reality-based educator

Talk about being tin-eared:

Bush sees bright side in outsourcing
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush found a bright side to outsourcing Wednesday, saying that the loss of U.S. jobs to foreign countries helps create markets for American business.

"It's true that a number of Americans have lost jobs because companies have shifted operations to India," he said in a speech previewing his trip next week to India and Pakistan. "We must also recognize that India's growth is creating new opportunities for our businesses and farmers and workers."

...

Although Bush made sure to cover the big geopolitical issues in his speech, he acknowledged that many Americans are far more concerned about India's status as a magnet for jobs, especially in the high-tech sector. More than 1.2 million Indians work in high-tech jobs, many of them for U.S. companies or their affiliates.

Echoing a view widely shared by economists, Bush said the benefits from globalization more than offset the damage from lost jobs due to outsourcing. He noted that the United States accounts for only about 5 percent of the world's population.

"India's middle class is now estimated at 300 million people," he said. "That's greater than the entire population of the United States. And this middle class is buying air conditioners, kitchen appliances and washing machines - and a lot of them from American companies.

"Younger Indians are acquiring a taste for pizzas from Domino's, Pizza Hut," Bush added. "And Air India ordered 68 planes valued at more than $11 billion from Boeing."

But even with India's growing prosperity, Americans buy more goods from India than they sell to Indians. The United States had a $10.8 billion trade deficit with India last year, because even though U.S. exports to India have been steadily increasing, imports from India have risen more.

How exactly does an Indian middle class purchasing Domino's pizza in Bombay help Delphi auto workers who have had their wages cut by 67% in Michigan?

I mean, sure gloablization helps the Domino's stockholders and upper management. But it sure doesn't help American workers.

Globalization doesn't even particularly help the guy who delivers your two-fer Tuesdays Domino's pizza.

Sorry, Bushie, but I am yet to be convinced by the Moustache of Understanding's argument that a flat world is beneficial for us all.

Frankly, a flat world seems beneficial for the stockmarket class.

The rest of us are just getting squeezed by overseas competition and nickle and dimed into poverty.

This USA Today article (hat tip to NYC Educator) notes that over the last 4 years the median net worth of the bottom 40% of families has declined, average family income fell 2.3%, real wages have declined by 6%, and liabilities rose faster than assets for most as people accumulated shitloads of mortgage and credit card debt.

So where exactly are the benefits of globalization for middle and working class Americans?