International Law

Intel's Grove on the Need for Aggresive Economic Self-Defense

Andy Grove's op-ed at Bloomberg discusses in an appealing conversational tone, the necessity for American on-shore manufacturing:

You could say, as many do, that shipping jobs overseas is no big deal because the high-value work -- and much of the profits -- remain in the U.S. That may well be so. But what kind of a society are we going to have if it consists of highly paid people doing high-value-added work -- and masses of unemployed?

Blue-collar workers can be retrained for white collar work: this rubric was a pinion of the argument of the 1980s justifying the trend towards a service-based economy. [Retrain 2 million fired since 2007?] But some men work with their hands and are unsuited to office or retail work. We see the effects of "re-training" throughout American society, as, for example, at big box stores where we see those who should be on a factory assembly line tending very badly to customers. [And I will no more than mention the generally poor English and math skills -- are these really high school graduates? -- and discourteous behavior of those who are supposed to tend to the customers who pay their wages...]

It is not only blue collar workers who have suffered. Over the past decade, many American white-collar executives -- genuinely capable business administrators -- have lost their jobs at age 50 or 55 and, without many possibilities for further employment in their speciality, find themselves compelled to "retrain," becoming full-time EBay sellers, elementary school teachers and even waiters. America's inefficient use of its own talent is, I find, the most shocking realization I have ever come to, and, while I acknowledge it in virtually ever nook and cranny of American life, I can not accept it. Neither should you.

Unlike yesterday's RILA announcement (see post below), Mr. Grove comes out with both fists swinging:

The first task is to rebuild our industrial commons. We should develop a system of financial incentives: Levy an extra tax on the product of offshored labor. (If the result is a trade war, treat it like other wars -- fight to win.)

Read it all.

Full post as published by Asia Business Intelligence on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).