For Multinationals, U.S. Wages, and Workers, No Longer Key to Profits

[marmar]

from In These Times:



For Multinationals, U.S. Wages, and Workers, No Longer Key to Profits

Friday
July 30
2:15 pm

By Roger Bybee


When millions of American workers are facing severe hardship, driving our strongest companies with the best-paying jobs overseas certainly won't help. ... The ... U.S. cannot rest on past success and take its multinationals for granted. Policy makers must partner with business leaders to craft policies aimed at sustaining an environment in which U.S. multinationals can thrive...
—from "The Global Jobs Competition Heats Up" (Wall Street Journal, July 1) by Martin Bailey, Matthew Slaughter, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson

* * * * *

The notion that the U.S. government has been "taking its multinationals for granted" and "driving them overseas" is certainly a novel proposition, coming after three decades in which federal policy has been more closely aligned than ever with the demands of these huge global corporations.

It is particularly revealing that this urgent concern is being expressed by Laura D'Andrea Tyson, a top economic advisor to President Bill Clinton and an influential voice in Democratic policy circles. Clinton's notable achievements included the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (job toll: over one million US jobs transplanted to Mexico and counting) normalization of trade relations with China, and China's admission to the World Trade Organization (2.2 million jobs lost and rising).

Yet Tyson and her colleagues are advancing this argument for more solicitous treatment of multinational corporations at a particularly bizarre moment: Corporate profits are skyrocketing, employment remains sharply reduced with devastating human costs, and wages represent a record-low share of national income. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6277/more_compassion_needed_for_multinationals_at_time_of_high_profits_no_j/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. To paraphrase Kris Kristofferson,

"Revolution's just another word for nothin' left to lose."

[readmoreoften]

4. +1

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. Yep. Ross Perot nailed it and tried to tell us. He was ridiculed

He seemed to be a nutcase, but he was completely correct about the giant sucking sound.

In retrospect, I wonder if he really was threatened as he publicly alleged that he was.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I always thought he probably was.

The GHW Bush people were certainly capable of minor things like that.

[Donnachaidh]

3. NAFTA the gift that keeps on giving -- to the WEALTHY.

thanks Bill! :sarcasm:

[DBoon]

6. it impoverishes both Mexican peasants and American workers

and then drives the two against each other

[Donnachaidh]

7. and I'm quite sure that is the result they wanted.

:grr:

[inna]

8. check this out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8765585