Should our Jobs Bill be used to create jobs overseas?

Fuck,no.

Hell no!

I guess that’s the problem with the lack of a “Buy American” clause in this bill or any other “recovery” bill. Some call that protectionism, but why not? I think we should protect jobs in the US.

There was a time that we imported products because they were unique or a specialized product, like some musical instruments. Now we import products because they can be manufactured more inexpensively overseas.

@ChazMaz -How about-Hell,Fuckin’ NO! lol!

Wow, all excellent answers to start. I do think that the money should have stayed here. I miss the time when I felt that the government had my best interests at heart.

@lucillelucillelucille – That works. United we stand! :-)

Absolutely yes.~ Why create jobs here that will just get outsourced to China anyway.~ Might as well just give them the money and be done with it. ~~~

Not if it is invested in business that keeps the business here in the states.

It is that damn intercoursing New World Order that is the problem.

@lucillelucillelucille @ChazMaz But they did! They? Who is this they?

“that damn intercoursing New World Order”

I like that. what a polite way of saying it.

Jobs Bill reminds me of an eventual monopoly of operating systems… Steve Jobs and Bill Gates…

With a buy American clause, the jobs building the windmills probably would not exist, because they couldn’t get parts they need at a competitive price.

The economy of the world is so interlinked now, that I don’t think it is possible to have purely American jobs except, maybe, for janitors and cleaning staff and other service people. Just about everything we do where we only have American workers has some non-American component that creates non-American jobs.

This is pure jingoism and has nothing to do with reality. It’s a big fuss over nothing.

The underlying problem of jobs going overseas is the disparity in the wages of workers in other countries when compared to US workers. Unfortunately US workers have been very effective in negotiating decent wages and benefits. And thus it costs more to manufacture products in the US. The only lasting way to keep jobs from flowing out of the US is to somehow raise the standard of living in developing countries. Once foreign workers are earning comparable wages, it will no longer be economical for companies to move jobs overseas. Perhaps we should be encouraging an international minimum wage and unionization of workers in other countries.

@wundayatta Then why couldn’t the Gov subsidize the costs so jobs could be created and let the after flow of the money from the payroll help stimulate their local economies that will ultimately help our economy instead of China’s?

@Cruiser I’m sorry. I didn’t understand what you were saying there. Isn’t that what the law does now? No. I can’t be interpreting what you said correctly.

@wundayatta Jingoism infers excessive self interest in a national policy. The US economy is struggling, and that has a ripple effect on the world economy along with the economies of other countries. Now I am not naive enough to think we can retreat into isolationist policies or anything like that. But do think that a bit of self-protection is necessary if we are to re-create a robust economic environment.

@Yetanotheruser It’s excessive because it won’t work. In fact, it’ll do the opposite of what it’s intent is.

The US economy has much less influence over the world than it did a decade or two ago. Europe is recovering much faster than the US, in large part do to their willingness to let the state support people more. China is diversifying. If we continue to have short-sighted policies that are based on jingoism instead of factual analysis, our economy will stay in the doldrums no matter how much money we throw at it. We live in an interdependent world. We can’t support American jobs without also supporting non-American jobs.

@wundayatta I see what you are suggesting about interdependency but this was money from a jobs bill that was sold to the American people as using “our” money we don’t even have to invest in our economy to create “American” jobs. There are other initiatives and incentives in that can and are used to support and stimulate interdependent economic opportunities. I would just like an honest clear explanation over what is really going on with this need to use this stimulus money in China. I find it even more disconcerting that the White House is defending this spending again with little explanation as to why it was done in the first place.

@Cruiser Fair enough.

@jfos My thoughts exactly. Resistance is futile!

As long as you want to go and they pay your way and take care of you really good,
and give you housing etc. Bon Voyage

In Germany people got €2500 ($3375) cash as part of the German stimulus package when buying a new car while scrapping their old one (9 years or older).

Did they have to buy German cars? No. They were free to buy American, Japanese, French or whatever new cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrappage_program

@mattbrowne – That was just marketing. Since Uncle Sam acquired a car manufacturer.