This Labor Day, Are We Still Sending Jobs Overseas?

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 4, Americans will observe Labor Day, the holiday celebrating the nation's working men and women.  

However, James A. Stuber asserts that America's leaders, and more importantly her consumers, have been undermining America's workers in pursuit of faulty free trade theories and cheap foreign products.  

In his provocative new book, What If Things Were Made in America Again: How Consumers Can Rebuild the Middle Class by Buying Things Made in American Communities (Current Affairs Press), Stuber contends that the low prices of imported products have been more than offset by lowered American wages, job losses and resulting social ills including drug addiction and suicide.

Faced with competition from places like China and Mexico, where workers are paid one-tenth of U.S. wages, Americans have seen their wages driven down, and not just in manufacturing, as laid-off production workers line up to compete for the remaining jobs, Stuber says.

And he predicts that the future holds more of the same or worse: "Let's not kid ourselves; companies like Carrier, Nabisco and Ford are still sending entire production lines to Mexico and China," Stuber says.  "And now, the high-skill jobs our leaders said we would keep are being swept offshore along with the blue-collar work." 

Stuber asks, "When we have the conversation with our children or grandchildren about careers they should consider, what do we tell them? Do we try to figure out what jobs are tradable, and guide our children only to prepare for those that are not?  And if we give away all the tradable jobs, are there enough non-tradable jobs left, or do we end up with a fierce competition for them? In the end, I concluded that we are trading away our children's future." 

Fortunately, consumers have the power to solve the problem, as Stuber describes in his book's last chapter. 

About James Stuber

James A. Stuber is an attorney and entrepreneur who formerly served as legislative assistant to a member of the United States House of Representatives. He holds a law degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor's and master's degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, respectively. Stuber lives in Berwyn, Pa., with his wife Susan and their four children. Building upon this book, he founded Made in America Again, a movement of consumers dedicated to rebuilding the American middle class by buying things made in American communities. 

Contact: James Stuber; (610) 608-5074; [email protected];  http://www.themadeinamericabook.com/

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SOURCE James Stuber