Comments on: Unemployment: guess who’s getting the biggest squeeze? And how about those green jobs?

By: dwindy

dwindy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:58:16 +0000

Why pay an American worker 20 USD/hr when you can pay a Chinese worker 0.20 USD/hr for the same work?

Because that’s what the stimulus money was supposed to do.

By: Austin Considine

Austin Considine — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:42:16 +0000

Hi, Yyyikes,

That’s an interesting factor you bring up. I’m going to check out your report now. Thanks so much for writing.

By: Austin Considine

Austin Considine — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:39:57 +0000

Hi, David,

Oh, I never said there was any mystery. You’re right, it makes perfect sense. But I get the feeling you and I agree that still doesn’t make it ok when we’re talking about our tax dollars going to create (or at least pay for) jobs overseas.

Corporate decisions are one thing. I don’t begrudge anyone or any company that seeks the highest return possible (as long as you aren’t poisoning children in the process). And, yes, of course, labor is the magic ingredient there.

But, on principle, if you’re going to use American tax money, the money should stay in America, even if it costs more. If we can’t deal with that, then we simply have to start finding ways to produce things more cheaply. If it means lower wages … well, lower wages are better than no wages.

Of course, this whole argument is predicated on the assumption that this whole bailout was an acceptable solution to begin with. I’m not convinced it was. When we’re talking about how best to use “free money” it completely screws up everything we learned in Economics 101, because Econ 101 also taught us there was “no such thing as a free lunch.”

When we remove the most basic concept of scarcity from the model, what are we left with? I’m not sure. I’d ask an economist to explain it to me, but there are so many contradictory opinions out there I don’t know whom I would believe.

By: Austin Considine

Austin Considine — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:23:44 +0000

Takeonme,

I, too, am very wary of protectionism. And though I agree with you generally, I have to say I totally disagree with you in this case. There’s absolutely no reason why we should be spending our federal tax dollars — dollars that are part of a financial recovery bailout — on technology developed and/or produced overseas.

It’s one thing, as a consumer, to buy a Japanese car. Or, as a manufacturer, to get your parts from China. Those are private decisions that are part and parcel of today’s global economy. And it’s normal to want to find the best and cheapest products available. If they come from overseas, so be it.

But it’s different when we’re talking about American tax dollars. That money was disbursed to create green-tech jobs in the United States. If we don’t have the world’s best green technology right now, if we don’t build the world’s best turbines, then R&D should be part of how we spend that money until we do.

By: Michael Roston - Newsbroke – Dow 10,200-plus, soaring unemployment, and Wall Street’s case of the chafes - True/Slant

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:04:43 +0000

[...] when you contemplate last Friday’s jobless numbers, 10.2% conservatively, 17.5% more realistically, you see even more how ridiculous it is for anyone to be pointing to the [...]

By: libtree09

libtree09 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:33:11 +0000

Protectionist policies don’t work…well they work in China…they have worked for much of this country’s history…the current economy doesn’t work for the majority of American workers and the middle class…we we ever recover from our unemployment problem? Do you think everyone can get a college education in America? Twenty seven per cent of our teenagers can’t find a job. Labor in this country has not seen an increase in wages for over twenty years.

By: Austin Considine – American Crossroads – Unemployment: Guess Who’s … « Kiss Halloween Costumes

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:34:21 +0000

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By: yyyikes

yyyikes — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:55:05 +0000

Unless that graph is just men, a big part of that decline is the entry of women into the labor force, many of whom work part time. Then, men’s hours have declined while women’s have increased. You can see this in a report I co-authored with Lynne Casper and Liana Sayer: http://www.unc.edu/~pnc/WMW04.pdf, through 2000 at least. -Philip Cohen (www.familyinequality.com)

By: davidlosangeles

davidlosangeles — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:27:12 +0000

Hello takeonme,

Except that those jobs will be “off-shored” to other countries as well. The headline on the cover of Chemical & Engineering News recently was “Out-Sourcing R&D”.

By: takeonme

takeonme — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:41:48 +0000

My point exactly. Coping with a global economy through protectionist policies has never worked. Rather, Americans need to focus on the R & D aspects of green technology. This will provide us with jobs, demand, and (hopefully) a cleaner environment.