xiaohua

Globlization and American Jobs January 26, 2017

Under the false promises of “Globlization,” American corporations have ‘raped’ foreign countries for decades. Powerful U.S. international companies utilized natural resources from these poor countries, moved manufacture plants to foreign countries, exploited cheap labors overseas, sold goods big and small to customers all over the world, raised some American’s living standards, pushed up labor cost in the U.S. and made many corporate CEO’s, Trump included, filthy rich. 

The so-called “top 1%” owned Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts, lived in expansive condos on Park Avenue in NYC and prime central locations in London and enjoyed fancy vacations at French Riviera and Morocco. They hired expansive CPAs to hide their money from tax men, passed their wealth to trusts and skipped paying taxes using every loopholes possible.

Greedy American financial institutions, the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch, and hundreds of hedge funds made billions by ganging up the system against ordinary people.

Some Americans diligently worked long and hard, raised good families, dutifully paid their taxes, enjoyed their comfortable lives, breathed cleaner air, bought widescreen TVs from Amazon and cheap imports from Walmart, drove new SUVs made in Korea or Japan (Consumer Report consistently gives cars from GM, Ford low ratings. Worse for Chrysler or Jeep), took cruise vacations to Caribbean islands, loaded up their credit cards to the limits, paid 18% interest on the balance and piled up debts which they have no hope of ever paying it off.

Blue collar workers in the U.S. worked for factories in the rust belt, joined Unions for protection against the management and earned an honest living. Their high wages, however, put their products at a disadvantage. These companies lost millions year after year. Layoffs happened. Factories closed down because these out-dated plants couldn’t compete with more efficient factories in foreign countries. 

Millions of blue collar workers lost their jobs for months and years. These laid off American workers were gradually forgotten by the labor market. Their families lived in poverty and depended on government to survive. They hated the status quo and believed their American dreams died since the financial crisis. These were the people who rejected Hillary and the Washington establishment and ushered Trump into the WH.

Well, the fact of the matter is that “Globlization” has benefited America tremendously. However, that benefit has been overwhelmingly enjoyed by a selected few at the expense of many at the bottom.

Many Americans hated “Globlization” because they falsely believed, some no doubt have come from Trump, that “Globlization” took their jobs away. 

This wasn’t entirely true. Some American jobs no doubt went to Mexico and Asian countries because U.S. corporations chose to invest over there. 

However, many plants in the U.S. got automated to offset high labor cost so that they could tlcompete with foreign companies. Millions of robots in the factories and millions of automated machines big and small displaced human workforce. Productivity improved and some products made in the U.S. became competitive again. What’s left behind were millions of unemployed Americans because their jobs were gone forever.

Well, if Trump is really serious about his criticism of globlization, he should set an example, closes his foreign businesses, moves them back to the U.S., hires Americans, pays them handsomely, offers them a generous 401(k) package and gives them a pension too.