The first debate

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by EEich

By the way... My political idealogy is this... I'm a registered Democrat, but my ideal candidate this year was McLean. Sadly, I couldn't vote for him in the primary. I've been unemployed for over a year because my job went to India. I blame the current administration and would give my principles up to get that guy out of the White House. Are things clearer now?

Oh yeah, much clearer. Thanks.

Lost your job, huh? Let's see. Outsourcing jobs -- all Bush's fault, right?

Let me ask you this: Around the turn of the 20th century, the internal combustion engine was really starting to take off. Obviously, as the idea caught on and people started buying automobiles, one can imagine what that did to the horse and buggy industry. So, using your logic today, would it have been fair to blame the William McKinley Administration for the loss of jobs manufacturing buggies?

To expound on that, what exactly should the president do when private companies decide to relocate certain positions overseas, where labor costs are lower? Should he force them to stay here? Since he's the commander-in-chief, should he utilize the armed forces to guard the airports and harbors and physically stop corporations from transferring operations to foreign countries?

Tell me, what would foreign countries do in response? Since their workers no longer have a shot at an American company importing jobs to them, would it be fair to say that maybe they'll stop buying our products or refuse to set up shop in America in return?

Since this is a free country, EEich, anyone is free to start a business and proceed to the best of their talents and abilities to make that business profitable wouldn't you agree? So let's say you start a company producing widgets, and thanks to unions, labor laws, and minimum wage standards in this country, you see that you can produce these widgets in Malaysia for around $.30 an hour as opposed to the $8.00 an hour it would cost here. So as a practical business owner who's obviously in the business to make money and keep your company afloat, what would happen to your company if an Administration prevented you, through the force of law, from making the best decision in the interest of basic economics? You'd be out of business -- and what would our economy look like if this were the standard everyone had to abide by from the threat of the federal government?

Not only that, someone else in another country who doesn't have to deal with suicidal economic policies that you'd apparently like to see can go to Malaysia, produce those widgets, and sell them for far less than American companies can -- now, what does that do for the American company who couldn't take advantage of lower manufacturing costs like everyone else can? BINGO. That company goes out of business.

I don't know specifically what your job was that was shipped to India. But could it be said that maybe you should have had some forsight to see that what you were doing might be at risk, and therefore, it might be up to you to increase your job skills, and make yourself more marketable? How is that George Bush's fault?