WSJ: Pain From Free Trade Spurs Second Thoughts

[BeyondGeography]

<For decades, Alan S. Blinder -- Princeton University economist, former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman and perennial adviser to Democratic presidential candidates -- argued, along with most economists, that free trade enriches the U.S. and its trading partners, despite the harm it does to some workers. "Like 99% of economists since the days of Adam Smith, I am a free trader down to my toes," he wrote back in 2001.

Politicians heeded this advice and, with occasional dissents, steadily dismantled barriers to trade. Yet today Mr. Blinder has changed his message -- helping lead a growing band of economists and policy makers who say the downsides of trade in today's economy are deeper than they once realized.

Mr. Blinder, whose trenchant writing style and phrase-making add to his influence, remains an implacable opponent of tariffs and trade barriers. But now he is saying loudly that a new industrial revolution -- communication technology that allows services to be delivered electronically from afar -- will put as many as 40 million American jobs at risk of being shipped out of the country in the next decade or two. That's more than double the total of workers employed in manufacturing today. The job insecurity those workers face today is "only the tip of a very big iceberg," Mr. Blinder says.>


<...Mr. Blinder's answer is not protectionism, a word he utters with the contempt that Cold Warriors reserved for communism. Rather, Mr. Blinder still believes the principle British economist David Ricardo introduced 200 years ago: Nations prosper by focusing on things they do best -- their "comparative advantage" -- and trading with other nations with different strengths. He accepts the economic logic that U.S. trade with large low-wage countries like India and China will make all of them richer -- eventually. He acknowledges that trade can create jobs in the U.S. and bolster productivity growth.

But he says the harm done when some lose jobs and others get them will be far more painful and disruptive than trade advocates acknowledge. He wants government to do far more for displaced workers than the few months of retraining it offers today. He thinks the U.S. education system must be revamped so it prepares workers for jobs that can't easily go overseas, and is contemplating changes to the tax code that would reward companies that produce jobs that stay in the U.S.>

http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=7313

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Perhaps...

Some lynchings of CEOs and Boards might have a constructive effect overall? ;-)

[Dr.Phool]

2. If they can't send your job overseas

They'll import a "guest worker" or illegal immigrant to do it cheaper.

[Autumn Colors]

3. And pray tell, what might those types of jobs be?

Blinder says:
"He thinks the U.S. education system must be revamped so it prepares workers for jobs that can't easily go overseas"

Other than service jobs in restaurants, janitorial jobs, farm jobs, housekeeping, etc, what are these other types of jobs that can't easily go overseas is he talking about? As far as I know, the above jobs don't require extensive training.

People are now leaving this country for Asia for medical care because it's cheaper, tech jobs are leaving, engineering jobs are leaving, tax returns are being done overseas ...

What exactly is he imagining that these displaced workers should be trained for that must stay here in the USA?

[ellenfl]

6. those business owners will all need maids and gardeners. eom

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Education system must be revamped? For what purpose?

Paralegals and medical transciptionists have specialized training that the average graduate does not possess and THEIR jobs are being sent to India wholesale.

[Autumn Colors]

7. Raises hand - medical transcriptionist here

I'm a self-employed medical transcriptionist and have lost several clients to Indian companies in the last couple of years. It's getting harder and harder to find clients without lowering my price so much that I can barely make a living.

We're competing against technology, too. There's a company that will come in and customize a program for doctors so they have this computer in the examining room. All the patient's records have been scanned in. During the exam, the doctor just has to punch a few buttons for symptoms, drugs prescribed, tests ordered, potential diagnoses, etc. After being customized for the practice by the company that sells it, this thing will spit out a preformatted chart note for the office, fax a letter to the insurance company, a letter to the referring physician, and will send the prescription(s) electronically to the pharmacy of choice. Basically, it does away with the need for a transcriptionist, except for cases where the correspondence needs to be more than what the preformatted letters will do. The cost must be pretty cheap because the clients I've lost to this are small practices with only one or two doctors.

So, if you know anyone who thinks medical transcription is a career of the future, please tell them that this is a dying profession and the amount of money to be made per hour of typing (if you can find the work) is getting to be less and less.

Very depressing.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. I'm SUPPOSED to be getting $1.65 a page BEFORE taxes --

and I haven't been paid for months. (Yes, I called the IRS about this.)

[Double T]

5. Let's see; manufacturing jobs, research and development jobs, legal profession jobs,...............

technical support and customer service jobs, accounting jobs, IT jobs, etc., etc. will ALL be outsourced to other slave wage and lower wage nations. So what jobs are left? Agricultural jobs? No, those jobs will be for illegal aliens and Americans don't like to do that kind of work anyway. There will be NO jobs for Americans, NO wages for Americans and NO American consumers for all the stuff imported to the USA from other nations. Whose BRILLIANT idea was this? Looks like we need to outsource the economist's jobs too as American economists don't know what the hell they are talking about.

[Autumn Colors]

8. Perhaps they can just cull the herd here

You know, tainted human food to go with the tainted pet food? Then all the ultra rich people can each own half a state, their servants can all be illegal aliens, their companies can be operated in other countries, and all their purchases can be imported from other countries. Yes, the USA will be a sparcely populated land for the ultra wealthy.

:tinfoilhat: