Posted by AdaGrace on August 26, 2005, at 9:02:10
Okay, this is going to probably tick some people off and may even get me kicked off here, or at the very least my hand slapped, but I have something to say.
I live in America. A country built on freedom and oportunity. We have opened our door to immigrants and well we should, that how this country started. (except for that 'driving the Native Americans off their land into reservations and massacreing hundreds and thousands of them' thing).
We have more money than God. Or so the government says. We feed the hungry in other countries, but not our own. We financially bail other countries out of a jam, but of course usually only if it benefits us, i.e. as in political strategy. They call it foreign policy. I call it knowing what hand feeds you.
Now comes the crux of my post. We think we are special. We think we are better. And of course, we think we can help the world be just like us. In reality, what we have done is help the world be better than us.
I currently work for a manufacturing company that is going down the tubes. I mean the ship is literally sinking. Why? Well, of course there has been some minor management decisions that have played a part, but for the most part, our product has been replaced with imports. It's as simple as that. We cannot compete. I want to blame lifting the trade embargo with China, but in all reality, we did this to ourselves.
We have priced ourselves out of the market, and esentially out of a job. We are better...or so we think. We drive SUV's, we have cell phones, we have tv's that cover an entire wall....and yet, it's all about to fall down around our feet.
Manufacturing wages, like most others of course are based on supply and demand. Jobs are competitive, and yet I am in an area where $12 and hour won't pay a house payment, a car payment, and feed a family of 5. Yet, in other countries the wages are often $1 or less. They survive, why can't we? It's simple really, our cost of living is so great we couldn't buy a loaf of bread for that. But we certainly could tighten our belt, now couldn't we? We could throw the cell phone away, or perhaps use it instead of a land line. We could go without our sattelite service. We could buy used cars instead of new ones. We could actually downsize our lives in many ways, but will we? Are we willing to have less that we think we deserve?
Angry with foreigners taking our jobs? What a laugh. We are too good to work for pennies. There are hundred of thousands of Mexican living and working in the United States right now, making very little, and yet are surviving and many times sending half their wages home to their families in their native land. That makes some of us very, very upset. Why how dare they! But we refuse to admit that we caused the problem. We live high on the hog and now are suffering the consequences. Why should we be upset for someone else taking a job we feel is either beneath us or for wages below what we feel we are worth? This has been going on for many, many years.
Now, people are no longer even concerned with buying American made products. Why would they, they can get it cheaper and sometimes with the very same quality from a company over seas. This concept of "Buy American" heated up many years ago with the auto industry. Did it work? No. Other countries went ahead and prospered, and in many instances made a better product than Americans did.
It's simple really. The regulations that our government has put out there for the protection of the American worker has esentially stopped American manufacturing in their tracks. Now, don't get me wrong, I am fully in agreement with minimum wage requirements, worker's comp insurance, unemployment benefits, OSHA safety standards, and all the other policies that have been put into place to protect workers in this country from being taken advantage of, hurt, or what have you. But esentially, these things, these protective ideas have created a working environment that is safer, healthier, and more financially sound, but yet, the jobs are transfering over seas because it is cheaper to make something if you don't have to pay very much or spend money making sure your worker is safe. Now I am NOT saying that this is better. It's not, but it's a fact.
China is the world leader in exporting and I'd bet America is the world leader in importing. And because we are so much better than everyone else (tongue is inserted in cheek) we often will not take a job without all these protective measures in place. Yet, we are the very workers who sometimes abuse those measures. How many people do you know who are on disability and are out mowing their lawns and trimming their trees? How many people do you know who are sitting on their front porch swings watching the cars go by drawing unemployment, because they can? Did you know that in my state, if you leave your job for better employment and it turns out the job isn't better, you can quit, and draw unemployment and it is charged to your first employer? Know anyone who has committed insurance fraud? Know anyone who has told their employment that they were hurt on the job when in reality they got into a fight at the local tavern Sat night? Did you know that in cases of cronic carpal tunnel, if you don't turn it in to your current employer, you can just simply get another similar job and turn it in there? At least you can in my state. How about someone who thought they might make a buck or two by suing their employer for sexual harassment? Even if it is bogus, do you know it can cost at the very least $100,000 to fight it? All these things, all these examples I have seen with my own eyes. In the United States manufacturing employers spend billions of dollars on programs designed to protect the employee and yet there is so much fraud it is dispicable.
Yes, we are too good, or so we think. We have so many avenues for our workers to not work, it's tempting, very tempting. And what's really sad is there are so many people in this country who benefit from these programs because they really can't work. But in the long run it's not going to matter, because American manufacturers are dropping like flies. What jobs can we Americans get now that will feed our families, support the lifestyle we are accustomed to, and make us feel all warm and toasty about our contribution to the world? I'm not sure. Something in insurance I'll bet. 911 certainly made those companies sit up and take notice and pass that little cost onto us consumers.
I don't know, I really don't know what it is going to take for us to realize we need a major overhaul in our country.Suggestions would be appreciated.
Dr. Bob, I know you will want to move this over to the political board, but I would prefer it stay here. I don't think this is solely about politics, I think it is about human nature as well.
Ada, needs a job, Grace
poster:AdaGrace
thread:546870
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050819/msgs/546870.html