Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamenspiel
That's a very narrow perspective, offshoring is not just about jobs that are gone, its also about the new jobs being off-shored. Engineering, law, technology, and IT technologies are in danger of being off-shored as well. These jobs are off-shored at the margin and 10-15% tax breaks are enough to keep the local economy moving in many cases.
Its lead what is called "near shoring", it happening in New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec. Tax advantages are happening for keeping the work local. Its a valid public policy goal and has a lot of support among liberals.
Japan is already doing this as Nikon and Canon are bringing their work back to Japan. Democrats were supporting the "Buy American" provision and this is potentially a bi-partisan effort. Trump is not out on the fringe here.
The ultimate threat to these jobs will be automation, in the meantime there is no need to be in such a rush to hull out our local industries.
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It's not a narrow perspective it's what is happening. You can not expect to keep manufacturing jobs in a country that, in general, has much higher costs to manufacture and live. The reality is the US is not a third or second world country. That isn't going to change.
And you have pressure from the other side of things. The same people that want the manufacturing jobs back teach their kids to get that education and encourage to do so so that they don't need to take that manufacturing job. The economy and market has to change to reflect those changes and it is. I understand it's hard on those places with the manufacturing losses. I live in such an area and know that very very well.
To your point...yes those other professions are also starting to get shipped out. And I'm not saying things can't be done to encourage local business and local jobs to help reverse or curtail that flow. But for manufacturing it isn't going to happen. For those other and in many cases highly educated jobs I agree fully that it needs to be looked at closely and policies can be put in place. That is where the attention of federal and state governments need to be because that is what the people who are 15-25 right now are going to need in 15-20 years. You can't sell that to the rural communities that lost a factory any more than you can sell doing nothing for them. They also don't care that you are putting some stuff in place to encourage more doctors, lawyers and engineers remain or have jobs in the cities.
People need to understand that when it comes to country direction etc that you can't simply focus on the short term me me me. It's a different frame of mind than what the US has culturally believed. I understand that. It's a frame of mind that is also coming more to the forefront because just like each generation is encouraged to go out and get that education they are also encouraged to look around them and do things for the greater good. It's not socialism to suggest one should make a decision based on the greater good of the country as a whole and your neighbors rather than what is necessarily best for you. But the US isn't there....yet.
In short, until there are some politicians that actually want to do the right things instead of the easy things that get them re-elected the issues aren't going to change.
The Tea Party, Trump and GOP as a whole aren't those guys. The democrats really aren't either but I think that is where most of the people who can provide that direction and vision live. Some center republicans as well I guess...perhaps Romney fits this. Other than that there is a majority of people that want to shape the country based on what they personally believe and nothing else. That isn't good.