Got Jobs ? Here’s How to Get Them

by Bill Faber

Globalization rules America as a dictator. Multi-national corporations, whose loyalty is not to the nation but to stockholders, believe they are trapped in relentless competition to drive down the cost of production. These world-wide companies stampede to the place of the lowest paid worker: first Mexico, then Indonesia, now China.

Multi-nationals and Congress sing the song of free trade. As a result, working families in Decatur sacrifice the quality of their lives. Good paying jobs disappear. And globalization pushes political debate further away from American shores and further from American working families.

Read the mercantile histories of Rome, Spain, France and England. The lesson rises plainly: nations that stop producing goods decline.

Our community’s job loss is a direct result of our nation’s trade policy. Unless America’s trade policy changes, all effort to bring good paying jobs to Decatur will be in vane. Many small American cities share our plight: Danville, Rock Island and Iowa City. I can list hundreds more.

America serves as the world’s market of last resort, soaking up the over-production of the world. First Japan and now China dump goods into the American market, they take our dollars and then take our jobs.

Some call that fair trade. I call it ruin.
The best efforts of Decatur’s talented Mayor and Council and of the Economic Development Board will not bring good paying jobs back to Decatur. The strategy of begging Japanese or Koran manufacturers to come to town is both demeaning and defeating. Instead Decatur’s leaders must initiate an unrelenting effort to pressure our congressmen, senators and president to protect American jobs and change trade policy.

I propose a simple trade policy: half of all steel used in America must be made in American; half of all TVs and computers sold in must be made in America; half of all clothing sold in American must be made in America; half of all cruise ships must fly Old Glory. Steel and computer component production is a matter of more than trade, it is a matter of national security. Boeing now transfers technology to China to produce important parts of Boeing aircraft.

It has been said, “Political power comes from organized money or organized people.” Let history tell the generations to come that it was from Decatur’s leaders that the first shot was fired; a shot heard around the globe. That is my idea of globalization. Thank you for listening.