Global Corporations Don't Give a Hoot About Jobs in America, Including Apple

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Why do the Republicans and some Democrats in Congress enable the loss of jobs in America?

Perhaps it is because, as BuzzFlash at Truthout has noted many times, many of their corporate paymasters are now global corporations that don't really give a hoot about creating jobs in the US. As BuzzFlash has noted, the goal of a corporation - by its very capitalistic structure - is to increase profits, not increase jobs in America.

So, this is how it goes down. A company such as Wal-Mart expands overseas and creates jobs in other nations in two ways. It offshores its manufacturing to the lowest cost nations, where workers are often treated harshly for, at best, subsistence pay. Then it brings those goods back to the US where they are sold to Americans who economically can only afford items made overseas. The Wal-Mart customer may have lost his or her job because what he or she is buying is now made in China, for instance.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart hires workers in the US at the lowest possible wages, many of them forced to go on Medicaid and food stamps to survive - in short, the government subsidizes the low-wage labor practices of Wal-Mart in the US. Wal-Mart isn't increasing exports from the US; it is increasing US reliance on imports.

Wal-Mart then also expands its stores, via free trade agreements, around the world, where goods are sold not generally from America, but from other low-wage nations. It creates jobs globally that don't benefit US workers to any great degree, just the stockholders of Wal-Mart.

The Wal-Mart heirs are among the richest persons in the world. Naturally, they give generously to politicians who support multinational corporations whose main job generation is in other nations. This completes the circle of what BuzzFlash has called the self-cannibalization of the workforce in America: working-class Americans economically forced to buy goods made by slave-wage earners in nations with few labor standards.

This is not just Wal-Mart. Progressives who love their Apple products and the Apple "brand" image of innovation contribute to this destructive cycle. There have been a number of recent stories on how Apple is a lead corporation in using overseas contractors who engage in exploitative labor practices - and all indications are that Apple, instead of improving working conditions, actually squeezes the manufacturers and assemblers harder each year by lowering payments or moving to even lower-cost and more abusive settings.

Indeed, even The New York Times has written two investigative stories on Apple's harsh working conditions in China. Reuters notes of the revelatory carefully-researched articles:

The New York Times published on Wednesday its second bombshell of a story on inhumane working conditions at Apple's Chinese manufacturers. So how will the world's most valuable company, notorious for its secrecy, respond?

So far, with silence.

You see, Apple is coming off of one of the most profitable quarters in corporate history, according to the Times.

And that is all the Republicans and many Democrats in Congress are interested in. Higher profits mean the rich (shareholders and executives) get richer and the politicians get bigger campaign contributions.

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama posed this challenge to Congress:

We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it.

So let's change it. First, if you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it....

Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas.

From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here in America.

Third, if you're an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you're a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making your products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers....

My message is simple. It is time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I will sign them right away.

The president shouldn't spend too much time waiting for such a piece of legislation. There's no profit in it for the wealthy or politicians in DC.

Afternote: According to the Times article a top Apple executive stated: "We [Apple] don't have an obligation to solve America's problems."