Let's take the example of a US-based company that designs and markets an industrial temperature controller.
The device is made in the US, and sells for around $120. It costs something like $40 to make. A competitor from India is offering to sell comparable devices to the company for $28, some $12 less than the US cost of manufacturing! And that's without any long-term commitments as to volume, and with the Indian company making a good profit. If you don't take up the offer from overseas, someone else is going to start importing those products, and your prices are going to be undercut by 50%. Your market will disappear; your employees will be out of work; and your shareholders, most of whom are pension funds, won't see profits with which to pay the pensions of the retired. If you were the CEO of the US company, what would you do? As long as the only thing that people care about is price, we're kinda screwed. But here's the GOOD news that you don't hear: "Official statistics published last March in the Survey of Current Business showed an increase of 2.8 million jobs outsourced by American-owned multinational corporations during a quarter of a century ending in 2001. Over that same span of time, there was an increase of 4.7 million jobs outsourced to Americans by foreign-owned multinational corporations (in-sourcing) [and you won't find anything in the 'major' media on it]." -- Thomas Sowell (http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3907) Dennis Tester Mac-Groveland ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gail" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 6:44 PM Subject: [StPaul] Re: Stpaul Digest Midway and big chains I'm not knowledgeable enough to start a topic on Wal-Mart-ization, but I hope someone will, as I'm still in a quandary about the whole issue. Not long ago a link to a survey on Midway stores was posted on this site. Then came the Wal-Mart discussion, and I can understand Tim's concern that the it ranged far beyond St. Paul. Then Jackie offered some interesting comments on Wal-Mart and other huge chains and how they impact retail space and community. These are all inextricably related, and I urge someone to help us pursue it. I'm struck by how impossible it is to buy American goods in just about any store, at whatever level. China, Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico are the countries that come to mind first as suppliers to even high-end companies. "Imported" used to mean something special and pricy; now it means they don't want to admit what 3rd world employees are being exploited to make unreasonably high profits for stockholders. And since most of us have a stake in those profits - either through a pension plan or personal investments in mutual funds or 401-ks, we can't be superior and reject the filthy profit motive. Midway is a microcosm illustrating all those relationships - poor neighborhood serving the immediate community and contiguous wealthier communities, low wages, cheap imported goods dominating the market and driving small retailers and craftspeople out of business. So the best we can do with a Mervyn's is CVS???? Is that the kind of answer we want for St. Paul? Realizing that Dennis is right about the general success of government-controlled business, I still think there's room for government regulations and careful decisions about financing. Please, can we keep discussing this somehow? I think there's a lot to sort out specific to St. Paul and how we want our city to develop over the next several decades. (BTW I'd welcome Hillary Care to what's happened now, and I have never felt the delicious freedom of being able to go across the street for a better offer. Union shackles gave us humane benefits that help everyone, union or not.) Gail O'Hare St. Paul
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