How can we discourage corporate flight to countries with cheap labor?.?

Question

How can we convince employers to keep their production in our own country? Maybe a nation-wide boycott of a luxury product would help. By that I mean, toys, autos, electronic equipment, or whatever. I know it costs more to manufacture here, but the greed at the top is pretty extravagant. Middle and lower classes in the U.S. are struggling, while the rich get richer. I pity the thousands who can't affdord the mortgages on their new homes. Bankruptcy is at an all-time high, according to the L.A.Times. I know, bad loans. Any ideas?

Hmmm....some very conflicting answers...I'm not advocating anything communistic...just jobs, for instance, for Detroiters who keep losing their jobs in auto factories...just an example!

Answer 1

Why would you want to do this? The truth is that the lower and middle classes in this country are better off every year than they were the year before. Would you like to go back 100 years to when there was less class disparity and live in a time when the average American didn't always have enough food, worked deadly jobs, died of easily treatable illnesses, and lived in cities filled with trash and manure? There are people in tough situations for sure, but one of the reasons that the poor in this country are better off than any lower class has ever been in the history of the world is that we are such a successful society as a whole. This success is largely a result of the people that have developed our economy over time, and sometimes the best decisions for these companies and the economy as a whole is to send production overseas. When this happens, overall production in America increases and, over time, there are more and better paying jobs available in this country. Plus, the jobs overseas do a lot to improve conditions for the poor who live in other countries who are much worse of than we are here. I am personally considered to be living in poverty by the government's definition, and I would not want to change a thing.

Answer 2

The only idea that I have on the matter of free trade is to go back to the way it was before. Workers here can't compete with the low wages that are paid in China and other countries. I also wonder what it is costing our environment for all these products to be shipped back to the United States.

Unfortunately our governments (Canada included) will not go back to a tariff system as it is really the powerful interests that hold more sway. They are not on the side of displaced workers.

Hmmm, I wonder how many substandard products we will be receiving as well or if we will be poisoned by some product produced in China where they don't have the same standards as we do for health and safety. Anyone recall the pet food scare awhile back?

Answer 3

Bankruptcy isn't just bad loans, it's because spoiled people buy anything and everything without planning a head and getting in WAY over their heads. I'm glad they have tightened the rules on bankruptcy because too many people have been taking the easy way out.

I know there are some who are sick and fallen on bad times but I'm not talking about those who have legitimate reasons to file. What is sad is at one time, people had too much pride to file unless they absolutely had no choice. Pride is like common sense, it's a thing of the past the majority of the time.

As far as keeping corporations in this country, thank your unions for so many of them leaving. It wasn't as much a problem until the unions kept pushing for very high pay raises and lots of extra benefits through the years so it has made it very hard for companies to keep up with their demands.

Unions can be good in their own right as far as seeing that people are treated fairly in the work place but they have gone way beyond that scope and practically run companies/government anymore and that is wrong.

And on top of that ~ if you pay union dues, look at where they spend the money. I HAD to pay into the AFL/CIO on my job and hated every penny I gave them. When I started with the city of Columbus, OH, you only paid if you joined but as they got more control, they eventually forced everyone to pay even though we did not want them to represent us. We had no choice and believe me, if I had, they would NEVER have gotten a dime of my money.

We had some junky, cheap building as our meeting place while they worked in luxurious offices, beautiful/expensive homes and took trips to exotic places on my dime while I sat back with itty bitty raises. I also hated the way they protected the guilty and saw that happen more than once.

At least the FOP has enough sense to tell an officer no, they won't represent them, if they are the one in the wrong but not the AFL/CIO. They stand up for anyone regardless of what the person has done. When I retired on disability, I was so happy I didn't have to pay them anymore ~ should have had a party to celebrate.

I feel sorry for the corporations/governments because of what they have to deal with. I don't like it that so many are leaving the country but thanks to Americans, sometimes they have no choice if they want to survive and unfortunately, we end up with lower standard goods.

I can remember when you could buy something and it would last forever (almost) but now they make things so you HAVE to replace them, otherwise they go out of business. They don't take pride in their products like they did at one time.

Answer 4

Boycott whomever you please.

The struggle is with taxation and debt.

The governments to which we pay our taxes will get theirs as long as we allow them to.

Consumers are using debt in order to live in a fashion to which they believe they are entitled.

Most of the "rich" people in the US have gotten that way by getting a good, usable education, working hard and SAVING their money.

I have attached a link which may help debunk the LA Times claim that bankruptcies are at an ALL TIME HIGH.
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Oh, now I see your talking about Detroit. Maybe the bankruptcies there are high. Blame the auto industry. Top heavy with union wages and entitlements along with a dearth of reliability. I have always pulled for Detroit and the American auto industry and we just keep getting disappointed.

Answer 5

Unitted States attempted to curb the flow of manufacturing jobs by levying tax burdens on companies that did not bring their processes back into the United States and giving tax breaks to companies that did.

This seemed to work for a while.

Look at it this way.
If you own a manufacture company and your factories are in the United States, and the wages you are paying your employees are 20 times higher than they would be in China.
Your manufacturing process cannot be fully automated, therefore is labour intensive.
Your main competitor opens a factory in China producing the same type of product as your factory produces at a cost of one twentieth of your cost.
Your factory is eventually going to shut down because of the high price of your products.
The jobs will still be lost to overseas cheaper labour and the United States head quarters and distributions facilities will likely close down because the company went into bankrupcy.
If your company moved it's operation to China in the first place the job loss would be less.
The head quarters and distribution facilities would still be in operation in the United States.

Sad, but True.

The same thing is happening in Canada.

Good Luck

Answer 6

We can discourage it by taking steps to improve our educational system here. Corporate flight hasn't been that bad (unless you are one of the ones effected) because the skill level of our workers has been so high that there was not a significant enough difference in labor cost per unit of production. If we have the skills, then it is cheaper to produce here (close to the consumers) than to have to ship from abroad. If we start losing that edge on skills, good jobs will move abroad.

Answer 7

Quit buying products made out of the country. You have more power as a consumer than any government entity. Interest rates are still at an all time low. many with ARM's have borrowed and borrowed and pulled every nickle out of their house. Now the bill has come due and they are having a problem. This is only 1% of the subprime loans.

Answer 8

What do flights have to do with anything.

The government needs to open borders here to Mexico and start public factories that higher the cheap influx of Mexican laborers and sell their products at a loss to undercut China. They can pay for all of this by ending welfare and social security.

Seriously though, you just need to stop buying the chinese stuff. Believe me you can get buy with only american stuff and very little imported goods if you want to. Just make sure to focus on a hobbies and work instead of trying to always impress people around with the newest iPhone or similar overpriced import.

Answer 9

Fine and boycott the Corporations that hire the illegals

Answer 10

Tax the hell out of their products when they bring them back into the US.

A boycott just won't work. You can't get anyone to agree to anything these days. The American people just don't stick together. If they did, we could really change this country for the better.