Why is it bad for jobs to go overseas?

[kranky]

I think you can already see the impact of importing too much stuff - the middle class is shrinking. People are gravitating towards the ends of the income spectrum. Where I live, all the good paying steel jobs are gone - we buy steel from Japan instead. What do we have now? Call centers for Dish TV paying $8.50, low-paying retail jobs, and nursing home jobs. The number of jobs might be the same, but they sure don't pay what the manufacturing jobs did.

Is there a single company left in the US that makes shoes? I think there's only a handful that make clothes. Tool and die makers? All gone to Japan. Aluminum castings? China. People would rather pay a little less, and the businesses respond by importing what used to be made here. Those jobs are gone, and they ain't coming back. We pretend we can survive with a "service-based" economy, but the problem is that they only have two kinds of jobs - a huge number of low-paying jobs, and a small number of high-paying jobs. Nothing in the middle.

We're essentially paying the rest of the world to catch up to the US.

 

[wyvrn]

I am not sure the textbook answer because I have only had 1 micro and 1 macro economics class. If all countries wanted to redeem all the American bills at the same time, the US probably would have too much money in circulation and then excessive inflation. But, I think other countries like to use our currency because it is stable and can always be traded anywhere with an expected rate of return. It is almost the worldwide gold standard, in essence. Smaller countries with unstable currency probably find it easier to deal in American dollars than to getting their economy stabilized. I doubt all American dollars will be redeemed such that the Fed would be crapping their pants at too much currency in circulation. But I dunno, that's just my thoughts.

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: wyvrn

ok so they have our money... which they must get back to us somehow, since the only place where dollars have any real value is in the united states... not to mention with all the money that the companies save, that must go into profits, which means that the CEO's will have more money to spend, right?

Even if they were paid in American currency, which they are likely not, that does not mean those dollars get spent on American items. American currency is the world's most stable. Many countries banks favor it over their own. You can take American currency to many countries and buy stuff off the store shelf. That money goes into that store's bank. Banks will take it for deposit. Or you can exchange for the local currency. In either case, the American dollars don't always come back to America. For instance in Cambodia, the American dollar is used FAR MORE than their local currency. It is basically the defacto currency! I don't think you understand this subject very well.

no, of course i don't understand this subject very well, that's why i made this thread... i'm a computer science major, not economics

so basically what you are saying is that whenever the dollar goes overseas, we introduce more money into their economy in the long run? doesn't that sort of have catastrophic implications for inflation over there?

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: gopunk
so basically what you are saying is that whenever the dollar goes overseas, we introduce more money into their economy in the long run? doesn't that sort of have catastrophic implications for inflation over there?

One side effect of running a huge trade deficit (which sends dollars overseas) is that the other countries end up with a lot of our dollars. One popular thing that those countries do with them is buy US Treasury bonds. That ready market for our IOUs makes it easy for us to continue to run budget deficits. But the inevitable outcome is that they become our owners. They control the market for our debt. If the Japanese ever decided they didn't want to own US Treasury bonds any more, we would be in deep trouble. Interest rates would skyrocket - they would have to, in order to attract the buyers we must have.

 

[theNEOone]

you are dumb. that is all.

 

[Siddhartha]

My company is moving its manufacturing to Mexico. These were well paying jobs that provided health, education, and pension benefits. Most of the people who had these jobs did not go to college. They might be able to find employment at a place like Burger King for a lot less pay and no benefits. The company is saving a lot of money in labor and environmental regulations costs. The communities that lost the plants are screwed. In the long term the US is going to be screwed because of the lost of a middle class tax base.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: gopunk
so basically what you are saying is that whenever the dollar goes overseas, we introduce more money into their economy in the long run? doesn't that sort of have catastrophic implications for inflation over there?

One side effect of running a huge trade deficit (which sends dollars overseas) is that the other countries end up with a lot of our dollars. One popular thing that those countries do with them is buy US Treasury bonds. That ready market for our IOUs makes it easy for us to continue to run budget deficits. But the inevitable outcome is that they become our owners. They control the market for our debt. If the Japanese ever decided they didn't want to own US Treasury bonds any more, we would be in deep trouble. Interest rates would skyrocket - they would have to, in order to attract the buyers we must have.

ah i see.... ok thanks 🙂 that makes a lot more sense than the loss of jobs in the short term.

 

[Dragnov]

lol, I love how everyone terms it "stealing" away jobs from America. It's not as if these countries are the ones coming in and stealing them, but its the companies that are getting up and leaving. So while everyone wants to go blame India, Mexico, etc. needs to take another look who is to blame.

Anti-globalizationists have been around forever. They like to say its just simply about cheaper labor and freedom from environmental regulation, which is sometimes but not always the case. They were the ones crying over Japan, and then once they were wrong about Japan, they started crying about Korea and Taiwan, and when they were wrong about that, now they are starting to cry about China.

And for the "I only buy USA!" type, take a look at where your computer parts are from.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: Eli
Why does it make people there buy american goods?

We don't make many things that are in demand in other countries.

because they are american dollars...? where else would you be able to spend american dollars

Huh????? Have you been hittin' the pipe? lol..

It's not like the people in other countries are paid in american dollars.... ???

Even if they were, you can still spend the dollars in your native country.. and that doesen't necessarily mean that they come back here.

I've never taken econ or anything, so I really don't know a whole lot about it.. but I do know that our trade deficit is huge, lol..

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
Wow, someone is delusional today...

Jobs that are moved overseas are taken away from your fellow americans... your neighbor, your husband/wife, your friends and family. This means they are unemployed or are working harder/less paying jobs just to stay afloat.

 

[AZGamer]

Originally posted by: Dingleberries
Ok, I'm a poli sci minor and if you read up on globalism from both the left and right wing sides, you will find objections for it. Everyone pretty much agrees that it does take jobs away from Americans. Political leaders pretty much think that globalism is inevitable and don't want to be left behind with progress, although they all agree that American jobs will be lost to other countries. This is a two way street, however, because although we will get cheaper products (although sometimes they are of less quality), jobs will be lost on American soil. The jobs created in other countries are done for a lesser wage than would have been in America, so in the end the corporations penis benefit. Read up on the WTO protests in Seattle if you wanna find out more about this.

The correct grammar would be corporations' penis.

Wait a minute, you can't say penis on ATOT 🙂

 

[johnjohn320]

Originally posted by: piku
Uh...

I'll let someone more qualified and/or motivated explain it.

Why did you post this?

And yes I realize the irony of my own post here.

 

[RedFox1]

It wouldn't be bad except that people aren't as easy to retrain as they are in Warcraft. (When the mine runs out, just grab them and right-click a forest).

In any case, most companies that leave do so because we gave them a reason to...taxes, high minimum wage, too much regulation. So we only have ourselves to blame. But on the other hand, if they're leaving to escape minimum wages or regulation they may be companies that we're better off without. (Maybe)

-Russ

 

[Dudd]

The whole globalization issue is simple: people love capitalism, but only in their own country. When they realize that their job is meaningless and can be done for a fraction of the cost by an unskilled worker in China, they are understandably pissed. There is only one solution- American's have to compete. We can't simply do what we've always done because everyone else can do that now cheaper. We simply are at a disadvantage when it comes to relatively unskilled labor. The only solution is to up the general education level of the US, or else we will fall further behind other countries. That's fine with me- I plan on getting a skill, not sit around complaining that those damn Indians have my job and are starting to slowly come out of poverty.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: Eli
Why does it make people there buy american goods?

We don't make many things that are in demand in other countries.

because they are american dollars...? where else would you be able to spend american dollars

Huh????? Have you been hittin' the pipe? lol..

It's not like the people in other countries are paid in american dollars.... ???

Even if they were, you can still spend the dollars in your native country.. and that doesen't necessarily mean that they come back here.

I've never taken econ or anything, so I really don't know a whole lot about it.. but I do know that our trade deficit is huge, lol..

no i haven't been hitting the pipe... american companies have american dollars. whether they have to exchange the dollars for some other currency first is irrelevant, either way our dollars end up over there in exchange for some services.

 

[NetGuySC]

it America's Union's fault ... many people expect to be paid +$20/hr to do a menial job, but if they want to pay me to help them move furniture or whatever ... these same people offer to pay like $20 a day.

If I can help it I will not buy from a USA made product if that company is unionized. (hence I refuse to buy a Ford or Chevy product for the union reason and also for I feel that they are low quality vehicles).

The unions have priced the cost of menial labor to high companies to be competitive in any market.

I will not even get into the price of insurance, workman's comp etc the US companies must contend with.

Hell if I were a US company I would not be based here either.

 

[HappyCracker]

^ Heh yeah, regulations here are real stiff, and there's plenty of lawyers availible to help you out. Also, many, many Americal workers are lazy. You know how the Russians set up communism? Where was the incentive to work hard if you were still going to get paid the same? Also, there's not a lot of honor in American business. People are losing faith in companies after the whole Enron thing. I'm no expert, but if they lose faith in companies, would they lose faith in the dollar too? I know faith in the dollar is very important especially since the US got off the gold standard.