Monday, November 14, 2011

The Panda Bear on Hiring Americans, WOMAC update

As readers, of the Panda Bear Blog know, the Panda Bear stated about six weeks ago WOMAC(the War on Mice and Clutter) which is modeled after George Bush's Global War on Terror(GWOT). She is proud to report that she has seen no mice for about a month. However, WOMAC is an ongoing and continuous effort.

The Panda Bear was glad to learn that she was not the only one with mice problems. She saw on NPR that the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, threw a fork at a scampering mouse while eating his dinner at his residence. At least, the Panda Bear has never seen a mouse while eating at her dinner table, 

The Panda Bear is digressing from the main object of the post. The Panda Bear believes that in order for the US unemployment situation to be improved US companies need to stop the exporting of their jobs overseas. Recently, the Panda Bear heard a list of richest people in the United States and most of them made their money in information technology. However, the reason the Panda Bear thinks the reason that the "trickle down" theory of wealth is not working to help Americans find employment is that so many of these companies have sent significant parts of their operations overseas.

Computers are manufactured overseas. Americans need more jobs that don't require advanced degrees. Call centers also are located overseas. More and more office workers that the Panda Bear talks to say their work is being shipped to English speaking countries in Asia who are paid less than Americans. She also hears US companies outsourcing a lot of its computer programming and development to foreign countries.

What can be done to stop US companies from shipping jobs overseas when American labot is more expensive? The Panda Bear feels the first step is for the American public to realize that it is not good that the US does not make anything anymore and that there is a hidden cost to the US in "cheap" products that are made abroad. The US is progressing towards a society of cheap goods but no jobs. The Panda Bear thinks the US needs to revert back more its economy of the nineteen fifties and sixties-goods cost more but Americans had jobs.

2 comments:

  1. Trickle down makes no sense. Common sense tells me that if the end goal is to put money into the hands of the working lower rung, then doing it directly is the best way to do it -- not taxing them more and taxing the upper rung less. We always hear about this program or that, but none of them every put money back into the working class coffer. Want to sell more homes, sell goods, create a demand for more businesses? Stop taxing us so much that we can't break even, much less afford to buy anything or save up for a house or to start a small business. Don't make us wait for the rich 1% to trickle down their wealth to us, because they haven't done it so far and they're not going to. It's just rhetoric.

    I certainly agree with you that it doesn't seem like common sense to allow most of our commerce to operate in other countries using foreign labor when we have a job shortage here. If we do, then it needs to be heavily taxed.

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  2. Good idea about taxing American companies that outsource operations. When I call Nook technical support it sounds like these people are from another country. Certainly, it makes no sense to give tax breaks to companies to companies with the idea that they will hire. In Massachusetts, the state has given tax breaks to companies with the idea that they will stay and hire in Massachusetts but the companies just take the breaks and leave the state (at least some of these companies take the business to other places in the US).

    I bet you the personal information of Americans is not treated as carefully when customer service/medical services our outsourced. Maybe some restrictions on it are placed on outsourcing from privacy protection considerations.

    I think also tariffs should be considered on foreign goods to encourage US industry. I think people should consider that there would be some benefit even in goods initially cost more the US economy on the whole would benefit because there would be more jobs.

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