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The ol' "You're either FOR free trade or FOR protectionism, it's JUST THAT SIMPLE!" argument is hilarious. We should be celebrating the growth of one middle class at the expense of another? Your assertions are both theoretic and unproven in reality.
"Basic Economics", "Economics 101" is a total COP OUT and an RNC talking point. Economic theories often serve the wealthy at the behest of the little guy, and even moreso now. Joe Sixpack doesn't have a nano/bio/whatever-tech lab in his garage to create the next HP or Microsoft as he did in the 80s - new business creation/funding takes a hell of a lot more hoops to jump through, and relies a lot more on technology, funding and tools as opposed to guile and determination.
"Re-train", the freep-traders all say. To quote a line from Ed Wood: "It's horseshit, Eddie". Say you get laid off of a career and have to go and re-train for a new one. What are you going to pick that can't be offshored/inshored? Do you got a few years to put your life on hold while you GET this training, as in enough cash to pay the bills, put food on the table and a roof overhead? And how can you predict that the career you choose won't be following it's predecessor overseas? Indians and Chinese have access to the same universities we have. They can get the same degrees we have and they will always, always ALWAYS be cheaper.
Do you seriously expect the corporations and the "I got mine" elite that run them to all of a damn sudden become benevolent, stop masturbating to pictures of bank vaults and start building plants and hiring HERE and start filling up those vacant downtown offices anytime soon?
Also, America doesn't NEED 130 million nanotechnologists or business owners. What do we do for the people who just aren't MEANT for college? Do they not deserve a better living than "Hi, welcome to fucking Wal Mart?"
What do you say to people like my cousin, who works at Packard (who's hand in hand with GM, I believe) and after August he has to take a buyout, which will last him only so long, or risk getting laid off for good because the plant will close? He has nothing other than a high school diploma. It's naive to think that at 35, he and his SO can just go to community college and start over. What would they do? Where would they get the money, go into more debt? Where would the experience come from?
They didn't used to have to worry about this sort of thing before. It used to be that we were able to gainfully employ people who aren't meant for college; these people were our industrial and manufacturing base and they built the quality products we used and bought. A strong economy should be capable of employing EVERYone at a fair wage regardless of education level, and when you cannot do that, all the talking points in the world aint'a gonna mask the reality that you do NOT have any such economy on your watch.
It's no longer enough for businesses to make a profit. Their business plan, long term and short term, only includes one group of people and one philosophy - the Upper Echelon and what can be done to make them HAPPY. Workers and their concerns are no longer addressed or cared for; having been reduced to mere moving obstacles, a means to an end, not location sensitive and certainly advantageous to be as cheap as humanly possible.
The topic of job offshoring is a particularly sensitive one to me. I stick people on ignore for two reasons - unwarranted flaming and support of this crapola, anti-worker practice. I've seen too many lives, families and professions ruined (particularly my father's and co-workers') to even consider any other part of this issue, and it's only going to get worse as corporations continue to strangle everyone for their needs. I can't believe that there are so-called progressives who buy into this mantra of "a rising tide lifts all boats" and play the "xenophobia" card from the bottom of the deck when you disagree with this short-term pillaging. This isn't about hatred of anyone; Indians are simply embracing the opportunity given to them by our companies. It's not about "exploring emerging markets", it's about dumping the American middle class for cheaper, exploitable labor.
About the "competition" ruse: It's not competition when Indian workers are always going to be cheaper. It's not competition when you're giving them the R&D future that we should be getting our hands on. It's not competition because we don't MAKE anything HERE anymore. It's not competition because they're already getting the jump on sciences such as nano- and Bio-technology while were trying to destroy science to believe a story and appease a bunch of toupeed wackjobs with crosses. It's not competition when you enable corporations to displace thousands of American workers either by offshoring or inshoring via tax breaks and loopholes. It's not competition when you have nothing on the near or far horizon to replace the outgoing jobs.
What it IS, however, is the destruction of the American middle class, exactly as the well-monied Robber Baron Republican'ts want it. Offshoring helps NO one but the rich and drives down wages in every job they can ship over or bring here. "Everyone in their station and have the good sense to STAY there." A fearful, low paid, divided and powerless middle class is an OBEDIENT middle class.
Companies aren't even addressing the issue or treating it as serious, nor is anyone in our government or corporations providing the much-needed assistance for fired workers to re-assimilate back in the work force. It's just slash and "good luck" while the suits buy another yacht, and the number of white-collar professions immune from this practice is dwindling every year. Yap yap about "lower prices", but have the prices REALLY gone down on anything that's made with quality? I haven't noticed it. There are several things I would like to have but can't because I simply cannot afford them. The American worker keeps way less than ever because everything costs more, and the quality of our lives have plunged thanks to longer hours and fear. How good do we really have it when it's accepted practice to assume the new MINIMUM retirement age is 65?
Witness the distribution of Linux laptops to Third World countries via the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) initiative. First off, why aren't these companies offering OUR children this luxury? Oh that's right, because since it costs way too damned much to live here, the American worker has too high an asking price. They're creating the next wave of offshore beneficiaries now and they're not fooling ANYone.
Come to Northeast Ohio and the ghost-towns that litter it sometime and look at the cost. Go to any of the small towns in America that used to thrive, but now have boarded up weed-infested everything. Look at all the vacant office space in most mid-market cities and tell me how "progressive" it is that this dickhead presidope and the corporations he enables care more about the events and markets of countries that start with an "I" than they do our own.
When an economist can come up with a benevolent model that truly lifts ALL boats, then I'll start listening and believing them. Until then, I just see them as puppet defenders of the Republican agenda who's sole M.O. is to drown the middle class in favor of a low-paid and forever fearful populace that the elites are "destined" to rule over.
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