June 11, 2012 |
The following is an adapted version of a speech delivered at Netroots.
We used to make things here, and then came free trade and then China
opened up, and we moved a lot of manufacturing there, especially
electronics. We say Apple here, because Apple is the most obvious, and
because the supposed values of Apple conflict dramatically with what we
now know about the working conditions of the people who make their
products. But we mean ALL OF THEM.
We used to think that China got so much business because labor was
cheap. The elites, benefiting from that, said take advantage of the low
prices, and our workers can move on to better, more productive pursuits.
Of course, intentionally undercutting the wages of our own workers was
bad enough. And using that as a wedge to break unions was bad enough.
But the story of our trade deal with China is much worse than that.
Not too long ago stories about the working conditions of Chinese
electronics workers started to be heard. We started hearing about
protests, strikes, and then about suicides at these factories.
The reports reached wide audiences from a New York Times report,
How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
This report hilighted Steve Jobs telling President Obama that these
jobs are never coming back, and the reason was not the lower cost of
labor. The reason was that in China they could make workers do things
that they can’t make them do here. They can make them live in dorms
where they wake them up at midnight to stand for hours on assembly
lines, or use neurotoxins that let them clean many more screens in a
day. They can dump horrible stuff into the environment. And this is just
the tip of the iceberg. Ask Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer who just
arrived in the US, about how people are treated there.
The business advantage China offers is not low wages -- it is that in
China the people do not have a say, and here people have a say.
When people have a say they say they want better pay, health care,
retirement, vacations, sick pay, protections, worker safety, clean
environment and taxes to support the country – things like that – the
very things China offers to let our businesses escape from.
So what China offers is that China is “business-friendly.” Because
people there do not have a say, so they can’t ask for the things people
should have.
Corporate conservatives here say we should be more business friendly,
we should lower wages, lower taxes, stop taking care of the environment,
stop all those pesky health and safety and environmental inspections,
stop telling businesses what they can and cannot do, and all the rest.
They say we should be more like China.
What they are saying is that we should abandon the benefits that
democracy brought to We, the People – the 99% in order to enrich a few
people – the 1%.
When we opened up our borders to goods from China, and let this
treatment of workers and the environment offer advantages to our elites,
we made democracy a competitive disadvantage.
But wait, there’s more.
There is another difference to consider. Look what China offers our
business leaders. China provides them with an exploited labor force at
little cost. Beyond that China also subsidizes the manufacturing that is
done there. They spend a great deal on manipulating their currency to
keep prices of goods made there very low. They will build you a factory,
pay for your electricity, and so much more.
China offers our business leaders an amazing deal – a deal that they
can’t refuse. The owners and managers of our companies get really,
really rich if they play along with China. Nerver mind if the companies
go away later -- they’re rich.
China offers these things to our business leaders for a reason. This is
the reason: China sees itself as a country, and we no longer do.
China competes with us as a country. But our businesses see themselves as GLOBALIZED, not as part of a country.
So since we – at least our businesses – no longer see themselves as
part of a country we are not responding to this competition. We are not
mobilizing to fight back.
In fact, China has essentially recruited our own business leaders to fight against our own government.
Look at the effects on our country since we entered into this deal with China.
They are luring our businesses to move our jobs, factories, industries
and technologies there for the private gain of a few, at the expense of
us as a country, and we let that happen.
The trade imbalance is bankrupting us as a country. It has already
drained trillions from our economy, weakening us and strengthening them.
They are smart, they do this as a NATIONAL strategy, as a country
competing with us as a country, and the result is that in a competition
between countries we may have already lost.
There are many things we can do about this. China can still be a
partner, and there are many things we can help lift the wages and open
things up for working people there.
We can require American companies to behave in the interest of their own country and of our democratic system, for one thing.
We can immediately require that imports not exceed exports by issuing import licenses based on exports.
We can demand that China actually trade with us, using that huge
accumulated trade surplus to buy goods and services made here. This is
dramatically in their interest – imagine what would happen to our
economy if China started actually trading with us, buying American-made
goods. Then the thriving American economy would boost the purchases of
Chinese goods in return! That they don’t do this, and instead use those
resources against us, manipulating currency, subsidizing companies,
tells us they are not playing an economic game, they are playing a
nationalist game of strategic domination. As a country.
Unfortunately, as I said, China’s trade strategy has helped create a
situation where many of our own elites are fighting against our
government.
Dave Johnson is a Fellow at Campaign for America's Future and a Senior Fellow at Renew California.
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