Destabilizing China
By Leo Brown
[President Obama's Weekly Address]
"Insourcing American Jobs" sounds too nice to be true. When I read the four company profiles of "insourcing" leaders, it's hard to imagine that these hundreds of jobs can make a big-picture dent in the Indian IT complex or Chinese manufacturing. But let your imagination wander for a moment.
The Master Lock story is unique, an oddity, but not irrelevant. In a nutshell, conditions in China that were once ideal for manufacturing have slipped. Labor costs are rising and migrant workers have begun to agitate for better work conditions. Most of the Chinese labor force is undereducated, and a company like Master Lock seeks to hire supervisors with graduate degrees.
How will President Obama save the American economy? The Master Lock story suggests that a destabilized China leads to more "insourcing." Even if all jobs don't come directly home, America would diversify its portfolio by relocating some Chinese manufacturing.
How will President Obama destabilize China? A Facebook Revolution? Of course, some of what happened in 2011 was organic, and I believe most of the protesters were earnest in their actions. But it is abundantly clear that unrest in China would benefit the near-term American economy and boost President Obama politically.
Let your imagination wander. Is President Obama going to stand by and hope that the poor migrant laborers of China come upon enough cash to purchase bandwidth and print pamphlets? Keep in mind that the Chinese would need significantly more funding than your typical revolutionary in order to overcome heavy Internet censorship. Moreover, do you think Washington bureaucrats will wait for the President's approval before they act in the name of democracy, security, and the quest for global influence?
Showing posts with label manufacturing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manufacturing. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012
Monday, November 21, 2011
2011.11.19 Weekly Address: Creating an Economy Built to Last
We Are Not Alone
By Leo Brown
[President Obama's Weekly Address]
About a month ago, the traffic on this blog doubled. I couldn't figure it out. Had I become more insightful? Maybe some post had gone viral?
As it turned out, all of the new visitors were from Siberia, where I now live. Because many of my Russian friends and acquaintances want to read what I have to say. In Novosibirsk, direct communication with an American is a rare opportunity. Some people may be less interested in my ideas and simply want to practice their English. Whatever the explanation, my audience has swelled and continues to grow at a quicker rate than before.
This is an opportunity for growth that had not occurred to me, and many American businesses operate with the same narrow perspective. As President Obama mentions in his weekly address, 95% of the world's consumers live beyond our borders. But according to this Washington Post article, 99% of American businesses do not export their product.
Of course, some businesses, due to their size or industry, should not export. But 99%? This couldn't be optimal.
Existing trade laws and tariffs are less then ideal, but President Obama is working to fix this. The trade deals he announced during his Asia Pacific tour will help. The President has repeatedly signalled, through both words and action, his commitment to uphold the campaign promise of doubling American exports by 2014. Based on these facts, we can reasonably expect the government to support an economic climate conducive to exports.
But for all the government can do, American businesses need to open their minds. Because consumers are consumers, whether they hail from Westchester or Tajikistan. Americans may not be buying like they used to, but this needn't destroy our economy. By investing in international market research, businesses might realize opportunities far beyond what a healthy American economy could ever provide. We need to aggressively court the international consumer base rather than treating it like a cheap sideshow.
By viewing the global economy with a wide lens, we can continue to grow as a nation. If we repeat the mistakes of the last ten years or the habits of the last century, the world will leave us choking on its fumes.
By Leo Brown
[President Obama's Weekly Address]
About a month ago, the traffic on this blog doubled. I couldn't figure it out. Had I become more insightful? Maybe some post had gone viral?
As it turned out, all of the new visitors were from Siberia, where I now live. Because many of my Russian friends and acquaintances want to read what I have to say. In Novosibirsk, direct communication with an American is a rare opportunity. Some people may be less interested in my ideas and simply want to practice their English. Whatever the explanation, my audience has swelled and continues to grow at a quicker rate than before.
This is an opportunity for growth that had not occurred to me, and many American businesses operate with the same narrow perspective. As President Obama mentions in his weekly address, 95% of the world's consumers live beyond our borders. But according to this Washington Post article, 99% of American businesses do not export their product.
Of course, some businesses, due to their size or industry, should not export. But 99%? This couldn't be optimal.
Existing trade laws and tariffs are less then ideal, but President Obama is working to fix this. The trade deals he announced during his Asia Pacific tour will help. The President has repeatedly signalled, through both words and action, his commitment to uphold the campaign promise of doubling American exports by 2014. Based on these facts, we can reasonably expect the government to support an economic climate conducive to exports.
But for all the government can do, American businesses need to open their minds. Because consumers are consumers, whether they hail from Westchester or Tajikistan. Americans may not be buying like they used to, but this needn't destroy our economy. By investing in international market research, businesses might realize opportunities far beyond what a healthy American economy could ever provide. We need to aggressively court the international consumer base rather than treating it like a cheap sideshow.
By viewing the global economy with a wide lens, we can continue to grow as a nation. If we repeat the mistakes of the last ten years or the habits of the last century, the world will leave us choking on its fumes.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
2011.10.22 Weekly Address: Bringing Home Our Troops
The Problems Money Won't Solve
By Leo Brown
President Obama has announced that, after a decade of war and deep involvement in foreign military affairs, "the nation we need to rebuild is our own." We are at a turning point, the President suggests - Muammar Gadaffi and Osama bin Laden have been killed, American troops will leave Iraq by the holidays - and from this point, we can anticipate a more peaceful and prosperous future.
It's a remarkably pragmatic idea. We've made some progress towards our military goals, but meanwhile, our country has hit the fan, and so we'll take this moment to reconsider our game plan.
In theory, the conclusion of the Iraq War should free up some dollars that could be spent solving some of our biggest challenges: the deficit, unemployment, student debt, the education system, and infrastructure. Obviously, students shouldn't have to borrow thousands of dollars to attend a university. Schools shouldn't need to choose between a music department and a gym. And no one should have to wonder whether it's best to buy heat or medicine. We can spend our Iraq money here.
But most fifty-year-olds will never move a touchscreen so nimbly as their daughters. What are they to do when the plant shuts down?
Green and advanced manufacturing can replace some of these twentieth-century jobs. But that might not be enough. So many industries no longer need manual labor. On top of this, advanced technology, touted as our economic savior, often is designed specifically to eliminate human workers. This is their definition of success (see: E-ZPass).
Unemployed college graduates are in trouble, but their parents have it worse. The world is working quickly to make their skills obsolete. And this doesn't only affect people who are approaching retirement: millions of new adults remain undereducated and poor. Fifty years ago, they (the white and male) could have found a job in the plant. But Americans today are not going to compete with illegal immigrants for farm work; they can make more money by collecting unemployment. So what should they do instead? Start a small business? Open a wine shop? Try it. See what happens.
Our economy has seen paradigm shifts before. More than two centuries ago, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Until then, cotton was not a very productive crop; though it is easy to grow in the South, it took too long to pick out all the seeds. This was no longer a hindrance, and the American economic capacity skyrocketed.
Likewise, if some genius (or anyone else) can come with an idea to put our undereducated labor to work, a project that truly requires their skills, our economy will once again have a future. For now, we will continue to cannibalize our workforce, churning out "smart" technology that puts the common man out of a job.
Likewise, if some genius (or anyone else) can come with an idea to put our undereducated labor to work, a project that truly requires their skills, our economy will once again have a future. For now, we will continue to cannibalize our workforce, churning out "smart" technology that puts the common man out of a job.
It's a fast-paced world and an exciting time to be alive, but we need to work with what we've got. Our current game plan will leave a vast segment of the population unemployed and disenfranchised. This is a problem that money alone will never solve.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
2011.08.20 Weekly Address: Putting Country Ahead of Party
President Obama's bus tour of the Midwest is designed, smartly and necessarily, to inspire Americans, to instill a sense of pride in our country and its future. In his address this week, the President lauds the discipline, integrity, responsibility, creativity, resourcefulness, and determination of regular Americans. We are not the problem, the President says. Rather, politicians in Washington need to live up to our high standard of behavior and whip together a plan to reduce our unemployment and debt.
This may all be true, but as an American myself, I am neither convinced nor inspired - not yet. It's not that I don't trust President Obama as a person, and I do have faith in myself and my fellow citizens. But when the President met with small business owners, what did he see? What, exactly, was he inspired by? Do they have functional, unique business strategies? Are they making use of social media and green technology? Are they producing or marketing local goods?
President Obama, I want to be inspired, and I am willing to be. I was inspired on June 24, when you announced the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a program that connects scientists and entrepreneurs to the funding necessary to pursue their ideas. You told me of the brilliant minds at work throughout the nation's top research institutions, and you cited specific examples of their work.
Stale platitudes will not inspire me. It's easy to say that we're hard-working, that we're the greatest country on earth. But to be inspired, I need to hear real stories of contemporary American success. So you met with inspiring small business owners. What did they tell you at your meeting? What are they doing that's so great?
There is one other item that would really inspire me, something that's been missing from political discourse for most of my life. Why doesn't President Obama, or any other national politician, tell us that we're smart? Sometimes politicians say that students and professors and scientists are smart. But never the American people. What if the President said, and believed, that we are the smartest country on earth? That we are honest, hard-working, and intelligent? As an incidental bonus, the President might finally shake the persistent notion that he, himself, is "elitist."
I have a hunch that if our politicians could believe that we are, for the most part, intelligent, discerning, and engaged citizens, we would live up to this promise. Maybe being smart could become cool - not only among schoolchildren, but among business owners, construction workers, and football fans. Maybe we would watch less TV. Maybe we would read the newspaper, try a new book, and encourage our kids to come home not with a B, but an A. Instead, too many Americans remain obstinately ignorant, distrustful of information, feeling hopelessly uninformed. And as a result, we are left prey to unscrupulous politicians who continue to game us with bogus economic theory, indulging our prideful ignorance.
I know that I would be more inspired not only to work hard, but to think hard, if President Obama believed in our country's brainpower. Every day in America, I encounter individuals who are pleased, a little amused, by their own ignorance. Maybe being ignorant would not be as funny if President Obama led our nation to believe that we are smart and thoughtful. Because we are. I am sure of it. But no matter how intelligent we are, it won't do us any good if we don't believe it.
This may all be true, but as an American myself, I am neither convinced nor inspired - not yet. It's not that I don't trust President Obama as a person, and I do have faith in myself and my fellow citizens. But when the President met with small business owners, what did he see? What, exactly, was he inspired by? Do they have functional, unique business strategies? Are they making use of social media and green technology? Are they producing or marketing local goods?
President Obama, I want to be inspired, and I am willing to be. I was inspired on June 24, when you announced the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a program that connects scientists and entrepreneurs to the funding necessary to pursue their ideas. You told me of the brilliant minds at work throughout the nation's top research institutions, and you cited specific examples of their work.
Stale platitudes will not inspire me. It's easy to say that we're hard-working, that we're the greatest country on earth. But to be inspired, I need to hear real stories of contemporary American success. So you met with inspiring small business owners. What did they tell you at your meeting? What are they doing that's so great?
There is one other item that would really inspire me, something that's been missing from political discourse for most of my life. Why doesn't President Obama, or any other national politician, tell us that we're smart? Sometimes politicians say that students and professors and scientists are smart. But never the American people. What if the President said, and believed, that we are the smartest country on earth? That we are honest, hard-working, and intelligent? As an incidental bonus, the President might finally shake the persistent notion that he, himself, is "elitist."
I have a hunch that if our politicians could believe that we are, for the most part, intelligent, discerning, and engaged citizens, we would live up to this promise. Maybe being smart could become cool - not only among schoolchildren, but among business owners, construction workers, and football fans. Maybe we would watch less TV. Maybe we would read the newspaper, try a new book, and encourage our kids to come home not with a B, but an A. Instead, too many Americans remain obstinately ignorant, distrustful of information, feeling hopelessly uninformed. And as a result, we are left prey to unscrupulous politicians who continue to game us with bogus economic theory, indulging our prideful ignorance.
I know that I would be more inspired not only to work hard, but to think hard, if President Obama believed in our country's brainpower. Every day in America, I encounter individuals who are pleased, a little amused, by their own ignorance. Maybe being ignorant would not be as funny if President Obama led our nation to believe that we are smart and thoughtful. Because we are. I am sure of it. But no matter how intelligent we are, it won't do us any good if we don't believe it.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
2011.08.06 Weekly Address: Getting the Economy Growing Faster
President Obama sketches out a plan to substantially reduce unemployment and reinvigorate the economy in this week's address. To be sure, the President needs a plan. But he does not mention why he is focusing primarily on domestic manucturing, a strategy that, in my opinion, requires a bit of explanation.
Though our international trade deficit is problematic and unsustainable, we are, by no means, obligated to tackle the issue by suddenly becoming a manufacturing nation. Nor is that really possible, to the extent that would be necessary, in the 21st century. Manufacturing jobs disappeared overseas (decades before the current recession) not because of faulty policy or American decline, but because international labor became relatively cheap and plentiful. Today, we can no longer compete with Chinese production of pencils and McDonald's toys - our standards of living are simply too high - and that's OK.
To improve our balance of trade and to reactivate the economy, we need to focus on what we do best in this century. As Tom Friedman has argued, now is the time to be "stapling a green card to the diploma of any foreign student who earns an advanced degree at any U.S. university." The nation's system of higher education is surely one of its greatest assets; we must use it to our advantage in the global competition for talent. In the last decade, our own Silicon Valley has spawned multi-billion dollar companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google. These are the U.S. exports of the 21st century, and we can maintain a stronghold in this market by continuing to invest in technology start-ups. And our financial sector, while demonized and reviled, remains a global leader and major contributor to net exports.
The fact is, we need not be ashamed of our Chinese-made pencils, or, for that matter, our Chinese-made iPads. Manufactured goods were an important part of our nation's economic development, but we might best build a future upon eduction, research, financial services, and high-tech design - sectors in which we currently excel.
Though our international trade deficit is problematic and unsustainable, we are, by no means, obligated to tackle the issue by suddenly becoming a manufacturing nation. Nor is that really possible, to the extent that would be necessary, in the 21st century. Manufacturing jobs disappeared overseas (decades before the current recession) not because of faulty policy or American decline, but because international labor became relatively cheap and plentiful. Today, we can no longer compete with Chinese production of pencils and McDonald's toys - our standards of living are simply too high - and that's OK.
To improve our balance of trade and to reactivate the economy, we need to focus on what we do best in this century. As Tom Friedman has argued, now is the time to be "stapling a green card to the diploma of any foreign student who earns an advanced degree at any U.S. university." The nation's system of higher education is surely one of its greatest assets; we must use it to our advantage in the global competition for talent. In the last decade, our own Silicon Valley has spawned multi-billion dollar companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google. These are the U.S. exports of the 21st century, and we can maintain a stronghold in this market by continuing to invest in technology start-ups. And our financial sector, while demonized and reviled, remains a global leader and major contributor to net exports.
The fact is, we need not be ashamed of our Chinese-made pencils, or, for that matter, our Chinese-made iPads. Manufactured goods were an important part of our nation's economic development, but we might best build a future upon eduction, research, financial services, and high-tech design - sectors in which we currently excel.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)