 Though it seems to me that any 14 million people who can give any 112 million other people a run for their money are valuable and they should have good jobs. They've proven their worth. Preserving the capacity to usefully employ them is just good sense and a worthwhile hedge against supply chain interruptions.
In any war or serious national security emergency, our extended supply chain might become a bigger deal than it's comfortable to think about. For example, as John Markoff wrote this week in the New York Times, the "Pentagon now manufactures in secure facilities run by American companies only about 2 percent of the more than $3.5 billion of integrated circuits bought annually for use in military gear." (Alternate link.) He says there's concern in the military and intelligence communities about Trojan horses being placed in the circuits, raising the possibility of failures in times of crisis.
That could sound paranoid, but the US itself has used such Trojan horses against other countries, either to tamper with military hardware or steal information. In other words, it's been thought of, done and printed in the paper for everyone to read about a long time since.
There are things that a country should ideally make for itself.
Next are the pollution issues. Many of the developing nations whose lower labor casts initially attract US companies have very low pollution standards.
Links to this photograph series entitled, "Pollution in China", has been making their horrifying rounds lately. The 40 images document not only the signs on the landscape, but the damage to China's people; the adults and children with cancer, the birth defects, disabilities, festering sores, faces and bodies permanently caked with coal dust.
Pollution controls may be so poor even on newly constructed or expanded facilities that they pose blatant and immediate threats to local residents. The region of Sichuan still recovering from last year's deadly quake is now being poisoned by an expanded aluminum production facility, its permanent rain of white dust is killing crops and irritating the skin of its workers. In central China's Henan province, more lead smelters have been found releasing so much pollution that nearby children had excessive blood levels of lead, 178 of them requiring hospitalization. Steel manufacturing in China comprises a third of world steel production, but half of all steel industry CO2 pollution.
At least part of China's environmental destruction is due to poor enforcement, with multinational and Chinese firms openly flouting pollution disclosure requirements instituted in 2008.
So as China's global share of pollution increases and shipping pollution becomes a bigger issues, both the House and Senate support for border tariffs is the sensible thing to do if your concern is either cutting emissions or protecting US jobs. Even if it may irritate trading partners.
American workers are capable and productive. They're an asset to their country and to a world that's looking to the United States to take responsibility for our share of global pollution.
Congressional leaders who told us all it was an imperative to save the banking industry, which caused our current recession, should remember the US workers struggling to survive it when they craft a solution to our climate challenges.
Cross-posted from OurFuture.org. Chris and I are headed to DC today to make the Building The New Economy conference this Thursday, hosted by The Institute for America's Future and the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Free registration is available if you RSVP online, so stop by if you're in the area!
Read more from the series | Go to the conference page |
