A Response to Outsourcing
You know a problem is serious when people start making up new words to try
to define it. Offshoring used to be something you'd do for vacation, now
it'll
put you on a permanent vacation. Along with its cousin, outsourcing, they
are the two new political buzzwords in Wa****ngton D.C. But is there a
real
solution to the problem of losing our jobs overseas?
It doesn't make sense to focus our anger at the Chinese worker: You can't
blame somebody for wanting a better job. We shouldn't blame business
leaders, as it's a rational and often necessary choice under our current
system of subsidies and trade laws. These people take advantage of
outsourcing for the simplest of reasons: Because they can.
If we want to stop the offshoring of American jobs, we need change the
current system of trade laws and agreements that are structured to
encourage
outsourcing and offshoring.
Ben Franklin said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
and over and expecting different results. An intelligent response to
outsourcing would be to stop passing the same trade agreements over and
over.
Across America, we've lost over 3 million jobs since the introduction of
NAFTA ten years ago. States like Wisconsin were hit particularly hard:
From March 2001 to January 2004, it lost over 74,000 manufacturing jobs, a
decline of 14 percent in their manufacturing base.
These factory workers are often retrained in internet technology or
software
design, only to find those are the new and next wave of jobs being
ex****ted
and offshored. By the end of 2005, it is projected that over 830,000
American tech jobs will have moved to low wage countries like India and
China. The cycle has become an economic revolving door of outsourcing,
with
each new sector taking on additional casualties.
Once thought to impact only industrial sectors, outsourcing now threatens
computer engineers, IT specialists, call-center workers, paralegals,
technical writers, accountants, tax professionals and public service
workers. Put simply, if your job uses a phone, a computer or a welding
torch, outsourcing trade policies will impact you. If you can
telecommute,
your job can likely be outsourced.
There is an intelligent response. Stop the insanity. It's time to change
the way we negotiate trade agreements, instead of repeating our mistakes,
or
we will continue to get the same results.
At the state level, we can promote state contracts that purchase American
goods and services, and eliminate subsidies and tax breaks to cor****ate
bad
actors like Accenture. If a company bases themselves in Bermuda to take
advantage of tax loopholes, they shouldn't get our tax dollars. If a
company outsources 50 or more jobs, they shouldn't get state contracts
paid
for by working citizens.
At the federal level, we should oppose the Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA) - NAFTA's big brother on steroids - so we won't expect
the
same results of increased job loss. And we should ban the billions in
current public subsidies that go to government contractors who move jobs
overseas.
Bush Administration officials have taken the opposite approach, calling
the
transfer of U.S. service jobs overseas "just a new way to do international
trade," and claiming, "When a good or service is produced more cheaply
abroad, it makes more sense to im****t it."
One question: What good or service can't be produced more cheaply abroad?
When China can use child labor to produce sneakers -- without regulations
on
trademarks, patents, environmental protection or worker safety -- shoes
will
be always be produced more cheaply. That doesn't mean a low road strategy
of racing to the basement is good policy, especially if it is at the
expense
of American workers.
Last month's U.S. Census Bureau re****t shows our trade deficit shot up to
record a $60.3 billion during November 2004. This month, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture stated our country will start im****ting more
food
than it ex****ts for the first time in our national history.
To stop outsourcing - and to stop the insanity of repeating our mistakes -
we will need a new system of trade rules. Your member of Congress may be
voting on CAFTA in coming months, and you should call, email or write
telling them to vote against the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Future agreements must protect small business, the environment and working
families, and discourage the cor****ate low road bad behavior that's
defined
the race to the basement. Otherwise, we can just expect the same results
we've
seen since first passing NAFTA ten years ago: More outsourcing, increased
offshoring and higher job loss.
Andrew Gussert is Director of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition, and
created the group "Stop Outsourcing Wisconsin" last July to highlight this
issue during the Presidential Campaign
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