Protectionism is not the answer
One of the cries you hear a lot of today is that the US is outsourcing all of it's manufacturing and computer programming to foreign countries. The cry is loudest at the moment in the Information Technology field as more and more jobs are sent to places such as India and China. This is leading to a new wave of protectionism rhetoric and in some cases legislation to enforce protectionism.
I would say that the idea of protectionism is dangerous and quite frankly stupid. The reason that America is hurting at the moment is because of complacency and a sense of entitlement. It used to be that for white collar workers there was a certain sense of security. You could go to work for a company and expect to work there until you retired. This lead to complacency since white collar workers were frequently not laid-off like the blue collar workers were. This in turn has lead to a sense of entitlement in the form of "I've done my job, it is up to the company to take care of me." That statement is wrong in 2 ways.
First off, those days of security for white collar workers are gone. Today we've already seen much of our manufacturing capabilities transferred to foreign countries. What is different now is that we aren't losing just the low paying blue collar work, we are losing the higher paying white collar jobs too. I contend this is a good thing, the rest of the world is starting to catch up and might possibly begin to enjoy a similar standard of living to what we've had. This is the wake-up alarm that we've been hitting the snooze button on for several years.
In the second place, business exists to maximize profit for the investors in the company. How can a person running an organization look at shareholders and say they are doing their best to protect and increase their investments if they don't lower costs while maintaining or improving the quality of the product? The short answer is they can't.
So, what can we do if protectionism is so stupid? I'm glad you asked.
America needs to get back to doing what we have always done best. We need to innovate and create new opportunities. I am convinced (with little evidence unfortunately - hence "opinion") that there is still a lot of venture capital that is being sat on because of the dot-com bust of a few years ago. Venture capitalists are sitting there waiting for the next big thing to invest in. What they should be doing is what they used to do - invest a bit in a lot of things instead of a lot in a few things. We are talking about BILLIONS of dollars that aren't being used effectively right now.
The truth is, there is no next big thing waiting in the wings at the moment. What there is though is the opportunity to improve on what has been built so far. In software there is a lot of opportunity to tighten integration between products, to improve user interfaces and to make software (ERP, CRM, B2B, you name it) work the way it was sold but not necessarily implemented for big businesses. On the engineering side there are lots of opportunities in R&D just waiting for funding - everything from improved fuel cells to new and better manufacturing methods and new materials. In short, it is time to improve the mousetraps instead of waiting for better ones to come along.
Until the venture capitalists catch on white collar workers can take their fate into their own hands. Focus on smaller opportunities. Open your own consulting firm and make your own opportunity or take short term contract jobs. It is hard work, and if you've worked for a company for 20 years (like I have) it can be a strange and possibly scary new world to enter, but the reward potential is only there if you try.
One of the other ways that white collar workers can find new opportunity is to write your legislators and insist on supporting the new NASA initiatives of going to the moon and then Mars. Investing in technology is a good thing for everybody. It isn't taking money from social programs. On the contrary, it creates high paying jobs that improve the tax base and allow for spending on social and other programs. Those same jobs also create more opportunity for the service and tourism industries since there is money that can be spent. You can't support social programs if everybody is enrolled in them.
Good luck if you fall into the categories above and have been displaced. Quit whining and make your own opportunity. I'll be out there competing with you very soon, too.
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