Do we need to protect american workers?

Question

I am a hippocrite because I do outsource business to other countries. Whenever possible I do use an American vendor / mfg. Maybe I am making general statements but I am concerned about the American workforce and maufacturing environment. Since I am in the midwest, i see many companies moving their manufacturing off shore. I see Ford, GM and Chrysler closing plants. I see Iconic American brands being sold off. 95% of the goods sold in Walmart are from Asia. I know that we are living in a world economy but I belive that there needs to be incentives to keep and build our manufacturing base here. Not every person can be a knowledge worker. Americans can compete on a level playing field but the world does not care. We are living on "credit" and the wealth of the past. One day Americans are going to wakeup and find that they own nothing. We need to create a business environment that encourages business to stay in USA. I don't mean not trade with the world but America first!

Answer 1

Yes. America must protect American workers because if we don't take care of our own, rest assured no other nation will!

Our unrestrained capitalistic system has exposed America to many areas of the world where we simply cant compete. It is unfair to expect a developed country with a high wage level, superior standard of living, workplace safety concerns, governmental regulation, environmental restrictions and a host of other conditions to compete with countries where these issues are either non-existent or ignored.

Level the field and Americans have the ability to compete with anyone. To do that, we must have some element of self concern that comes in the form of protectionist measures. If we continue on our present path, be assured that America rich multi-national corporations and their few benefactors will enjoy increased prosperity while the masses of Americans see their prospects for the future continue to decline.

Answer 2

Outsourcing is not bad, so no need to feel like a hypocrite.

Keep in mind that other countries are outsourcing many things to the US. The list is very long but here are a few example: pharmaceuticals, accounting services, investment banking, computer chip design, university education.......

To the writer above, your response is a bit confusing. Protectionism does not level the playing field. In fact, it makes it unlevel. American workers have far more advantages -- including more skills and more education -- than any other workforce in the world. It is still one of the most dynamic, innovative workforce around. It does not need protecting in any way.

Answer 3

OK, what a ramble. First, you seem to think wealth can only be created by manufacturing heavy objects. That is a groundless bias that people who do not understand economics often have, and it is 100% false. We are not living on credit or the "wealth of the past", we are creating massive amounts of new wealth all the time -- certainly far more so than any other country in the world. I create more wealth myself than the large majority of factory workers, and my deliverable is a mere computer file that I can email to clients.

Second, you are making assumptions based on a narrow view looking at one crappy industry in one region. In fact there is plenty of manufacturing occurring in the US, and new plants being built all the time. While the idiot US car companies are shutting down plants, the Korean and Japanese car makers are building US plants just as fast as they can convert billions of dollars into plant and equipment. For the first time in many years, TVs are being manufactured in the US again.

But yes there will likely be a smaller and smaller portion of US workers in manufacturing, just as its no longer true that 98% of all workers are farmers (surely you can see THAT is a good thing?). That is because the economy NEEDS humans to be doing other things where human presence and labor is more badly needed.

Our patterns of trade are evolving precisely becuase they make us richer. It is baseless ignorance to think it makes us poorer. It should be abundantly clear to you that the vast majority of Americans today are far wealthier than decades ago (though for some pathological reason many people insist on stupidly denying this very obvious reality).