Stop Outsourcing from the USA

The first thing I was amazed to learn was that the United States has no laws against the outsourcing of labor. In fact, the only legislation that scratches the surface of the outsourcing of American technology and jobs is a small statute that declares outsourced labor is still subject to U.S. regulation and oversight.

Measures must be taken to protect American jobs and to shield U.S. corporations from the temptations and incentives of moving labor to other countries. It is not as if the companies intend to steal jobs from Americans, but their wallets speak to them when wages in Mexico and China for example, are under four dollars an hour.

A great model, in terms of legislation to follow, would be that of the Chinese, where if a company does not make a minimum percentage of parts in their country, that business is not allowed to sell to Chinese citizens.

I was astonished to learn that the United States was the only well-developed economy in the world that does not have what economists refer to as a VAT. As you are well aware, a valued-added tax or VAT is used to penalize imports and partially subsidize exports. This is a perfect example of an incentive that the United States must create in order to bring jobs back to the United States.

If action is not taken, America will continue along the path we currently follow, which leads to the death of the U.S. economy. History has foreshadowed this. For example, following the resolution of World War One, a group of countries came together to create legislation that would unite the world economically and thus connect independent countries by sharing the most modern technologies of the time.

Most of these technologies came from the United States, as you might have guessed. This resulted poorly for Americans. In 1919 the United States had $10,776 million in imports, and eleven years later in 1930 exports had dropped all the way to $5,448 million. Unfortunately, there are also more recent effects of globalization on American citizens.

Between the years of 2001 and 2013, the United States trade with China has resulted in the loss of 2.8 million American jobs. For those fortunate enough not to lose their job, it was found in a recent study that workers lost roughly $1,400 in annual income. Detrimental effects of globalization can also be seen in countries that work is being outsourced to, such as the Philippines. Protesters complain that government funding has been funneled into the insourcing industry and away from the agricultural sector, making it increasingly difficult for farmers to put food on the plate for their families. Jerry Scott, a prominent expert on the subject stated, “you've got the complete devastation of nature all around the world; you've got people shoved off their lands to make way for giant dams and agri-business and so on, who then become part of the millions and millions of people roaming the land and going into cities looking for impossible-to-find jobs, all in competition with each other, and violent and angry”. Although I am foremost concerned with the loss of American jobs, I believe it would benefit all nations to end globalization.

Even if globalization wasn’t ruining our economy, taking jobs, and causing wages to plummet, where is our sense of American pride in producing our own goods?