NY TIMES letter says it's fine if IBM ships jobs overseas.

[Eric J in MN]

This economist says it's fine if IBM lays off thousands of computer programmers and replaces them with people in other countries.

Why?

Because free-trade mostly affects low-skill jobs.

He ignores that computer programming is high-skill labor, and we need both low-skill and high-skill jobs in America.

He cares more about economic theory than about the thousands of people suffering because of the theory of how "free trade" benefits us.

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Free Trade: Winners and Losers (5 Letters)

Published: January 11, 2004
To the Editor:

Re "Second Thoughts on Free Trade," by Charles Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts (Op-Ed, Jan. 6):

The fact that a worker in India now can write lines of computer code for I.B.M. does not pose an existential threat to economic theory.

Falling transportation and information costs have allowed us to split the production of goods and some services into chunks that are done in many parts of the world. Within each industry, the jobs shifted overseas tend to be the lowest-skilled ones. The result, for us and for other countries, is lower-cost goods, more investment resources and a higher average standard of living.

If your job is the one outsourced, this is no consolation. But the appropriate job of public policy is not to protect any particular class of jobs, but to give the average American worker the skills and flexibility necessary to adjust to changes in the global marketplace.

DAVID H. FELDMAN
Williamsburg, Va., Jan. 6, 2004
The writer is a professor of economics, College of William and Mary.

[Nobody]

1. Let's outsource all economist jobs to India

Beginning with David H. Feldman's job. And then we won't budget anything for retraining through the unemployment office. Just like what happened to many friends of mine. All computer experts, all eligible for paid retraining, but nothing in the budget. You can't afford school when you don't have a job.

We'll give him the skills and flexibility to stock shelves at his local Wal-Mart like a computer programmer neighbor in my old neighborhood is doing.

[jonoboy]

3. right on !

[salin]

5. Since he is a professor (presumably)

let him watch Us reverse tenure policy... and begin to let go more expensive and experienced PHd Professors, for foreign professors brought in who would teach for much lower salaries. Let him take his flexible skills elsewhere - as each of those sectors brings in cheaper replacements faster than he can upgrade his skills.

[aquart]

2. "The appropriate job of public policy"

Is to ensure the well-being of Americans. That is, if it's American public policy.

And I agree, the dim-witted twit with a fancy degree is ignoring actual fact: that the outcry is because it's the SKILLED jobs that are being moved.

Scary. This guy is a teacher. What a wealth of ignorance his students will learn from him.

[Eric J in MN]

4. after the low-skill and high-skill jobs are both sent overseas, what

After the low-skill and high-skill jobs are both sent overseas, what kind of country will we be? What kind of opportunities does that leave?