Somebody tell Trump that China didn't steal our jobs -- corporations gave them away

[Vidal]

"Trump's trade war points the finger in the wrong direction. China behaved normally; corporate CEOs betrayed us."

"Donald Trump loves to blame China for the job losses that have devastated American workers under globalization. But the truth is that Trump is blaming the wrong party. Trump’s reckless trade war against China is misguided and amounts to a colossal charade that will not solve the actual problem."

China was an underdeveloped nation with a large population of poor people willing to work for a fraction of the hourly wages of American workers. And then corporations came along and presented China with an attractive offer: We would like to build manufacturing plants in China and hire droves of your unemployed people to work there. What was China supposed to do? Naturally, China said yes.

This is hardly stealing. It is true that these new jobs in China were intended to displace American workers. But does that concern belong to China? Does China have the responsibility to care for the well-being of American workers? Is China supposed to prioritize American workers over its own workers? Of course not."

Read More: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/27/no-mr-president-china-didnt-steal-our-jobs-corporate-america-gave-them-away/

[watoos]

1. It's partly our blame too,

I never shopped at Walmart when it moved into town.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. My friend is middle-aged and was looking for other prospects of income.

His other friend approached him with an offer: Come join him in soliciting American businesses to move their operations to China. He promised lucrative rewards and not much work required as there would not be much resistance to these offers.

My point: Even if certain businesses were/are reluctant to move, due to patriotism or ethics, they will move -- for the sake of the bottom line. Maybe to make more profit. Maybe to stay competitive. I agree with the OP: China may have had a modicum of influence, but it's American businesses moving more American businesses overseas.

[flying_wahini]

3. And they got tax breaks for doing it!

Big Pharma made a killing on taxes alone for shipping products already cheap & available in the US back and forth just to get $$$.

[Prof. P.E. Name]

4. If "The Business of America is Business," then it follows that Corporations and their supplicants

In Washington are the real reason for the changed business model guaranteeing low wage economies would displace American workers in our economy.
First, the tax code regs were changed allowing a deduction and even an incentive to dismantle capital goods, i.e., machines, to ship them to China. As a GE engineer said who was involved in this endeavor told me, “We’re just sending them our old junk. They’ll never catch up to us.” How wrong he was.

Second, the conservative economist Lester Thurow pointed out years ago, corporations will invariably shift work to low wage economies with poor environmental regulations. The shift of production would, according to Thurow, go to Asia first then to Africa. The first phase is now in place.

Apparently degrading the human condition is a by-product of the system.

[Firestorm49]

5. Years ago........

a family could be financed with one wage earner. There was a thing called upward mobility that allowed the middle class to grow and thrive. One could put their kids through college with a single wage earner. Labor unions bolstered the new middle class and created situations where competing companies had to offer similar or better wages to attract workers.

Then, for some not so mysterious reason, money began to disproportionately flow up to the more wealthy in society at the expense of those who help manufacture their wealth. Less money in the hands of Joe and Jane Blow meant that they now needed a second job, or another person in the family to supplement the same life style that they had become customer to.

Time marches on, goods and services get more expensive, less dollars in the hands of the common man. As a result, corporations seeks ways to cut cost, and move overseas. Corporations needed to lower prices in order to survive.

Now we come to today where it’s difficult for two wage earners to make a living. Rent in big cities is atrocious, forcing many to group together in a single apartment. Young people are supporting two or three jobs just to get by.

What does this have to do with corporations? Since we have fewer dollars to spend, corporations found the need to make products cheaper so that we could buy them. Why? Because we, the public, were getting systematically raped by the GOP’s war on labor unions and upward mobility. The culture of greed and the republican ideology has been a long term goal and is coming to fruition. There has never been anything more insidious than the assault on the very people that they to want keep them in power. Corporations accepted this philosophy with open arms.

So, what comes next? Corporate greed has supplanted economic growth. Unequal tax policies have stripped more spendable income from those who need it just to live. The common man is being reduced to commodity status. We are being played by interests who do not have our concerns. “The common good” is an antiquated term, much like “transparency.”

The future will be interesting indeed. How much more can Joe and Jane Blow be screwed by corporate greed and a government that cares more about money and power than the very people it begs for a vote? Time will tell.

[duforsure]

6. He knows that,

He and his family still choose to manufacture most of their products in China and other foreign countries, so this comment he made is another lie. Even he doesn't put America first in his businesses. Just another con artist trying to con his followers into believing something that isn't true at all. That's his pattern, lie , lie, and then lie some more. Just like he'll claim this trip he was worshiped and praised more than anyone ever in our history around the world, all lies.

[appalachiablue]

7. The US doesn't make baseball caps, TVs, coffee pots or socks anymore

I never have, and never will shop at Walmart and big box stores