The Economy and The Elections

As our unemployment rate rises, so do the concerns of American citizens. In a recent MSNBC article, John Schoen discusses the economy and the loss of American jobs as one of the top concerns of citizens and a top priority for the presidential candidates. of course, the underlying cause of the rising unemployment rate is the closing of factories and their outsourcing to smaller, developing nations. But out of all of the job losses from factories to business sectors, factories has the most at 61,000 in August.

Despite the desperate need our economy has for an abrupt shift in the other direction, no short term changes will be possible. The priorities of the candidates are actually going to be centered on tax policies. As the article goes on to discuss other issues within our economy, Schoen inserts one direct statement involving globalization throughout the entire article, “Job cuts lost to globalization will not be easily restored”.

This of course is due to the fact that as companies save more money by moving to poorer nations, they don’t intend on coming back or reversing the effects of their choices.

From Michigan to Mexico

This recent MSNBC article is a prime example of outsourcing and the jeopardy that American jobs are in. When a refrigerator factory closed in Michigan, this rural town’s citizens were left desperate for a new source of income. The awful truth is that middle class citizens in America are losing their jobs every day as the corporations they work for pick up and move to developing nations looking for cheaper labor and lower working standards.

This cycle is negative for both sides of the party. More often than not, these small towns depend mostly on the employment of the factory within that town. When corporations begin to jump on the globalization band wagon and move to places like Mexico, the workers are left with no income and are immediately pushed into a rut. They, for example, are no longer able to provide education for their children, causing the cycle to repeat itself in the future.

On the other hand, the workers in Mexico who are desperate for jobs, take whatever they can financially. They are forced into unsafe working conditions, long days, they’re deprived of their rights, and work grueling tasks without enough pay to show for it. This process benefits only the corporations who cause it.

The Giant Sucking Sound

As large cooperations are steadily learning the benefits of outsourcing to other countries, we often only see the negative effects that globalization has on the countries the cooperations are outsourcing to. But because of the increase in jobs overseas, millions of jobs are being lost here in the US. This process has been referred to as “The Giant Sucking Sound.”

This article, “Trade, outsourcing and tariffs top 08′ concerns”, released on August 4th 2008 on MSNBC, covers the stance of the presidential candidates on the issues with our economy. Claims are made in the article that globalization lowers prices on consumer goods and offers a larger variety of products. However, this is not necessarily true. Just because cooperations save money by outsourcing and through the development of sweatshops does not mean that those savings must be passed on to us as the consumers. Along with that, the benefit of product increase is not worth the negative effects on the global economy.

Sen. John McCain seems to be a supporter of NAFTA. He stated, “I have to convince them [America] the consequences of protectionism and isolationism could be damaging to their future.” Unfortunately, I disagree with Sen. McCain. The only reaspon any unification is coming out of free trade is because of the domination our cooperations have over smaller, poorer countries.

Sen. Obama believes that NAFTA needs to create stircter labor and environmental standards, but he is in favor of trade agreements with specific countries. He has even stated that he believes our progress as a country has been sparked by the free market.

Reading through this article, I find myself disagreeing more with Sen. McCain. Free trade only benefits the US and other developed nations rather than the world as a whole. I believe that if Anerica plans on going on the with the rebuilding of poorer countries and claiming to be as powerful as we are, we need to see the effects of free trade on a global scale.

Shrimp Sweatshop?

In a recent CNN article released in April, a three-year investigation came to a close against specific US retailers who were tied to factories in Thailand and Bangladesh with poor working conditions. These retailers include Wal-Mart, Costco, and Trader Joes’s. The report compared the treatment and abuse of these workers, some as young as 8, to that of slaves.

It’s apparent that the condition of these poor countries was taken advantage of in this situation. Sweatshops do not help growth and they certainly do not benefit anyone but the large corporations “supporting” them. They only widen the gap between the rich and poor and the “winners and losers.” It may be easy to forget but the wages and ill-treatment of these workers does in fact effect us as the consumers of these products.

The example provided in this article happens to coincide with one of the largest myths of globalization; “Free Trade Benefits Consumers.”

This unfortunately is false. Despite all of the money these corporations are saving and the fact that the “race to the bottom” is causing workers’ wages to plummet, the savings are not necessarily passed on to the consumers. In fact, many of the coporations raise prices as they find countries that offer lower wages, which brings me to refute the next myth that states: “US Workers Don’t Need to Worry About Globalization Because We’re So Much More Productive”.

This also is untrue. Corporations are costantly spreading to other countries where work is cheaper and productivity is on the same level as it is in the US.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/24/shrimp.retailers/index.html?iref=newssearch