"The Browning of America”

What They Don't Tell You About
"Free Trade"...


Hey, they lied to us...

What do you mean?

They told us that if we got rid of our manufacturing jobs, we could move to the next plateau...

Which was?

We could become the world leader in information technology, upgrade our jobs, and serve the cause of the Third World...

That sounds admirable...

Well, they forgot a few things...

Like what?

Well, that stuff about information technology sounds good, but it only holds up if the government also helps people move up the ladder, gain more education and equips them to more effectively compete in world markets…

That makes sense...

It also fails to take into consideration what a worker need do if he or she does not have the ability to move up the ladder. What then?

Hmmm!

Anyway, nobody seemed to notice and the next thing you knew, all of the jobs moved overseas.


But you still had your intellectual property.

Ah yes, our intellectual property. That's a bit of sore point, old chum.

What do you mean?

Well, it began when the government and the private sector conspired to send information technology jobs overseas. They discovered it was cheaper to do it in Bangladesh than on Broadway...The results were obvious.

THat left?

Well, with the information technology having gone overseas, we still had our intellectual property. We could excell in intellectual property and license out rights around the world. Things still looked exceptionally positive and we were all feeling good about helping out all of the rest of the world. And moving into white collar jobs that afforded us the free time to indulge in leisure pursuits. Remember how all of those leisure industries shot up in the stock market?

So, what happened?

What happened was that more and more companies are now going to China and India to do their creative intellectual work....

You mean the intellectual property stuff?

That's right. Microsoft has opened a think tank in China. Why? Because they graduate about ten times as many engineers as we do....And all the rest are following in their footsteps. Just yesterday, one of the leading firms in the high tech market said that they are switching more than sixty percent of their work to India....which translates into fewer jobs here.

Why?

The Indians will work for a quarter of what Americans earn... And that's the bottom line...

So, what's left for us?

There still some jobs left in Wal_Mart....

What does that mean?

It means you can sell to those Americans whose jobs have fled to India products that were originally made in this country but are now made in China at a fraction of the cost.

Isn't free trade wonderful?

I think I'm going to complain.

Don't bother. I already did.

What happened?

They made me wait a half an hour; then connected me to Bombay.

So, what's the next growth industry?

Some say its portable Quarantine sites...

Say no more!


Les Aaron....