Picture this: It’s the year 2025. After graduating with a degree from the University’s E.J. Ourso College of Business, you’ve gone on to lead an illustrious career as the Chief Executive Officer of General Motors.
Like many CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, unfortunately, you’re not particularly well-liked by the average American. And it’s not your newly purchased 160-foot yacht that has stoked such fiery outrage among public opinion.
Rather, everyone’s pissed off because you made a savvy business decision that anyone in your position would make: offshoring thousands of jobs from the U.S. to low-wage countries, such as India and China.
Wait, isn’t outsourcing highly unethical? Shouldn’t we try our best to keep jobs at home, not export them to sweatshops around the globe?
To be sure, the debate on globalization and outsourcing is full of miscommunication and misleading assertions. This is, in part, due to the baseless claims by our political leaders that essentially see the issue as a zero sum game.
In other words, lawmakers view U.S. companies that send jobs overseas in win-loss terms — if Apple builds a glass-producing factory in Beijing for the new round of iPhones, the U.S. loses jobs and China gains an economic advantage.
While this thought process is continually proven to be both asinine and childish, some policymakers in Louisiana still haven’t gotten the message.
A recent report by the Louisiana Budget Project entitled “State of Working Louisiana 2013” depicts a bleak economic future for the average state resident, highlighting that while Louisiana worker productivity is at an all-time high, median wages have increased by only 1 percent since 1979 and unemployment is on the rise.
The key reason for stagnant wages and increasing unemployment stems from a gigantic decline in the state’s manufacturing industry, which has seen employment fall by 20 percent since the turn of the century.
“The Louisiana economy is working well for big corporations, but these gains are not always filtering down to their workers,” said LBP director Jan Moller.
Indeed, like Detroit and other states with long histories of solid manufacturing sectors, Louisiana’s economy has struggled with the factors stemming from globalization and outsourcing and a more knowledge-centered workforce.
Instead of fighting back and trying to keep these low-paying, low value-added manufacturing jobs, we should take advantage of the globalization forces reshaping Louisiana’s economy.
If our state lawmakers realized this, Louisiana could become a model for success in combatting the challenges — and exploiting the advantages — of globalization.
Huge investments in education, among other things, appear to be the primary determinant of success.
This makes sense. The nation with workers who can perform the most sophisticated, high value-added jobs will inevitably have the most prosperous economy.
Gone are the days where you could get a decent job with good benefits right out of high school.
While this notion may frustrate some, channeling your anger toward corporations for “firing” our consumers and taxpayers from these solid-paying occupations isn’t the answer, because, quite simply, they’re not going to stop.
I mean, think about it — if you actually were the CEO of G.M., wouldn’t you prefer to set up shop in a country where you only have to pay workers one tenth of the average wage in the U.S.?
Oh, and remember to factor in the reality that every one of your competitors is doing the same thing.
We are going through one of the most transformative changes in global culture. If Louisiana chooses not to embrace globalization, then our state will continue to fall behind the pack. Change is always hardest on those caught by surprise.
Jay Meyers is a 20-year-old economics sophomore from Shreveport.