At 05:12 PM 3/13/2004 -0800 Doug Pensinger wrote:
>>>> One poorly stood conclusion of economics is that "Buy American"
>>>> campaigns
>>>> (or as Doug recently suggested, "Loyalty Polcies") are actually highly
>>>> counterproductive.
>>>>
>
>We were discussing the relationship between employers and employees. Why
>is employer loyalty essentially "buy American?"
Its two sides of the same coin.
In your example, the producer's choice is essentially between loyalty to
the current employee *or* contracting out the employee's job to a
lower-cost overseas producer. Certainly, in the short term, the employer
can either accept lower margins or else rely upon the willingness of
consumers to "buy american". In the long term, however, this is
unsustainable - the employer will be forced to choose the best combination
of quality and price available for his inputs.
I'm not sure by what you mean that employers should not "kick their
employees." Forgive me if I am putting words in your both, but I once
argued with someone who firmly believed that employees had a right to not
have their jobs become obsolete, and my best interpretation of your remarks
is along similar lines.
Firing employees is a very necessary component of economic efficiency, and
hence economic growth. For example, even during the boom years of the
1990s, the US economy was losing some 2,000,000 jobs each *month*. Rather
than recommending policies to protect existing jobs, a much better
recommendation would be policies to let workers switch from one job to
another as quickly and easily as possible.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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