Are "price controls" the answer? Are "profit controls" the answer?

[loudnclear]

Job exports...this is the topic for the election.

Carla Hills and other arguing for outsourcing jobs as a means for lowering prices and lower costs in the US.

Why not just lower prices and costs and keep the jobs here? (Am I crazy?)

[Deja Q]

1. They claim prices will go down

That's utter bullshit. Since when have you seen foreign outsourcing lead to lower prices? I haven't.

Microsoft's been shipping jobs to India. Have you seen Office2003 prices go down? No. In fact, prices had GONE UP. Up is not down.

Foreign outsourcing is one big fucking lie when they use the excuse it'll mean lower prices for us. It's all about execs' profits and the extermination of the middle class. Nothing more.

All we can hope for is that the 3rd world countries with nukes piss each other off and blow each other up or the corporations see that what they are doing is destroying the country, themselves too in the long run, and reverse the trend. How will corporate america feel then? (note, this is sarcasm. Nuclear bombs are best dismantled, not used... but with Pakistan and India goin' on...)

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[evil_orange_cat]

3. put tariffs on those companies...

it will make the cost of doing business in third-world countries unprofitable.

[camero]

7. Good point

But that's not a tariff, it's a tax. Tariffs are against countries.
I think we could very well pass a tax on American Multinationals now and there is not a thing the WTO could do about it since it would be our own Multinational corps that would be subject to the tax.

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. I own all the bread. I like to watch you fight for crumbs. Fortunately

for both my profits and my amusement, you are quite happy to fight and bloody each other in hopes of being the one to receive the crumb, and never question why I own all the bread.

[Nikia]

5. They are lowering labor cost

The company calculates the per unit cost for manufacture. Labor is a part of cost per unit. For some industires, labor cost is a big part of per unit cost. For some industires labor cost is not as big of a cost compared to the price of manufacturing the product. For proudcts in which labor is the biggest percentage of manufacture cost, the company can greatly increase their profits by lowering their labor cost. This is especially true for items that have realtively low transportation costs.
A corporation's goal is to make as much money as possible. A privately owned business might have other goals besides money, but any business must make money (With some exceptions, but these businesses wouldn't export their labor).
There comes a point that if you lower prices enough that it is impossible to make any money if you are paying people $15/hour. If you can manufacture in a place where paying $15/day is sufficient, you can make money while selling your product for a lower price.
I don't think that is right for a couple reasons. U.S. consumers are benefitting from the hardships of others. While some say that is helping poor people who wouldn't have jobs anyway, people paid such low wages will never be able to start their own businesses. It is a form of Colonialism and furthering the division between the haves and have nots. Secondly, people need jobs inorder to buy products. If they have better paying jobs, they can afford to buy for expensive products. If they only can get a $6/hour job when they lost their previous manufacturing job paid twice that, saving 10% on a product won't really help them economically.

[napi21]

6. Better answer

You're right, price controls never work, but there is a better answer. You do remember how the Feds got all the states to comply with the speed limits, the polution requirements, etc? Well, the same thing can work for stopping the outsourcing of jobs. You get NO tax advantages if you send more than 5% of your positions outside of the country. That applies to all the special tax benefits that have been written into the tax code that only apply to certain businesses.

As I see it, that's not increasing taxes, not taxing imports, and not punishing the other trading partners. It is withdrawing underserved benefits from businesses that aren't playing by the rules. Also, it might put the brakes on some of the lobbying since the breaks they pay all that money for just aren't worth it anymore.