate tax rate on the planet is quite high on FR. Pile on top of that trading with an enemy who is classified as a “non-market economy” by the WTO and there is more than merely cause to “whine” as you dismissively describe it. Imagine if we were trading with the USSR all the way through the Cold War?

[GeronL]

international trade is essentials.

would make no sense to build worthless widgets in this country

the problem is that this government has the highest corporate tax rates on Earth and is hostile to investment... what did they think would happen?

[Olog-hai]

Exactly. Putting America first is individualist; the globalist outlook promulgated by the author is what is collectivist.

[1rudeboy]

Did our tax policy drive our own corporations to open in the Soviet Union?

[Olog-hai]

Read it again. It says “all the essentials of national supply”, to include “the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defense—to be possessed within ourselves. “All the essentials” does not mean the mere basics; it does indeed mean everything. And we don’t even have “the really vital stuff” anymore.

[1rudeboy]

Nobody’s denying the overregulation and overtaxation; the awareness that the USA has the highest corporate tax rate on the planet is quite high on FR.

Sorry, I could not let this comment pass. Could you speak to some of the protectionists? LOL

[GeronL]

If you want national self-reliance, North Korea has been doing that for a while called “Juche”.

I think its a bad idea.

[1rudeboy]

And we don’t even have “the really vital stuff” anymore.

I did read a comment somewhere, about how people were bitching about "how the U.S. Olympic uniforms were made in China." The response was, whose jet did the Chinese team fly to get to London?

[Olog-hai]

Are you trying to say something?

The Muslims are not the only ones that know how to practice “taqiyyah”, you know. Mao really put one over on Nixon by making it look like there was a rift between Red China and the USSR. Teng Hsiao-p’ing made the bait juicier with his alleged economic “liberalization” programs. Asymmetrical warfare that totally fooled the naïve libs in DC.

[Olog-hai]

You fell for that one too, eh? No, North Korea is propped up by Beijing.

Putting America first is not autarky, which has not been totally achievable by any single nation anyhow.

[1rudeboy]

Are you trying to say something?

Not any more, since you started talking nonsense.

[Olog-hai]

If the answer was “Airbus”, then what?

[Olog-hai]

You’re talking like a liberal. You aren’t one to accuse others of talking nonsense.

[raybbr]

Free trade does not exist in a vacuum, you know.

Free trade has never existed. Ever. It does not know nor has it ever since the first government/king/lord etc came to power.