Nekrotic wrote:
Kulamiena wrote:
Business and corporations have gone global but JOBS are not yet global.
Kulamiena wrote:
Those foreign-owned companies that produce here are considered by some to be a great "made in America" alternative BUT where do profits end up?.
You are contradicting yourself a bit there. If jobs is the important thing, then why do you care if a foreign car company opens up a plant here? The JOBS (you capitalized it, so that must be the important point) are still in America, even if some of the money leaves the country. Would you rather they opened a plant somewhere else?
I wish more foreign companies would open up here in the states. It means more jobs for Americans.
They are both important. Jobs are great and it's better for the US economy for Toyota or Hyundai to open a plant here than for them to open a plant elsewhere and import the product to sell here. But if someone is buying that car thinking it is as good as buying a car from the big 3 for our economy they are wrong. Yes, the jobs are here but the profits don't stay here.
The current state of the global jobs economy boils down to not individuals competing for jobs but localities competing. And what do they compete with? Tax breaks, lower required wages, lower environmental standards, lower worker safety guidelines, free land, etc. The US doesn't, can't, and shouldn't compete with India and China in those areas but we are forced to do so because of the structure of our trade agreements and the lack of enforcement of the pitiful protections those agreements provide.
The bottom line is that while there is a global economy on a corporate scale there is no such global market on an individual scale. Companies are free to move wherever they can best increase there profits but individuals are still restricted by governments in their movement.
It is of concern because nobody seems to be looking at the issue in the long term. Or perhaps they are looking at it and realize the political backlash they would face if they were to come out and speak about lowering the US standard of living while raising developing world's SoLs to balance.