John Lee wrote:
> This article from NYTimes.com
> has been sent to you by [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Interesting and it affects our industry
...
>
> Op-Ed Contributor: Second Thoughts on Free Trade
>
> January 6, 2004
>  By CHARLES SCHUMER and PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
>

There's an Editorial in the WSJ today that seems to be a response to Mr.
Schumer and Mr. Roberts.  I can't post the whole piece but here's some
fair-use snippets:

We Are the World

By HARVEY GOLUB.  (Mr. Golub, retired chairman and CEO of American Express,
is currently chairman of TH Lee Putnam Ventures and ClientLogic. He is also
a senior adviser to Lazard and serves on the boards of Campbell Soup and Dow
Jones, publisher of this newspaper.)

One of the big issues shaping up for the 2004 election is "globalization,"
or more specifically, why globalization is bad for American workers. Almost
every day there is an article or a speech somewhere about the U.S. "jobless
recovery." In many cases, they are accompanied by expressions of concern
about "exporting" jobs to India, the negative trade balance with China,
unfair trade practices on the part of other countries, and the like. They
normally include suggestions that we need to do something -- usually couched
in terms of making these other countries adhere to U.S. rules and
regulations, but really aimed at making them less competitive.
...
U.S. businesses rightly seek ways of increasing their economic flexibility,
converting fixed costs to variable, and focusing more on core strengths and
capabilities. All of these efforts are geared toward making U.S. companies
economically competitive on a world scale -- because they compete on a world
scale and because customers demand continuously lower costs. This has led to
outsourcing manufacturing, outsourcing services, outsourcing servicing and
outsourcing business processes. It has also led to a high level of capital
expenditures, a cleaner environment and huge increases in productivity.
Moreover, it has resulted in lower costs for consumers, which in turn has
helped the consumer engine drive the U.S. economy for decades. These shifts
have been enabled by low-cost communications, computer technology and rising
educational levels around the world.

Almost all sensible economists and business people believe that this is a
generally wealth-enhancing transfer, and good for our nation and the world.
Many also believe that this is a good thing generally, but that their
industry or their company is different and ought to be protected. Others,
however, are concerned: Will the lost jobs be replaced by others of equal or
increased value? Will the displaced workers find new jobs? Will these shifts
result in a hollowed out U.S. economy? Their policy prescriptions are to
make it harder for U.S. companies to move work where it can be done more
cheaply and/or with better quality, or to impose on foreign nations our
labor or environmental standards, which they believe would have the same
effect.

...If a policy prescription for this "problem" is needed, and I'm not sure
one is, then wouldn't it be better to improve our "product," so that
businesses will choose to create jobs here because the product is better,
rather than them being forced to do so?

...

By all means strive for a fair trading system globally. But do nothing at
the governmental level aimed at creating barriers to the mobility of capital
or labor. To ensure that we maintain a competitive advantage, we should
adhere to the policies that have worked for more than two centuries: Reduce
the unnecessary intrusiveness of government in the choices people make,
improve the effectiveness and reduce the costs of needed government
services, fundamentally eliminate governmental price controls, and restore
equity in our legal system.

Even with these actions, some jobs will move overseas. I certainly hope so.
Our policy goals ought to be to improve the environment for growth. By
remaining flexible, we will create more jobs here in numbers large enough to
require us to export even more jobs or to import more people. Either way,
both we and the rest of the world benefit.

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