Slave Labor and Tariffs: Good for America
Before you start sending me hate mail about the slave labor reference, read the whole article. It’s not what you’re thinking.
In the US, we have an economy that has tanked, soaring unemployment, a huge trade deficit (unless you place exported dollars and jobs in the “out column”), prisons that are overflowing, health care that is crippling us financially, and we’re fighting an imbalanced war. I’m referring to a trade war. Yes, I will tie all this together.
All the headlines are about the imbalanced war that we are fighting against terrorists. They fight dirty and we fight clean. How can we expect to win?
Nobody is talking about the trade war? How can keep industries and jobs from moving overseas when skilled workers overseas work for far less than our minimum wage, receive no health benefits, and are virtual slaves? How can we sell our goods in China when they Chinese government artificially holds the currency exchange rate in their favor? We can’t even compete with the Chinese here in the US market? We lost this war before long before it was in vogue to declare non-military wars such as the war on drugs. Manufacturing is all but gone in the US as are the manufacturing jobs that we once had.
President Obama is touring Asia. When he hints at the unfairness of the way the Chinese tightly control the exchange rate between the dollar and the Yuan, they cry protectionism. But if their Yuan policy isn’t protectionism, I don’t know what is.
We need to level the playing field, and if you think my proposal is protectionism, my response is: so what? Why do we have to label things as always being good or always being bad? If we need to be protectionist to the same extent as the other side in a trade war in order to level the playing field, why is that a bad thing? Clearly it would be better if they would level the playing the field, but history has shown us that they are unwilling to do so because they care about their economy, not ours. Shouldn’t we care more about our economy than we do theirs?
We should place tariffs on imports from countries that don’t play fair. You may argue that doing so will increase the price we pay for these goods. And you’re right. But in the long run, we need to make it financially attractive to bring manufacturing back to the US. Since our labor is more expensive both in terms of salary and health benefits, the cost to manufacture here is going to be higher. Keep in mind that the other option to level the playing field is to lower US wages and get rid of employer sponsored health benefits.
What do we do with the tariff dollars? We fund universal health care in whatever form it eventually takes. That step closes the loop on the fairness and the level playing field. We keep our health care. We regain our manufacturing. And as a by-product, we increase our tax revenue without raising taxes. At the same time, we provide incentive for those countries that don’t play fair to start playing fair with the exchange rate and to find ways to increase the standard of living of their own people. If they start playing fair, we’ll start talking about reducing tariffs.
But let’s get back to the jobs and slave labor. We have millions of people in prison in this country. Not only aren’t they gainfully employed and paying taxes, they are getting free housing, free food, and free health care. One could argue that they live easier lives than the overseas slaves who work in the factories that make our electronic gadgets and lead-coated toys.
Why should prisoners get a free ride? Let’s train them and put them to work in factories that manufacture the things that we currently buy from overseas? Let’s provide incentives to US companies who open factories by giving them free prisoner labor so we can make electronic gadgets and lead-free toys that can compete at the cash register with the overseas crap that we buy today.
Why should we speak to somebody in India when we call for customer service? Why can’t we speak to a US prisoner who works as a customer service agent instead?
You may say that we are taking away US jobs by undercutting the minimum wage with free labor. But the jobs I want to fill are jobs that no longer exist in the US because they have been shipped overseas.
And you might accuse me of going down a slippery slope. If we start with prisoners, the next step will be to get some people to work for their welfare checks if they are in a position to do so. So, what’s your point?
