Aug. 06, 2003 - 20:14 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Just A Suggestion

Today's Rocky Mountain News has an article by David Pitt of the Associated Press, headlined, "Maytag Moves Jobs To Mexico."

Mr. Pitt says, "First, Maytag Corp. moved two parts plants to Mexico; now, a refrigerator plant is headed there."

He further says, "A company that grew from a small-town farm equipment manufacturer to the third-largest applicance manufacturer in North America, Maytag is drawing bitter criticism for moving jobs outside the United States."

Maybe we should begin a isht list of all the companies and corporations who are or have sent manufacturing and now office jobs overseas or south of the border.

To me each job sent out of our country is cheating a citizen of ours out of a chance to make a living.

To level the playing field maybe the companies, corporations and stockholders should be obligated to level the playing field and make sure that foreign employees are paid the same scale that American workers are paid for the same work. Also get the same benefits as we get. I guess it is true for the most part that the entrepreneurs here pay above the normal wage common for those far away countries but I think they are reaping profits above and beyond what they deserve. Our stockholders here can share some of the blame too because of their insistence they get increasing dividends constantly - regardless.

In 1977 I started a job which dealt with manfacturing electronic equipment. I was totally amazed that the parts used were manufactured overseas, chips, dips, capacitors all from transistory heaven of the far east. Oh, yes, our product was assembled here in the United States but the pieces and parts were manufactured elsewhere.

Propaganda by the biggies is that the American workforce has and is being trained to very high technical levels. True, some of them are. But how the heck can a worker "technical" a hamburger and fries into a bag and hand it out the window ?

I think one reason that jobs have disappeared from our country is that manufacturers allowed their plants to stay the same while technology advanced. Simple solution ? Tear the plants down, maintain a force of designers and engineers and ship all other work overseas and of course increase the budget for the hype that is printed in newspapers and shown on TV.

Of course other countries can do the work cheaper. Cost of living is low there, people are starving there, laws are stacked against the working stiff, unemployment is high. All a biggie has to do is ship an administrator and trouble shooter over there to each foreign installation to oversee the operation and voila ! cheap stuff to sell at a huge price in our country.

What huge manufacturer of "sports" shoes has the majority of their work done overseas ? Can't remember offhand, but do know that their stuff is so overpriced here it is impossible for most of us to afford a pair of their product.

So our jobs go overseas or south, people are out of work, the produce of the jobs sent from here is too high priced for us to buy. Is there a solution ? Don't know. Have we as a country by our insistence on raises every two or three years regardless of improvement of output, plus big benefits and so on, priced ourselves out of the world market ? I think a period of adjustment should take place, but considering the uproar here that would cause, who would do the adjusting ? ? ? ?

So, if you live here in the United States, follow the jobs from our country to whatever Shangri La has the work. Oh and by the way, you folks who live elsewhere, don't sneak into our country as illegal aliens, shoot, just stay home - the work is on the way. Dumb me and my opinions, but that is Just A Suggestion . . . . . . . . . .

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