Capitalism Restrictions and Ignorant Crybabies

(the following is in response to a Letter to the Editor from Mr. Williams published in The Macon Telegraph on 01-11-07.)
the link: http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/editorial/letters/16430138.htm

If not for time constraints or restrictions on letter length, I could argue several points in Lee Williams’ letter of response about “Liberal pollution”. I have chosen to touch on one.

Mr. Williams said near the end of his letter, ”…we have given our jobs to overseas investors…”. This is the type of statement that leads a reader to assume the writer lacks knowledge of economics, is immature or genuinely stuck on playing partisan games.

First, “we” have not given “our” jobs to overseas investors. The jobs belong to the owners of the company. The job skills belong to the employee. You can own your own job skills, but unless you are self-employed, you do not own your job. That job belongs to your employer and your employer has the right to give that job to someone else.

Second, since the employer owns “the job”, it would be another employee that you would expect them to give “the job” to, not an investor. I know it could be said that if you are an employee that accepts a job, you are investing in yourself or investing yourself in the company you are working for. In reading Mr. William’s letter however, it is obvious from the context that is not what he was referring to.

For a company to give an investor the jobs the company owns, the company would have to sell the jobs to the investor. In this case, the jobs would not be considered “given”, they would be considered “sold”. This is a remedial explanation, so I apologize for boring many of you, however it seems necessary to ‘break it down’ in this manner for some readers.

If people that think like Mr. Williams had their way and the United States restricted private companies from moving operations outside the states or overseas, imagine the negative impact it would have on the US. The backlash on America from other countries would be unimaginable. Toyota, a huge Japanese company could close down all it’s operations in the US. Manufacturing plants, dealerships, parts distributors, etc. Nestle, a Swiss company could close all of its plants, thereby affecting thousands too. If the US was arrogant enough to mandate American companies only have operations in America, our economy would suffer immensely.

We live in a global economy now thanks advancements in technology, transportation, communication and much more. To think in such a small manner shows ignorance. A favorite saying of mine is, “Change is not mandatory, because survival is not required.” To survive, you must accept and adapt to change just like the typewriter repairmen and the ice delivery men that used to supply ice for your icebox. There were not hundreds of homeless typewriter repairmen homeless when people stopped using typewriters. Neither were there homeless ice delivery men on the streets once the refrigerator was invented. You must take responsibility for yourself and not look to the government to force someone else, like a company, to do it for you.