by
Pete Fisher
1/16/05
In the very late 1970’s into the
80’s we saw a trend starting to develop in the automotive industry to
move plants outside the US to compete with Japan and offset the high
cost of Union Labor.
I remember a long time back an
individual who was making an extraordinary amount of money in Detroit
at a car plant. His entire job was to insert a piece of carpet into
the trunk of the car as it went by and fit it to the glued surface.
His wage at the time would have been around 20 dollars an hour which
20 years ago was pretty hefty. In all reality the job was probably
worth 6 dollars an hour, as it required no skills other than being
able to fit a square peg in a square hole so to speak. Detroit had a
hard time competing with European and Asian manufacturers and started
making cars in Mexico and Canada. Ford was using Mazda engines, GM was
using Isuzu, Chrysler was using Mitsubishi, Peugeot, and VW engines to
be able to compete with the mid size and compacts of the time.
However, as they moved plants outside the US to escape high Union
wages and benefits it was noticed that they could charge the same
amount for the car and increase the bottom line profit.
When the EU started
consolidating and forming a powerful economic and industrial entity,
the competition became very tough for America. NAFTA was enacted to be
able to pool the American Continent and strengthen our position,
though many knew it had the smell of failure our hand was forced by
Europe to compete globally. I know many blame President Clinton at the
time, and it may raise some hackles here, but he really did not want
to sign the agreement. I do believe however, that had he not been
caught up in his own personal problems and had he stood his ground, it
would not have been signed.
We have seen powerful companies
like Motorola, G.E., Lucent, Microsoft, Honeywell and many others
cutting American jobs and building plants overseas. I was the victim
of outsourcing twice myself. The H1-B Visa program was running rampant
as well, importing cheap foreign labor to replace Americans, and
basically being used as a Bond Slave system, because those who
accepted those jobs were forced to work for the sponsor company for
years, or face being deported. It is a shameful abuse of human
resources for the purpose of a larger bottom line.
The High Tech Boom busted,
Telecomm went belly up after the Dot Coms, and we entered a Recession.
People who were used to a nice life style tried to maintain that by
running up debt on a tremendous level. And yet we see these companies
still abusing cheap foreign labor by moving to China and India by the
droves. Does it matter to a stockholder that thousands of people will
lose their families and homes? For someone who made millions by
selling out their own country, the pervasive “ I have mine” mentality
drowns out honor, love of country, and the future.
When Motorola dumped dozens of
plants nationwide, they were still importing cheap labor from India,
China, and Eastern Europe to replace those who had been faithful to
the company for decades. It is yet another shameful and greedy
practice to kick those who are already down.
Foreign companies within the
same timeline on an unprecedented level have purchased many American
companies as well. Siemens owns Westinghouse, Sylvania, and Staefa,
Daimler owns Chrysler, LG bought Zenith, and on and on. American
companies have also invested in foreign businesses as well, but hardly
any that support the American labor force. China has not only abused
the rate of exchange, but refuses to enforce the Patent and Copyright
laws. It is quite common to see a GM, Toyota, or any other product
being made under a Chinese name and sold much cheaper.
So what really happens to the
customer base of these companies when they lay off Americans? We are
the world’s largest consumers of goods bar none. Immigrant labor does
not buy nearly as much of almost any goods or product the average
American does.
If Motorola or G.E. want to
continue selling product here, the solution is not to make them
cheaper. The real solution is to keep your largest consumer base
employed and confident in their future. And in turn, their children
and grandchildren will follow in their footsteps. But to lay off
hundreds of thousands of workers and keep them in fear as to the
future of their jobs, they lose big. Those same companies are not
posting tremendous profits as in the days of employed Americans. They
are not selling 500-dollar cell phones to the average Chinese or
Mexican citizen. They are running on the fantasy that every quarter
can be more profitable than the last, which forces them to find
cheaper ways to manufacture year to year. And their profit still drops
because the American can no longer afford to indulge as they used to.
France should have learned this as they whittled their economy to the
brink of danger by abusing cheap Asian labor for decades.
To complicate this, now even the
banking industry has lost due to Asian banks offering lower rates,
which in turn increases foreign owned interests in America. And the
snowball effect will keep piling up our debt, our standard of living
will drop, and our children will be owned or indebted to foreign
entities. Our corporations have sold our children’s future to the
highest bidder without regard to the Pandora’s Box they have unleashed
on this nation.
Perhaps if every company that
outsourced were forced by law to pay a minimum of 2 years salary,
benefits, and school money to those displaced, the cost to commit this
moral treason would be greater than the benefit. And even if not,
those who were sold out could better their education and pay their
bills while competing globally on the educational level. Without the
taxpayers footing the bill. And if we push hard enough to bring back
our manufacturing and employ our nation, we will see a tremendous
surge of bringing down debt while significantly improving our consumer
base.
Can we put the pressure on
our government to make these changes? Can we enact laws to protect
those who have been sold out to foreign labor and imported labor? Can
we regain this country’s’ greatness and once more be a financial
giant? I say we can. But it will take an Act of Congress to do it.
Pete Fisher is a
political columnist in Chicago, Illinois. He can be contacted at
PFisher2005@aol.com
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