When Will Your Job Go?
Anyone who has ever complained about U.S. jobs leaving the country (including this writer) need only try and buy a product that is actually manufactured in the United States of America. This is especially true of “Made-In America” items that are reasonably new - introduced within the past several years.
Trying to get a “sales rep” for a U.S. firm - that claims on its website that it manufactures the product needed - is somewhat like trying to find a doctor on Wednesday! The actual manufacturer of the product will refuse to give prices, availability or even the names of suppliers. They just refer consumers to the local “sales rep” and 90 percent of the time you get a voice mail box - leave a message and you might get a call back two or three days later from a “sales rep” who doesn’t have information or prices and has to start calling around to find out about the product. Again, you are lucky if one in ten ever gets back to you.
In the alternative, just make one single request for information from a Chinese, Taiwan or Japanese firm (or a trade delegation from those countries) about the product lines, availability and pricing and you will be deluged with e-mail, phone calls, faxes, catalogs and snail mail offering the product, quoting delivery times and prices.
When small U.S. firms want to have a product manufactured in this country, they get the runaround from American firms that claim to have facilities to manufacture the items. These are the companies that hire American workers and “sales reps.” After the frustrations of attempting to do business in America, the company will often contact a foreign supplier. Failing to get a bid from a U.S. company they often decide to “outsource the manufacturing job” to China or Taiwan or Pakistan. Usually, they are treated royally by the foreign sales rep - and they start shipping their manufacturing process to another country - and the jobs along with it!
Many of those foreign firms are extremely adept at reverse engineering or just copying a design - or even improving it. When they find they have been making a product for a U.S. firm and a demand exists, they start competing and putting it out under their own banner at a lower price. This puts the small U.S. firm out of business and gives the foreign manufacturer even more clout with the “bean counters” for giant retail outlets like Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sears, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
When an American worker (?) does get or have a job, they seem to be more concerned about fringe benefits, days off and vacation time than they are with the quality of their product or the service (?) to the consumer.
A recent visit to a men’s clothing store resulted in finding an entire section devoted to “Made In America” blazers. At first glance they appeared to be very nice jackets, but closer inspection revealed hanging threads, button-holes not opened and some even had shoddy sewing. The retail clerks were just standing around and not one had a little scissor to trim the threads or make the finished appearance (which should have been done by the U.S. manufacturer) acceptable so it could compete with the foreign made clothing items.
Buy an American made semi-automatic pistol or rifle and you better have a small file to get rid of the burs that will interfere with the operation of the weapon.
The
American flags we wave at parades, those yellow, car decals that say,
"Support the Troops" and even George Bush's "Made in
America" baseball cap are all products that are NOT made in America. Too
often it is only necessary to add a button or just a label and
the phrase”Made in America” is legal - and misleading.
The extensive outsourcing of jobs has been going on for over 40
years. Nobody cared too much when the Japanese made the xmas-tree lights and
some junk toys. It wasn't that long ago that "Look for the union
label" was a common theme in this country. But starting with the steel
industry and moving on to autos and related fields, the foreign manufacturers
have taken the jobs from union and non-union workers. The union label rarely
appears on anything anymore unless it is a Japanese firm by the name of
“Union”! Even the hardware from “Stanley” (an American and union firm)
is now stamped “China.”
Clear back in 1977, a new Cadillac had to be returned to the dealers three times to get all the items “tightened up” - loose handles, misadjusted doors and trunk lids that leaked. Not a lemon - just a break down in quality control and lack of pride on the part of the workers. By comparison a foreign made BMW hit the showroom and was as tight as a drum. Even the head of Ford Motor Company commented that when he walked through the company parking lot he noticed that more than half of the cars driven by Ford employees where foreign cars.
And it isn’t just the service and quality that is costing jobs - it is our basic tax structure. The amount of money the IRS collects from individual tax returns is almost identical to the amount spent by Congress in providing “entitlement” and other services that should not be the role of government. Those additional taxes add to the costs of doing business and the products that could be manufactured here in the U.S. This makes it even more difficult for an American company to compete in the ever-expanding world market.
Every time our President (Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II) signs a so-called “Free Trade Agreement” with another county it means a loss of jobs in the U.S. and a better life for the people in some other land. Often it results in another U.S. firm sending jobs out of the country.
Anyone who wants to know why American jobs are outsourced should look at their own work quality and then look at the work quality and service of their company’s so-called “sales rep”! Not enough? Take a look at all the services we Americans demand from our government (at all levels) and estimate the taxes paid to support that service. Those higher taxes mean a demand for higher wages and that leads to an export of jobs!