03-07-2003, 12:28 AM
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aspiring banker
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: toronto
Posts: 10,870
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Quote:
Originally posted by jayeff
The odd thing that happens when a discussion on the (US) economy gets started is that everyone seems to assume they are among the "haves" and that their children and grandchildren will be similarly fortunate.
As a result, the export of jobs to 3rd-world countries is discussed only in terms of whether sweatshop labor is moral or not.
Fair enough, that is one of the issues, but when did we lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of people in the US are not executives, they are workers. When these jobs first started going abroad, they were supposed to be replaced with high-tech jobs, but that hasn't happened. The education system never caught up with this "plan" and now high-tech companies are exporting their jobs too: billions of dollars is going to India, China, etc.
The gap between rich and poor isn't only growing on a global scale: it is growing at home too. For 30-odd years more people have been moving down the US economic ladder than up it and that is something which should concern even those who don't believe that we are one world, one people.
Also, there has been a lot of comment in this thread about profits for investors, as if the word "investor" means US citizen. It doesn't, or at least only in part. Huge blocks of shares in "American" companies are owned by foreign nationals: especially Middle Eastern and Far Eastern investors. It doesn't stop there. Since the 60's the Japanese and Arabs in particular have been buying up prime real estate. Japanese corporations have long owned farms covering millions of acres in the US heartlands.
The bottom line is that we are exporting jobs to enrich shareholders, many of whom are foreign. Some of that benefit accrues to a relatively small number of US citizens, but a far greater number of US citizens are negatively affected. By definition, most people reading this thread will be among the losers: less than 5% of the population are REALLY wealthy.
And even if you are high enough up the economic ladder not to suffer directly, many of you depend (or will depend) on customers who are headed for harder times.
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the government needs to put policies in place to keep the high tech jobs here. the standard of living is pretty high in the states. has it declined over the past 2 decades? i highly doubt it has, if you think it has, post some data |
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