Factories Move Abroad, as Does U.S. Power

More than half of the manufactured goods that Americans buy are made abroad, up from 31 percent in 1987. If we continue on our path of ceasing to make merchandise that others want to buy from us, the danger is that these imports will be unaffordable for our descendants.

For that to happen, "you have to assume that manufacturing will continue to disappear," said David Heuther, chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers. He does not make that assumption himself. He contends that America's high-tech advantage and its ingenuity will sustain the nation's manufacturing base.



http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/business/yourmoney/17VIEW.html

300,000 in the last 2 years. And thousands more on the way. Some of the states are thinking about passing laws to stop the flow of jobs, but Bush has assured the India companies he will stop any interference with the jobs exodus.

or else he'd know that China is a lot more than a billion sweatshop workers. They built the first commercial maglev train, between Shanghai and its airport; they are building the world's longest sea-crossing bridge across Hangzhou Bay; half a dozen of its government ministries just abandoned Microsoft Office for a Chinese product, WPS Office by Kingsoft.

At this rate the next century is going to be the Chinese century. And this administration has done nothing to cultivate our relationship with the world's next superpower.

Recent estimates project that the financial services sector alone - ALONE - will export at least 300,000 IT and tech jobs in the next five years.

"High-tech advantage and ingenuity" don't amount to shit without the willingness of businesses to invest domestically and create medium- to high-wage jobs within our borders.

I suspect, however, that this would not jibe with current b-school received wisdom: "Hmmmmmmmmmm, should I make these widgets in Akron or Knoxville, paying my workers $14 an hour, or should I make comparable widgets in Reynosa, paying my workers $3 and hour or should I make them in China, paying my workers $3 a day?" Gosh, J.D., sounds like Option C is the way to go! Now, can I get you anything else, like a bonus or some stock options?"

The problem we have here is that, on a corporate level, the logic is solid. Why wouldn't a business build widgets at the lowest cost to maximize profits for it's shareholders? Where is breaks down is at the national strategic level. We lose our ability to manufacture, we will become a 2nd rate nation. Once you lose that institutional capability, were will the infrastructure to support manufacturing come from? In 20 years, we won't have a critical mass of people who are familiar or knowledgeable with manufacturing practices. So this becomes an issue that must be addressed by our national government.

I'm not sure what the answer is, because the capitalist rules that served us so well in the past seem to used against us today.

I've been downsized twice in my manufacturing career....now I have a business that reps Chinese manufacturing companies to the world. Hell, we even have Hong Kong companies asking us to help them source production in China!

It's obvious to me that China will dominate the 21st century and they are the market of growth for the forseeable future....there is just no getting around it. All you have to do is go to Schenzen and see what's transpired in 20 years. This was a sleepy little fishing village 20 years ago. Today, it is as modern and vibrant as any world class city with 7MM+ people. It just boggle's my mind to see what is happening in China.

Here's a little factoid to help put it in perspective:

China's construction industry used bricks...lot's of them. 700 BILLION bricks a year. That's enough bricks to circle the globe 1600 times....every year!

Correct, and multinational corporations use our power to protect their worldwide assets while they export the People's jobs to other countries.

SCOTUS has ruled that government is not required to protect any individual, that's why the right to keep and bear arms is important to many people.

On the other hand, multinational corporations, a created entity under the sovereign power of "We the People", are not individuals but they use the People's power through our elected government to protect their worldwide assets. :shrug:

One would think that taking the long view, (like the Chinese,) would make the most sense, even in corporate decision making. While they cut the throats of American labor, aren't they cutting their own throats as well? I guess the value they place on short term profits outweighs everything, even the security of the United States, which rests on a robust economy. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but the security of the United States does not enter into the corporate decision making process. Probably they can go where they get the best deal. They have it both ways; they enjoy the protection of the United States for their families and cronies, but feel no obligation to contribute to that security.

benefits and safety measures for his miners. That was possible because government laws protected labor for the first time in our country's history.

Today under cover of government laws, multinational corporations are using the same tactic to move jobs freely among countries. NAFTA was bad enough, but AWOL is negotiating trade treaties under the fast track process and the "People" are not aware of what's happening.

AWOL's handlers are keeping the war on terrorism and other phoney crisis going while the "People" sink further toward permanent economic bondage.

"We the People" will have to give up part of our sovereignty to get jobs back. Either that or revolt with the pen at the ballot box or resort to arms to reclaim our lost government. I hope and pray the pen is all we need!

China seems to be at the beginning of a powerful era of new growth. I'm not sure how well we'll adapt to being a second-rate has-been world power, though. The transition could be bumpy indeed.

Multinational corporations continue to export jobs from the United States with no end in sight. Can corporations use those exported jobs as hostages and demand the People pay ransom to have them returned to the U.S.?

As ransom, corporatists might want the Constitution amended to:

- allow multinational corporations to create corporate monopolies in each business sector,

- recognize the Senate as the only spokesperson for corporate monopolies,

- recognize the House of Representatives as the only spokesperson for labor, and

- recognize that mammon created corporate monopolies superior to men.

If the People gave up our sovereignty for jobs, Mt. Rushmore would be the epicenter of a magnitude 12 earthquake; the size that destroyed the dinosaurs. It might happen quietly however, if voters don't elect senators and congresspersons that will represent "We the People" and not kowtow to the corporatists who fund political campaigns and export jobs from America.

Zoologists say you can place a live frog in a pot of water and slowly increase the temperature until the frog is boiled alive. If the temperature is increased to rapidly, the frog will jump out.

The "one-half per centers" who own 42% of our financial wealth and control all the major multinational corporations have the "working masses" in a pot and are slowly increasing the "unemployment temperature". I hope the "workers" jump out before it's to late!

of Shrub's policies is that other trade blocks will remove dependency on the US and thus trade more between themselves. This will hurt North America much longer than shrub or his cronies will be in office.

Is a world where all people have an opportunity to better their economic condition such a bad thing? Isn't this evolutionary? 70 years ago my grandparents were working in sweatshops stateside, but they ended of better over their lifetime. Isn't this playing out on a larger scale worldwide now?

While I don't have all the answers, I think that we, as a nation, need to reinvent our economy like we did in the early 90s. The telcom/internet economy provided a whole new economic opportunity for Americans...whose to say we can reinvent our economy again? Maybe this time it has to be focused on renewable/alternative energy and a whole new transportation structure to facilitate this revolution.

But we can't shut out other people in other countries from realizing a better life either....I mean, we can close our borders to trade, but will that really help us progress as a society?

Anyway, until we have a change in political leadership that is maintains an oil based energy policy, I don't think this reinvention will happen....I believe that this may be the single most important contrast between the Republican and Democratic vision of our future.