Support Trade; But Outsourcing Costs Too Many Jobs

Burlington Free Press -- May 19, 2004
Rep. Bernie Sanders
The great economic crisis facing this country is the decline of the middle class, the increase in poverty and the growing gap between the rich and the poor.

Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, real inflation accounted for wages for middle-class workers is lower than 25 years ago, and tens of millions of Americans are now working longer hours for lower wages than was previously the case.

Meanwhile, the wealthiest people in our country have never had it so good, with the richest 1 percent owning more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, and the richest 13,000 families earning more income than the bottom 20 million families.
There are a number of reasons why the middle class is shrinking. One of the major reasons is "outsourcing" and the fact that large corporations have thrown millions of Americans out on the street as they move to China, India, Mexico and other countries in search of cheap labor.

Incredibly, due to record-breaking trade deficits, the United States has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs since January 2001 -- 16 percent of the manufacturing work force. In Vermont, the numbers are even worse. In the last three years, Vermont has lost 21 percent of its manufacturing jobs.

Given that reality, I was surprised to read Richard Tarrant's support of outsourcing (My Turn, May 10) and his need to come up with an ocean of red herrings to justify his views. As a good Republican, he should know that more and more members of his party, in Congress and throughout the country, are deserting President Bush's outsourcing policies as they see the economic devastation they have caused.

In fact, I am working with a number of Republicans and Democrats in Congress in support of legislation that I've introduced which would repeal Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China and would eliminate billions in corporate welfare for large corporations that are moving abroad and throwing American workers out on the street.

Why are corporations moving to China and elsewhere? The answer is obvious. Why should they pay workers in America a living wage and decent benefits and obey environmental laws when our current trade policies encourage them to employ people in China at 30 cents an hour and have workers there arrested if they try to form a union or stand up for basic human rights.

For many years we were told by corporate leaders like Mr. Tarrant that we shouldn't worry about the loss of manufacturing jobs because our economy was in the process of creating good-paying information technology jobs.

Well, guess what? In the last few years we have seen the outsourcing phenomenon sweeping down on white collar information technology jobs. A recent University of California-Berkeley study indicates that as many as 14 million information technology jobs in the United States may be at risk. What has happened at National Life in Montpelier is happening across the country, as well-educated workers see their jobs go to India, China, Russia and elsewhere.

Despite Mr. Tarrant's positive views about how outsourcing and unfettered free trade will improve our economy, a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics study indicates that most of the new jobs that will be created in the next 10 years will be low-skill, low-wage jobs. Unless we make fundamental changes in our economic policy, working people will be hurting even more.

Trade is a good thing, and I strongly support the growth of export jobs in the United States, including those at IDX. In order to strengthen our economy, however, we need policies that are based on the principles of fair trade, rather than outsourcing and unfettered free trade.

We must not continue the disastrous "race to the bottom" in which we are currently engaged.