Over the years, many of our industries have moved largely overseas, and our country’s economy has only grown stronger and unemployment has remained low.

It is not free trade that anyone needs, but fair trade–trade with those who pay a fair wage and trade with those fair to the environment. What we need to outsource is self-styled economists who have no real idea of what really runs our economies.

Thanks again for all you’ve done and will do. I just can’t believe Judd would agree to debate you! You know what that means? He is running scared or you. No incombent politician in a command position would legitimatize his opponent by granting a debate if he didn’t feel threatened. So you needed fear. Gregg’a teeth may not show that they are chattering, but you can be assured that inside he really regrets having to give you a go at him because he knows you tell it like it is and talk straight talk!

So what do the employees in the US do? Their bills keep coming in the mail, they need to keep buying food and paying rent. They know that they need a job somewhere, and so they find (or create) one that covers their expenses. It’s how the market works, and it’s why even foreign companies hire Americans in the US.

Kerry refers to “tax loopholes” that encourage people to create jobs overseas. If we assume he’s actually serious about this, we need to look at those “loopholes.” I’ve only heard him identify a single loophole (during the final debate), when he referred to the tax law that doesn’t tax corporations for income they make abroad — until that income is sent to the US. This “loophole” is standard law in every country I’m familiar with, and has nothing to do with exporting jobs (and everything to do with exporting goods).

Kerry didn’t say how he would close this “loophole,”but it appears that he would want to tax all US-based companies on all income made world-wide. That will do nothing but drive up expenses for US-based companies (leaving less money for new jobs), and may even encourage companies to go looking for a new country for their headquarters (it’s not as hard as it sounds, California has very few big companies headquarters today as a result of having the highest taxes and most expensive regulation in the nation).

The Kerrys spend quite a lot of money on attorneys and accountants to legally avoid paying taxes (the average American spends roughly 20% on income tax). Why wouldn’t companies do the same?

I’d be wary of market-based reasoning. If we leave things to the market, the lowest priced labor will win, regardless of where that is. China is not “taking our jobs”, multinational corporations are seeking the lowest wage labor the world has to offer. Right now that may be in India or China. But if the US were to carve out another exception from the minimum wage (like restaurants don’t have to pay waitstaff minimum wage), then jobs in that exception could offer Americans jobs at whatever sub-living wage the market will bear.

Under this scenario, market-based reasoning would offer you no leverage to complain that these full-time jobs aren’t paying enough to feed and house a family or even an individual. The US Government might be asked to provide jobs that can’t be easily exported out (perhaps construction jobs, or some person-to-person service jobs) and also change immigration law to prevent importing slave wage labor in.

Granny D is running on contributions from real people. No other politician in the country is doing this. If I understand this correctly, her opponent Judd Gregg, has accepted half a million dollars from the HMO and medical industry to run his campaign.

I have no evidence to show that Ralph Nader is taking contributions from PACs or corporations. Ralph Nader is a politician in the US.

BTW, this link was my “questionable content.” Well, the one I originally used, which pointed to Coyote Blog’s entry (Coyote Blog’s main page is here).

/* Let us make and buy our own portable beer cooler televisions. For if we do not have a manufacturing base for the small stuff, it won’t be long before we have to go shopping for our jet fighters and rockets in Shanghai.
*/

One of the reasons China makes so much small stuff is because the big stuff simply costs too much to ship overseas. That may not always be the case. But why would tomorrow’s job market be less able to correct itself than today’s? If mobile homes are ever profitably imported, the former mobile home builders will find other jobs.

Yes, I know people say “but there won’t be any other jobs!” But even the Great Depression ended with an increase in “other jobs” (more on that in my final link).

Leaving China, we have seen India take over technical support and even programming. For the sake of discussion, let’s ignore the costs of outsourcing these high-paying jobs to India (or Latin America, or somewhere else). The Americans in these jobs today aren’t helpless goons. Today’s ex-programmers have found design jobs that take care of the bills quite well. It seems to me that trying to prop up a losing team (PDF) isn’t the way to go.