but I thought we were told last year that it was a good thing when our jobs go to India?
as far as what to do about it? seems simple to me, level the field a bit.
if you want to sell your product here, then you will comply with with all environmental, and human rights standards that American companies are required to operate under. (yes I do realize that there are other countries that think our standards are a bit low, I wouldn't blame them for giving us a similar ultimatum.)
then calculate how much tax is paid on the American competitors version of the product. from the taxes the company pays, to the income tax paid by the workers who built it. then add that tax on to the imports sticker price.
then you calculate how much we spend in security costs monitoring imports, break that down to dollars we spend per dollar value of imported products. then do the math for the value of the import and add that to the cost as well.
we should also pass legislation to help make it unprofitable to ship our raw materials over seas. here it's timber. when I was a kid the log-trucks ran all day. guys making a living falling trees, hauling them to the mill, and processing the logs.
now not only do we have to slow down the harvest rate, but the mills are mostly closed. other than a very few exceptions, the small stuff gets chipped up for paper and particle board.
what passes for larger sized timber these days usually has one of 2 fates. either way it stops in Longview to be loaded on to a Japanese ship where it will either be taken out to a processing ship, turned into lumber and shipped back to be sold here. or they load them on the same boats to ship them home and stockpile them until the price comes up.
no more selling logs. you need a 2x4? we got a guy who will sell you one. you need a chair? we'll sell you a chair.
with less jobs due to decreased harvesting it seems stupid to me to continue to have trade laws that make it more profitable to ship the log (and the job) over-seas instead of putting an American to work.
I think you'd find we can compete just fine with foreign competition if we don't get stupid and give the jobs away, and let foreign competitors compete under the same rules we do.
