# Most Americans oppose offshoring. We need to take action. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080 "2011-01-01T21:25:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 41
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/801 "2011-03-10T20:31:20Z")
> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#): > > Ignore is for pussies. Ya, ya fuckin’ pussy! Man I miss the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/802 "2011-03-11T01:17:55Z")
Emacknight and Lord Rashtard say this is better than Americans having $30/hour manufacturing jobs: > **[Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More](https://news.yahoo.com/)** > > The latest news and headlines from Yahoo News. Get breaking news stories and in-depth coverage with videos and photos. > [@](#): > > • Lower-wage industries – things like retail and food preparation – accounted for 23 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, but 49 percent of the jobs gained over the last year, a recent study (pdf) by the National Employment Law Project found. Higher-wage industries, by contrast, accounted for 40 percent of the jobs lost, but just 14 percent of the jobs gained. In other words, low paying jobs are increasing as a percentage of total jobs, while high-paying jobs are on the decline. And of course they think statements like this are stupid: > [@](#): > > Still, as the economy continues to add jobs in the coming months, it’s worth keeping the issue of quality in mind. An economy with a glut of low-paying and part-time jobs isn’t an economy that’s working for most Americans. Which is why very few people listen to Rashtard and Emacknight and their like anymore… ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/803 "2011-03-15T03:19:48Z")
The war is joined. One new player at a time. One step at a time. > **[Made in America: small businesses buck the offshoring trend](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/03/in-early-2010-somewhere-high/)** > > Unless a US company is hell-bent on selling the very cheapest goods, … Made in America: small businesses buck the offshoring trend [http://sandiegonewsroom.com/news/index.php?option=com\_content&view=article&id=43288:bringing-back-jobs-from-offshore-to-revive-american-manufacturing&catid=230:economy&Itemid=261](http://sandiegonewsroom.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43288:bringing-back-jobs-from-offshore-to-revive-american-manufacturing&catid=230:economy&Itemid=261) Bringing back jobs from offshore to revive American manufacturing [http://www.auto-mobi.info/index.php?option=com\_content&task=view&id=127726&Itemid=56](http://www.auto-mobi.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127726&Itemid=56) CUSTOM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FIRM CREATES NEW ANTI-OFFSHORING GROUP ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/804 "2011-03-15T03:32:30Z")
> [@Le\_Jacquelope](#): > > CUSTOM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FIRM CREATES NEW ANTI-OFFSHORING GROUP Are they working to repair your Caps Lock key first? ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/805 "2011-03-15T03:39:22Z")
This is why you guys despise what I have to say so much. It’s because you know you run the risk of becoming _irrelevant_ to the societal debate. Or… maybe… you already have? [http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/how-convincing-is-the-case-for-free-trade/?src=busln](http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/how-convincing-is-the-case-for-free-trade/?src=busln) > [@](#): > > In a widely noted column in The Washington Post, “Free Trade’s Great, but Offshoring Rattles Me,” for example, my Princeton colleague Alan Blinder wrote: > > _ **I’m a free trader down to my toes. Always have been. Yet lately, I’m being treated as a heretic by many of my fellow economists. Why? Because I have stuck my neck out and predicted that the offshoring of service jobs from rich countries such as the United States to poor countries such as India may pose major problems for tens of millions of American workers over the coming decades. In fact, I think offshoring may be the biggest political issue in economics for a generation. When I say this, many of my fellow free traders react with a mixture of disbelief, pity and hostility. Blinder, have you lost your mind?** _ > > Professor Blinder has estimated that 30 million to 40 million jobs in the United States are potentially offshorable — including those of scientists, mathematicians, radiologists and editors on the high end of the market, and those of telephone operators, clerks and typists on the low end. He says he is rattled by the question of how our country will cope with this phenomenon, especially in view of our tattered social safety net. > > “That is why I am going public with my concerns now,” he concludes. “If we economists stubbornly insist on chanting ‘free trade is good for you’ to people who know that it is not, we will quickly become irrelevant to the public debate. Compared with that, a little apostasy should be welcome.” You guys are becoming irrelevant to the public debate. Yes, I know your egos can’t process that. You’re in denial. You think even less of me for pointing it out. But you cannot escape reality. You are _irrelevant_ and your world is due a cave-in. Soon. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/806 "2011-03-15T03:57:58Z")
Since this thread is STILL showing up in Google and the pro-offshoring camp has finally shut the fuck up and stopped polluting it with garbage, I figured I’d drop these bombs. Of course there really was never anything they could say in response to this that didn’t make them look worse. This pro-offshoring economist, again, points out the flaws of other economists’ pro-offshoring thinking. There were a number of hilarious gems but these are the top ones. [http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/the-debate-on-free-trade-continues/](http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/the-debate-on-free-trade-continues/) [quote] The cattle-farm model then allows us to say, with a straight face, that if a public policy bestows a gain of $2,000 on George but makes Martha $1,000 poorer, social welfare has been increased./quote] One has to wonder, then, why Martha is not an offshoring fan! Bad, bad Martha!!! At least this guy understands that one George generates 2 or more Marthas, you have a problem. > [@](#): > > Many readers reminded me, properly, that the American worker who loses a good job would have paid taxes to the United States government that buys the myriad of services, including military defense, that people in our nation enjoy. If the worker who gained a job in Shanghai or Bangladesh pays taxes, they are not paid to our government. Another good gem. Offshoring gives us less money in our country to do any of this. The George’s of the world who made more as a result of offshoring take their money outside the country and don’t contribute here. They invest in China. So now we have a tax revenue problem. But then the Georges of the world want to spin it as a “spending problem”. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Modern economic growth tends to be driven by developing comparative advantages and, as one reader of this blog commented, the entire history of United States economic growth shows that the country thrived in its early development behind trade barriers. And THIS is one, UGLY shotgun blast in the face of pro-offshoring apologist fucktards. And now we come to the death trap that pro-offshoring economists face when their arguments are forced into the realm of logical consistency: > [@](#): > > One Canadian reader, in his comment, wondered why economists who advocate free trade in the flow of goods and capital do not also advocate the free movement of labor among countries. > > That is a good question: how many card-carrying American economists would would sign an open letter to Congress advocating the removal of all barriers to immigration? And the only way you will EVER get removal of all barriers to immigration is a one-world Government. If you’re not talking a one-world Government you are never going to be talking _seriously_ about free trade, or an end to protectionism. Because, as this pro-offshoring economist has admitted: > [@](#): > > other nations snub their noses are the rules of free trade. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/807 "2011-03-15T05:56:17Z")
> [@Le\_Jacquelope](#): > > Emacknight and Lord Rashtard say this is better than Americans having $30/hour manufacturing jobs: You just make this shit up as you go along, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/808 "2011-03-15T06:03:53Z")
> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#): > > You just make this shit up as you go along, don’t you? Pretty much. Le Jackass is pretty much on the delusional side. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080/809 "2011-03-15T10:12:39Z")
Since the only life in this thread is due to the OP treating it as his personal blog, I think I’m going to put this out of its misery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-americans-oppose-offshoring-we-need-to-take-action/566080.md?page=40)