"American" Jobs

[Hungary Jack]

So what exactly are "American" jobs? Are they jobs that are only reserved for U.S. citizens, such as President of the United States of America? Are they jobs that can only be performed on US soil, such as picking up garbage out of Central Park in Manhattan or detasselling corn in DeKalb County Illinois? Or are they jobs that only an American would dream of doing, such as driving the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile around?

If a job moves overseas to a low-wage country, the Lou Dobbs of this world will bellow about the loss of "American" jobs. But no one will complain about the incredible array of affordable televisions, clothing, bicycles, and golf clubs that are imported into the US that have given us a higher standard of living through lower inflation and increasing quality. If a farmer in the Central Valley hires a group of Mexicans to pick his strawberries because these are the only workers he can find willing to do such back-breaking menial work, pundits will scream about illegal migrant workers as they enjoy their strawberry smoothies during the break.

"American" jobs are political speak for xenophobia and protectionism. If the people that lament the loss of American jobs are so concerned about the situation, then they need to be prepared to give up all the broad benefits of foreign trade and pay more for the things they take for granted.

[G. Keenan]

I agree.

And it seems to me that a corollary to this "American" jobs point of view is that other people around the world, those "third worlders," don't deserve those jobs.

[Arthur Dent]

Or are they jobs that only an American would dream of doing, such as driving the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile around?

I saw the actual Weinermobile driving around town the other day. True story.

With regard to Lou Dobbs, what I find interesting is the fact that he has only appeared recently. So long as trade was only damaging the employment prospects of blue collar manufacturing workers, it was fine. They were just a bunch of protectionist whiners and probable enemies of the future. Now that the scope of trade has expanded so that well paid professionals like me are beginning to face international competition, it's a crisis that has to be stopped. Most of the big proponents of what's misleadingly called "free" trade, work in professions which benefit enormously from trade barriers, most notably immigration controls.

[misterk]

The proponents of "American Jobs" cannot be making a moral argument. At best it's a practical one, but that might still be a good one. They could be saying something like this: "Of course everyone on Earth deserves a job and a decent living as much as anyone else, but let's face it: there is only so much to go around, and in a situation like this, we have to protect our own. Just like a member of a family ought to protect their own children before the children of others, the people of any nation ought to look after their own before the citizens of another nation."

[Hungary Jack]

I saw the actual Weinermobile driving around town the other day. True story.

When Mrs. Jack was in law school, one of her contemporaries was married to a woman whose summer job was to drive the Weinermobile. They parked it in front of our house one day. Unfortunately, I never a got a picture.