This got my dander up a bit
A ‘friendly’ spam came my way today:
~~ Joe Smith's Day ~~
Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA...
Keep this circulating
Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA...
Keep this circulating
At the risk of sounding anti-American, here’s my rebuttal:
In each of these instances individual choice influences social choice, this in turn influences corporate choices. But before I get too deep, let’s dismiss the wine example. The enormous selection of wines produced in the United States means that Joe must have purposely chosen the French product. In the area that I live it is much easier to purchase an American vintage than one from anywhere else in the world. Joe either has very exclusive taste or he’s very lazy.
And about that German-made car: Most “imports” for sale in the United States are now made in the United States. My Ford Focus, however, was made in Mexico. Does that make it an import? Maybe Joe should look at one of those Nissans built in Kentucky or a Toyota from South Carolina. While he’s there he can buy camera film at North America’s largest film manufacturing facilities, Fuji Film.The articles of clothing are a bit more complicated but yet again the shift to offshore manufacturing begins with an individual choice. Ask most any American what they look for when they shop and the first thing you hear will most likely be “bargains!” That’s why outlet malls and discount big-box stores have larger parking lots than to individual tailor shops. People have taken this ideal (“Me first!”) to heart and it has become part of the social fabric (pun intended). So how are these bargains created?
A logical means to accomplish this is to sell in volume. Economics 101 tells us that a greater supply yields lower prices. Raw materials can be purchased less expensively, a promise of a certain level of sales is usually given, and a guaranteed marketing chain exists. At some point, though, sales will level off and all the businesses along the line will look for ways to save money so that sales growth can continue. One such way is to eliminate expensive American labor in favor of less expensive labor elsewhere. Take a drive on U.S. 495 North through Haverhill, MA and look at all the fabric mills that are closed at the left of the highway. Then look at the Wal-Mart on the right. The personal desire has driven the rise of a service economy over a manufacturing economy.A similar story could explain the clock, the radio, and the other electronics offered as examples in the spam I received. But going beyond the individual and social choices, the corporate choice is a huge influence for other reasons. Another Economics 101 concept is that Capitalism rewards those that can deliver profits to the investors. Shaving expenses by outsourcing is certainly one way to achieve this, but another is to be an innovator.
It is with some pride that I say no one out-invents Americans. That’s why foreigners fight to study at our universities. We are the culture that developed telecommunications, commercial flight, and near countless technologies that drive economies around the world. But Americans are impatient. Consider Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology. It was invented right here in the good-ol’ US of A at RCA in the late 1960s. When the company didn’t think they could make much of the idea they cut their losses and sold the patent to Toshiba in Japan. The LCD in my ‘American’ Hewlett-Packard laptop computer was made by Toshiba, the world’s largest producer of LCD panels.
Now tell me why Eastman-Kodak invented OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes), the next step in imaging technology, but doesn’t produce them. Instead, the vast majority of OLED units come from the Far East. Thanks, Samsung!If we were to more deeply investigate individual choice, cultural choice, and corporate choice we could easily rename the ideas thusly: selfishness, social amorality, and corporate greed. Could this be the real reason that Forrester Research expects 3.3 million American white-collar jobs to be outsourced by 2015 (ABCNews)?
Picture Credits: OLED example is from Akihabara News as cited at Wikipedia. The LCD diagram is from the Oregaon Health & Science University. The Haverhill scenic is from the city's Website. The picture of my car isn't really my car, but a really good one that used to be on the Ford Website and looks exactly like my car would if it was in the same place and exceptionally clean and well-lit with the boardwalk all slicked down with water and glycerine as if it just rained but didn't get the car at all wet except for a bit of gloss on the tires that, of course, proves it's good in any weather while it whisks you to places you couldn't ordinarily go on a regular basis because you are too busy working at Wal-Mart to pay for a bloody car that makes you look all swish even while you are in the parking lot of that grocery store owned by people in Norway but has an American name when you'd rather be at an exciting venue like an amusement park like this one in Las Vegas where it doesn't really rain in the fashion it would need to so as to make the boardwalk look that good while you are illegally parked on a pedestrian thoroughfare.
