America's Economic Renewal

While I consider myself a Republican (although a moderate one), I can not understand the drive to cut taxes on the very wealthly. They will just spend this money on more Mercedes and other imports. This does little to boost the US economy and overall US job growth. It would make more sense to cut taxes on small businesses as they employ Americans (versus large companies that have many international employees) and buy American products & services (as they usually lack foreign operations).

This is an interesting Op-Ed piece in the NY Times today entitled “Refuting the Cynics” on page A27. It talks about how immigrants are helping the American economy. It discusses how immigrants are generally young and how their hardwork (and taxes) will allow us to partially offset the cost of the baby bommer generation when it gets old. An interesting paragraph states “Working off U.N. and U.S. census data, Bill Frey, the indispensable University of Michigan demographer, projects that in the year 2050 the median age in the United States will be 35. The median age in Europe will be 52.” This means America will still be relatively youthful and energetic in 2050. In contrast, Europe is likely to suffering from a shrinking workforce and growing medical & retirement costs.

Here is a link to this article.

As a son of immigrants and a husband of an immigrant, I personally believe that immigration is one of America’s greatest strengths.

You might find this AP article interesting as it discusses how our national parks are vital to the economy. It states "The National Parks Conservation Association, which released the study, said it shows that visitors to the nation's national parks spent $10.6 billion a year, supporting 212,000 jobs." This number seems too small to me. It probably doesn't include indirect jobs (such as jobs at restaurants near the parks or jobs at manufacturers who produce camping gear & outdoor equipment). In addition, national parks improve the local environment and also probably raise local property values (people want to live near natural beauty).

While many of these jobs are not high-wage occupations, they are very unlikely to be outsourced to foreign countries. I have included some links below to US-centric organizations that support our national parks (in case you want to donate time/money to support these natural wonders). Remember - Being pro-environment does not mean being against job creation and economic growth! Tree huggers & conservative Republicans unite. :)

National Park Service
Rails-to-Trails
Sierra Club

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today called "India Aims to Calm US Outsourcing Fears" on page A4. Given the furor over the loss of high-tech jobs (i.e. computer software engineering positions) to India, the Indian government is paying US lobbyists to argue that outsourcing to India is a positive for the US economy. The article states that Indian government is attempting to counter US fears via declaring that "sending some jobs oversears more than repays the US with lower prices for imported goods, expanded markets for US products and fatter profits that US companies can plow back into more-innovative businesses."

Ha!

1. Who benefits from lower priced imports if they are unemployed or have taken a lower-paying job.
2. Since we are outsourcing our manufacturing and service capabilities to international countries, we will have nothing to sell into these supposedly "expanded markets".
3. The fatter profits may go to boost the pay for our over-compensated CEOs or to expand businesses in overseas markets but it is unlikely to boost jobs or wages in the US for the average man or woman.

Write your Congressman or Senator to complain about the outsourcing of blue and white collar jobs to foreign countries. See the links to the right of this page (under Speak Out!).

Following up on my last comments about the futility of states paying to "protect" jobs, the NY Times ran an article yesterday called "States pay for jobs, but it doesn't always pay off" (on the front page). The article discusses how many companies walk away from projects and jobs once state/local subsidies end. Here is a link to the article (I think you need to register in order to read it but the registration is free).

CNN is also running a series called "Exporting America - A 5-part series on who's shipping American jobs overseas... and why". The show is running everyday this week at 6pm EST.

Okay I am back... still without a job but I am back! :)

I am always amazed that state and local governments will spend millions to prevent a large company from moving. These firms are just committing highway robbery in order to get a sweet deal. Once the incentives end, they move anyway.

Wouldn't it be better to put this money into state-run venture capital funds. The money would go to create new companies and jobs. Since these new firms would be relatively small, it is very unlikely that they would move (especially if they were tied into a local university for R&D support, etc.). Moreover, the venture capital unit should be able to generate an attractive return thus building up the "pot" in order to start even more firms in the future (versus just throwing the money away on a large company that will move away in the future).

I apologize for not posting anything so far this week. My whole department was laid off so I have been focusing on getting a job. At least my family is healthy & happy so things are not too bad.

More from me next week on the US economy.

While you are waiting for me to get my act together, you may find this outsourcing article from MSN interesting. It discusses the jobs that are most vulnerable to outsourcing overseas and those that face the least threat from outsourcing.