Posted by
Juwar74 on Monday, August 25, 2008 12:30:23 AM
With India and China growing exponentially in the East, American
corporations are becoming less likely to show their allegiance to the
United States. To cut costs and maximize profit, they have diverted
productions overseas and left many Americans out in the cold. They've
basically jumped ship, and have refused to apologize for it. There is an increasing
concern by conservatives that if the Democrats control Washington, more
American corporations will jump due to imposed tax increases. That is a
legitimate argument, but those people who believe that are essentially
naive about corporations and business.
American corporations
don't see themselves as "American." Nowadays, every one of them is
striving to be a "global" corporation that just happens to work out of
America. They set up operations throughout the world through unpopular
trade deals like NAFTA. Some Americans don't like it when corporations
see themselves that way--what's with all this "global" nonsense? If
they are "global", they may send their jobs off globally.
Politically,
the economic situation in America comes down to two arguments: we're in
this mess due to a) Big Corporation is shipping jobs overseas because
they are just plain greedy (The Democrats' position) or b) because they
are being taxed up the wazoo by socialist jerks (The Republicans'
position). However, both of them miss the mark about the opportunities
that could arise in a free market economy such as ours if many American
corporation do decide to continue to put the squeeze on the American
worker.
The fact is the American people could just create more
corporations to compete with those who are jumping ship. Corporations
are nothing more than just a bunch of investors. They can pull their
money out or put their money in anytime they feel like it.
If
the American people wanted to, they could stick it to corporations like
GM, GE, Microsoft, IBM, Halliburton, Verizon, and all the rest who
offshore by boycotting these corporations. The problem, however, is
getting people to overcome their fears. They doubt themselves when they
say, "How can we compete with McDonald's, or Nike, or WalMart? They are
multi-billion dollar corporations?" That's true. But they always
weren't. They all started out small.
So how can the American
people fight back against outsourcing? Well, this is the beauty of a
free market. Pool your money together and compete against the WalMarts,
McDonalds and the GMs. Use the internet to create economic coalitions.
I'll give an example. Let's take WalMart.
If you are worried
that WalMart will destroy small businesses, use your tax base to buy a
building near WalMart and sell only local products, something like a
big flea and farmer's market. If successful, you could franchise the
concept. But remember that that would take a serious community effort.
Americans nowadays feel as if they can't compete against the WalMarts of the world. So they think why bother.
This is the death nail. They have defeated themselves before even trying.
What is really stopping a coalition of concern Americans to create a brand new car company like GM?
Sometimes I just wonder about the spirit of the American people. Whether its just a farce or a media talking point.