What's That Sucking Sound?.....Globalization Sucks

What is that giant sucking sound? That is the sound of thousands of jobs leaving the country. Country is a big word. Let’s make it a little more real. That is the sound of jobs leaving Michigan.

Globalization. Big word. What does it mean? Big US companies move their manufacturing, production, and high-tech jobs to countries where they can pay people very little money. Bad for us, great for them. Ask Korea.

Korea was one of the first beneficiaries of the rush to globalization. When their workforce became more skilled, they demanded more money. Jobs and factories then went elsewhere. There is no end to the quest to make just a little more money. Why pay $30 per day when you can pay $6 per day in labor?

In the industrial revolution, large employers worked their people to death, exposing them to workplace dangers and shortening their lives. In fact, for a while Nike was on the outs because of the labor they were using in Third World countries. Now they should be considered a trendsetter in globalization.

In fact, why do we care that cheap labor in China is being exploited and that people are working in slave-like conditions? I mean, we can buy the product at Wal-mart for $.87 less because of their efforts. If China doesn't care about its people, why should we?

Why keep a job in American when you have to pay a decent wage? Send it overseas to a country that is so in need of economic development that you can build a factory without worrying too much about safety and where you certainly don’t have the oversight you would have in America?

We are told that globalization will help us in the form of lower prices. I’m waiting.

What globalization really does is reduce us to the lowest common denominator. Jobs will move back to the US when US workers are making as little as the skilled workers in different third-world countries. Eventually we will get the jobs back, but at a fraction of what they were paying before.

Why should we make it so easy for companies to surf the world looking for cheap labor? Is it that important that we “globalize?” At what cost is the globalization? If these are companies that are “American,” are they American in name only? "Made in America" is a thing of the past. "Made for America" is more like it.

Well, maybe I’m overreacting. There is always McDonalds. Would you like fries with that order?

Blawgerman