Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Industrial policy

Reporter Dan Froomkin reminds us that jobs going overseas and companies making foreign investments are not the result of conditions that are in any way "natural" or "inevitable" or pre-ordained. For the US to see domestic companies ignoring employment in Flint, MI in order to invest in Bangladesh, that's because US policy is structured that way. China, notably, is not structured that way. China very deliberately and consciously structures its economy so that manufacturing stays within China's borders.

Yes, businessmen can make more money if they're allowed to invest wherever they please, but why should that be America's priority? What good does it do the nation to have rich businessmen, flush with cash, on one hand and desperately struggling workers and low wages and high unemployment on the other?

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