You must be unaware that trade was always global. About 13% of capital in the U.S. is British -- those evil British capitalists outsource jobs to the U.S. You must have also heard about evil Japanese capitalists that outsource jobs to the American car-manufacturing plants. American companies have been doing the same for over a century.
The situation is quite simple, really. When you see an import that is better than its American-made equivalent, you buy it. Labor is a product purchased by employers. If we want to be purchased (employed) we have to be better than foreigners. When we were, outsourcing was small; and conversely.
There’s also the pesky taxes and regulations on American businesses....that makes employing in other countries WITHOUT those taxes and regulations profitable...
Many on the left want to tax and regulate everything. Unfortunately, there are also those on the right who want to tax and regulate everything.
“When you see an import that is better than its American-made equivalent, you buy it.”
You are oversimplifying; how many products on the shelf today even offer a choice between American-made and imported? The American companies that manufactured in the past were long since driven out of business by foreign competition that could employ children, force convicts to produce, shoot anyone who disagreed, etc.
Don’t forget the evil German capitalists. BMW has a large plant near Greenville, and Mercedes has one near Tuscaloosa. Siemans also has large U.S. manufacturing operations. Just for a few examples.
Voice of reason. Thank you.
Our trade imbalance has nothing to do with “Free Trade”. Some jobs might result from erection of a strong tariff barrier against imports, but the public would go into collective cardiac arrest at the huge ensuing price rises.
In point of fact, our manufacturing miseries are not solely the result of labor costs (although that is an absolutely legitimate component); manufacturing efforts in this country face wide array of burdens and disincentives - egregiously high corporate taxes, needlessly burdensome government regulation, an education system inadequate for modern industry needs, ridiculous product liability exposures, and an obsolescent national infrastructure.
We can now add to the above 0bama’s destruction of confidence among the investment community.
“The situation is quite simple, really. “
Really? You mean the lobbyists representing foreign countries have nothing to do with it? You mean the laws encouraging companies to offshore have nothing to do with it? The laws making it nearly more difficult to operate a business here in the US have nothing to do with it?
There’s nothing simple about it. Its not a free market.
The ranters are the kids who raised their lemonade-stand pricing to a dollar a cup, forcing their families to pay more, but then couldn't understand why all the neighbors stopped buying from them and went to the neighbor kid who was still selling at 5 cents.
They have no concept of there being a globe whether or not there are Globalists, and seem to think that we have some sort of mind-control device that can force consumers around the world to buy from us, even if we ignore the global market and charge far above market price.
The problem isn't Globalism, but the problem is the higher costs of operating in the US. All other things equal, if Americans want worker protections, they have to take lower wages in order to have a competitive labor cost, for example, but suggesting such actual math is a no-no. And if Americans aren't willing to work for the wages of Indians or Chinese, then they'd better be doing something to make up for that ... higher productivity, ingenuity, quality, etc. But as it stands now, even if they're better, it's not enough to sustain the high wages Americans expect.
So, unless Americans are going to own companies that take advantage of cheap labor, they're going to see themselves losing opportunity for wealth.