China Hurts U.S. Jobs

Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security and friendship with China. We keep buying all its products, most of which are inferior to ours, while we compete for commodities throughout the world.

China owns a large portion of our national debt, thanks to consumers. And, on top of that, our capitalist representatives keep sending jobs to China at the expense of the American worker.

There is no mistake about it: China is a Communist country and it plays hardball. We have been at war with that nation twice; Korea and Vietnam.

Further, it’s clear that the recent skirmish involving North Korea against South Korea was instigated by China to obscure our main focus – China. Every dollar we spend on Chinese goods helps fund its oppressive Communist regime and military.

China has the second most powerful military on Earth and the second largest economy on the planet (after us). And, based on GDP forecasts, it will likely be No. 1 within a decade!

The Wall Street Journal last December noted China cut its first half (of 2011) export quotas of rare earth metals by 35 percent, after having cut 2010 exports by 72 percent.

To put this into perspective, China controls 95 percent of the world’s rare earth metals. Uses for rare earth elements include a variety of imaging electronic components.

For example, cerium oxide and related products are frequently used as polishing additives in toner formulations. These materials also are used in semiconductors and displays.

Trade Balance Needed

WMB believes we need to halt the current trade surplus to help create employment in the United States. China does not compete fairly on many levels.

Examples include the foreign exchange rate, government-subsidized state industries, and the illegal use of intellectual property from U.S. patents.

At the rate we are going, America will lose all our manufacturing jobs to China which will likely lead to a depression for which there will be no recourse except war.

Communist China is unhappy with our recent monetary policy to purchase long-term U.S. Treasury bonds to reduce long-term interest rates to stimulate our economy and create jobs. (Obviously, interest rates can’t go any lower).

The consequence is a weaker dollar, but our exports will be more attractive offshore.

China is upset because it has a huge trade surplus with America, and a weaker dollar will help to reduce that surplus. Also, China will likely complain about the Fed policy because China has been accused of keeping its own currency artificially weak to maintain a surplus.

But it is possible that buying T-bills may help allay ongoing complaints about Chinese currency manipulation, since the trade imbalance will improve as a result of these actions.

What We Can Do

WMB believes U.S. companies must create new industries and products which can compete on a global basis. Products must be unique to this country; Made in America needs to be more than just a slogan.

After all, we have the best schools in the world and many of our institutions are spawning ideas that create ventures in the States.

Sure, many of the students are from foreign countries, but the U.S. government needs to make it attractive for exceptional students to stay here and help create leading technology and jobs.

The biggest consumer market is here. We are the ones buying goods and services, thereby creating millions of jobs not only in China but around the world.

It’s time we take control of our domestic dilemma.

The government needs to impose tariffs or some other mechanism, like the current monetary policy, in hopes of restoring our integrity and position in the world economy.

Wars aren't fought just on military fronts.

TechMan

ChinaWatch: Lessons In Life

U.S. Education Valued

Dozens of U.S. colleges and universities are seeing a surge in applications from students in China, where a booming economy means more families can pursue the dream of an American higher education, the New York Times reports.

But that success — following a 30 percent increase last year in the number of Chinese studying in the United States — has created a problem for admissions officers.

At Grinnell College in Iowa, for example, how do they choose perhaps 15 students from the more than 200 applicants from China? After all, the 11-member admissions committee cannot necessarily rely on the rubrics it applies to American applications (which are challenging enough to sort through).

Consider, for example, that half of Grinnell’s applicants from China this year have perfect scores of 800 on the math portion of the SAT, making the performance of one largely indistinguishable from another.

But the most accomplished applicants will have grades in the 70s or 80s, because Chinese schools tend to grade on a far less generous curve than American high schools.

Few will have had the opportunity to take honors or Advanced Placement courses to demonstrate their ability to do college work, since such courses are rare in China.

Foreign Investors Watched

China will launch a state-level investment review body to check that merger and acquisition deals struck by foreign firms in one of the world's fastest-growing economies do not endanger “national security,” says China's State Council, the cabinet, Reuters reports.

The new regulation, which will come into effect in March, is set to install a new red-tape barrier for doing business in China, the world's second largest economy where double-digit growth has attracted more than $105 billion in foreign direct investment last year.

Foreign investments in military, agriculture, energy and resources, key infrastructure, transport systems, key technology sectors and “important equipment manufacturers” may be subject to reviews, according to a statement published on the central government Internet portal.

Vying For Workers

China’s coastal and inland cities are fiercely competing to attract migrant workers as the nation’s labor shortage spreads to less-developed central and western regions, according to straitstimes.com.

In south-west China's Chongqing, many firms have set up booths at railway and bus stations to persuade workers to stay home instead of returning to the coast. Tens of millions of migrant laborers travel by train or bus during the Spring Festival break, which ends Feb 17.

At the city's North Railway Station, about a dozen workers told the China Daily that they will stay in their hometown if they can get similar wages.

Jiang Haitao, 21, who worked at Foxconn Technology Group's Kunshan plant in East China's Jiangsu province last year, says the corporation's Chongqing operation offers a base salary that is only “slightly less.”

“I'd feel happier working in my hometown,” he says, adding that earning 200 yuan ($38) more outside “cannot buy the same happiness.”

Migrant workers in the east earned an average of 5 percent more than those in western regions in 2009, yet the disparity was 15 percent five years earlier, show figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

ChinaWatch

America’s Dirty Secret Revealed

Age discrimination is alive and well in America. Sure, we have laws against it, but this type of bias hides in an employer’s nooks and crannies, and it takes the form of smiling faces and knowing eyes. And it’s not just older workers, those over the age of 50, but lots of younger people, too.

For the older job seeker, it comes down to a simple equation for the employer: Experience means higher salary, bigger health insurance costs, and (this one really gets under a person’s skin) too set in your ways. The hiring authority will tell you that you’re “over qualified,” a polite way of saying the gray hair means get lost.

For the younger worker, the opposite holds true. You have tattoos, piercings and a different hairdo, but those pimples scream inexperience, immaturity, and possible substance abuse. Nice clichés, but they’re the reasons you are “under qualified,” a sneaky way of saying come back when you grow up, or not at all.

If you think these are simplifications of exceptions, not the rule, you might want to check out the story of Jack Gross, whose age discrimination battle has gone to the highest court in the land. What happens in this milestone case could affect all workers for generations to come.

Gross, whose situation is detailed in bylined opinion piece in this month’s issue of AARP Bulletin, offers a cautionary tale for workers who try to do their best in playing by the rules, yet suffer in silence when wronged.

“This all began in January 2003. When my employer, Farm Bureau Financial Group (FBL Financial Services Inc.) in Iowa, merged with the Kansas Farm Bureau, the company apparently wanted to purge claims employees who were over age 50. All the Kansas claims employees over 50 with a certain number of years of employment were offered a buyout, which most accepted. In Iowa, virtually every claims supervisor over 50 was demoted.

“Being 54, I was included in that sweep, despite 13 consecutive years of top performance reviews. The company claimed this was not discrimination but simply a reorganization. In 2005, a federal jury spent a week hearing testimony and seeing the evidence. The jurors agreed with me, and determined that age was a motivating factor in my demotion. Since then, the case has taken on a life of its own, including an appeal to the 8th Circuit Court and a U.S. Supreme Court hearing and decision.

“Since the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was passed in 1967, courts had ruled consistently that the law protected individuals if their age was a factor in any employment decision. But in my case, the Supreme Court (in a 5-4 decision in 2009) unexpectedly changed course and ruled that age had to be the exclusive reason for my demotion, even though that wasn’t the question before them. They simply hijacked my case and used it as a vehicle to water down the workplace discrimination laws passed by Congress.”

Gross says the key now is for Congress to pass the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (H.R. 3721) because it would provide the same protection for older people as that given to people of color, women, or people of different faiths.

“Many of my friends are also farm or small-town ‘kids’ who feel like they are the forgotten minority,’’ Gross writes. “Many have been forcibly retired or laid off. Some have been looking for work for months, only to find doors closed when they reveal the year they graduated. Others are working as janitors despite good careers and college degrees. They all know that age discrimination is very real and pervasive.”

We at WMB believe Gross is absolutely correct about the widespread nature of the problem – and make no mistake, this issue will boil over as the Baby Boom generation (those born from 1946 to 1964) grows older, living and working, in theory, much longer than previous generations.

Our culture emphasizes the importance of youth, beauty and vitality but looks down on older and elderly people as somehow less valuable, unworthy of employment and, in short, disposable.

Why should you care if you’re younger and don’t make much money? If Congress does not act, you may find yourself one day confronted by the same age discrimination that targeted Jack Gross.

The wheels of reform, generally, turn slowly in America, but age discrimination is one area that should drive bipartisan support. It’s an opportunity, as Gross says, to do something positive on a cause that is bigger than ourselves. Well said.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com. If you like this post, please share it with family, friends and colleagues!

Targeting Illegals Spreads In U.S.

First it was the state of Arizona, now it’s a little town in Nebraska, the heartland of America. The message is simple: Illegal immigrants are not welcome in this nation built by generations of legal immigrants.

It’s not about racism or profiling, as some claim. It’s about our proud nation of states, towns and small communities trying to protect our way of life from outsiders who take advantage of our open borders, ignore our rules, and choose to live and work here.

Voters in tiny Fremont, Neb., had the guts to say enough when they recently voted to approve a ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants who, with the help of ethically-challenged employers, seek opportunities to better themselves in the town of 25,000, just 35 miles northwest of Omaha.

Fremont's action comes in the wake of Arizona’s new law requiring police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.

The Fremont measure will require would-be renters to apply for a license from the town, which has seen a surge in immigrants in the past two decades largely because of available jobs at the nearby Fremont Beef and Hormel meatpacking plants, the Associated Press reports.

Fremont officials must refuse to issue a license to applicants found to be in the country illegally. The ordinance also requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees are allowed to work.

Both the Arizona law and the Fremont measure face court challenges, the latter from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has promised to file a lawsuit to block enforcement of the proposal roughly 57 percent of Fremont voters endorsed.

Hazleton, Pa., passed an ordinance in 2006 to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny permits to businesses hiring them, according to the AP. The Dallas, Texas, suburb of Farmers Branch also has tried for years to enforce a ban on landlords renting to illegal immigrants. Federal judges struck down both ordinances, but both are on appeal.

Supporters of the Fremont measure say it’s needed to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement (the Obama administration has been all over the place on the issue). Opponents say it could fuel discrimination, according to the report by AP writer Josh Funk, who interviewed Fremont residents:

Linda Nafziger said she voted for the ordinance because she doesn't think the community should be supporting illegal immigrants. But she acknowledged the measure won't end illegal immigration. "They'll just move somewhere else and be somebody else's problem," she said.

Trevor McClurg said the measure is fair because it's aimed at people who aren't legally in the United States. "I don't think it's right to be able to rent to them or hire them," McClurg said. "They shouldn't be here in the first place."

Nafziger and McClurg are correct, and that’s why this illegal immigrant issue has struck a raw nerve in our country, where jobs for legal citizens are hard to find with millions still unemployed as a result of the Great Recession.

"Not only do local ordinances such as this (in Fremont) violate federal law, they are also completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality," Laurel Marsh, executive director of ACLU Nebraska, told AP’s Funk.

Whose values is Marsh referring to – ours, or those of the illegals who want to continue to live and work here, and compound the situation by having children born in this country?
Maybe Marsh is out of step with many Americans, who are angry and frustrated with a bloated federal government that is ineffective much of the time, especially in such key economic areas as immigration.

Hard-working immigrants built this nation – English, Dutch, German, French, followed by Irish, Italian, Polish and others. The current influx is comprised of those whose native countries speak Spanish. All are welcome here, so long as they do it legally!

Officials in Arizona, a border state with Mexico, have been grappling with illegals and chose to take a stand because the federal government remained on the sidelines in enforcing U.S. immigration laws (except for some border fence construction under the George W. Bush administration).

WMB previously applauded Arizona’s courageous stance because of the resulting firestorm of criticism. It’s easy to follow the crowd or suffer in silence on any controversial issue but far more demanding to make your voice heard, especially when it’s contrary to the bleeding-heart liberals now steering public policy in D.C.

In other places on the planet, illegals are tortured, imprisoned or killed. America does not do that, but our generosity should not be mistaken for stupidity. This country does not suffer fools lightly, though our tolerance seems to suggest otherwise.

As one blogger notes, this nation offers illegals jobs, Social Security cards, welfare, food stamps, driver’s licenses, credit cards, subsidized rent or loans to buy houses, free education, free health care, a lobbyist in Washington, billions of dollars worth of public documents in their language (Spanish?), and the right to carry their native country’s flag while they protest they don’t get enough from America.

We at WMB see this immigration debate growing more divisive by the day. The implications for business, industry and legal American workers are very clear. We don’t need any more lip-service from the dolts in D.C.; what we need is real and consistent action to protect our borders and our way of life.

Bottom line: If our national leaders were doing better jobs in our behalf, then officials in Arizona and Fremont wouldn’t feel compelled to take matters into their own hands. The message is clear if the powers-that-be in D.C. choose to hear it, act on it, and not cave in to illegals and those who blindly support them.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com.