Wow. She posted not one but four responses to that post, and none of them addressed the central point, which is that outsourcing is a long term phenomenon and that it is an inevitable companion of free trade which provides a high standard of living and access to inexpensive goods across a wide spectrum of economic sectors, from automobiles to fresh produce.
Four responses and all you get are shrill (I can't think of another word to describe it) posts about how jobs under Bush are terrible and Bush's economic team is clueless. Nothing to address the substance of what you said.
Let's imagine a world where Kerry is President and actually acts to snuff out outsourcing. IT workers, of course, are not the only ones to "suffer" from outsourcing. U.S. farmworkers and auto workers contend that they should be similarly "protected" from having products they produce being outsourced (i.e., produced outside U.S. borders). Walk into a supermarket during the offseason for California grapes. Chilean grapes and other produce will be unavailable. Produce prices will skyrocket. (Ironically, Lizzie's profile at one time, perhaps still, had a link to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals site -- somehow I suspect that higher produce prices are not part of her agenda. But I digress.)
Now, in this Kerry outsource-protected future, let's imagine that American auto workers have been protected against outsourcing (i.e., cars produced outside the U.S.). That BMW that Lizzie says she drives is toast, unless of course it was the SUV they make in the American South (in a state that votes Republican every four years). She is going to have to settle for a Jeep or perhaps a GM or Ford SUV (some of which she still won't be able to get because they are made in Canada, our evil outsource neighbor to the North).
Clothing might be a problem too. Much of it has been outsourced to Asia long ago. Textile workers in the Northeast and Southeast complained at the time, but most of them have moved on to other workplaces. It's time to reverse this injustice and bar outsourced clothing products from American markets. Of course, a T-shirt will now cost $28 at Wal Mart, but hey, those jobs have to be protected from furriners!
And then let's say your TV set breaks. You didn't really want to watch TV anyway, did you? Because you can't buy one without accepting that the "American" jobs that used to produce those sets have been <shudder> OUTSOURCED!
Want designer clothes? Well, some of the world's top fashion designers are in Italy and France. Their work takes high wage employment away from American designers who are struggling to break into the market. That just won't do. Time to empty the racks at Neiman Marcus and Sak's of all clothing (a) designed outside of America; and/or (b) produced outside of America. Take a trip to a clothing store sometime, and go through each piece of clothing on the rack to eliminate based on those two criteria. When you are finished the stores would be nearly empty.
I guess at that point we can turn the U.S. into a giant nudist colony. Hmmm. Maybe I'll like the future after all.
Go Kerry! <vbg> |
