Here are the figures:
1990 - 558,880
2002 – 499,000
2006 – 435,000
2008 – 427,000
These were jobs that used to be thought of as used to be high paying jobs – jobs that required a higher education, but ensured a bright future. I worked in this field, and remember when you could look in the Want Ad section and there would be pages of job opportunities. Now it's down to a single page or two. How sad.
The book states that for years we have been given misleading information concerning the benefits of outsourcing. The line has always been that outsourcing will bring other jobs back to the country. For example, Gary Clyde Hufbauer, former assistant secretary at the Treasury Department made a prediction that NAFA would generate 7-9 billion dollars in trade, and produce 170,000 jobs. What actually happened? An immediate trade deficit with Mexico that in 2012 has amounted to $700 billion as well as the loss of thousands of decent paying manufacturing jobs in this country.
I voted for Ross Perot, and it seems as
if my vote was justified. NAFTA was SHAFTA. And what do our two
presidential candidates have to say on the subject?
Well, mostly they're calling each other
outsourcers, and giving misleading facts without anything to back
their accusations up. Romney is calling Obama the
“outsourcer-in-chief” because of green energy jobs in other
countries, and Obama is saying that Romney will be an
“outsourcer-in-chief” because while he was in charge of Bain
Capital, there were lots of jobs outsourced. I checked, and neither
claim can be backed up. Check these links:
What I'm interested in is this - what
is either candidate going to do about it? Obama wants to tax
companies that take jobs out of the country. He also wants to offer
tax credits that would stimulate the manufacturing of goods in this
country (especially green energy). However, he reneged on his pledge
to renegotiate NAFTA. Romney talks about making fairer trade
policies with China, and stopping them from manipulating their
currency. Obama has talked about this problem as well. Romney wants to reduce taxes on overseas profits,
which would only increase outsourcing. Mother Jones has an interesing
article that claims neither candidate is really interested in
changing things, and that both support globalization, and therefore
the inevitable outsourcing that is a result of it. I hope that Mother Jones is mistaken.
The bottom line is that we should be
listening carefully for real solutions to this problem, not just name calling. Let's hope
that both candidates can offer concrete policies that can stop the
bleeding of our American jobs.
In the meantime, you may want to check
out this link to What Went
Wrong . It's a real eye-opener.
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