A Letter to Steven Landsburg (Expanded)
This article by Steven Landsburg is, to put it bluntly, a pile of horseshit. So I wrote him a letter yesterday. I have yet to receive a response. I would figure with tenure, he’d have more time on his hands than those lucky low-wage earners he writes about.
Dear Mr. Landsburg:
Your article in today’s NY Times stated “All economists know that when American jobs are outsourced, Americans as a group are net winners. What we lose through lower wages is more than offset by what we gain through lower prices.”
it seemed to me your article focused exclusively on the lower prices of goods as the only factor in whether Americans who have lost their jobs to outsourcing and offshoring are net winners or losers.
I was wondering if you noted that most of these lower wage jobs don’t have good benefits like pensions, flex-time, health insurance, and the like? What good is a cheap DVD if you can’t afford to pay for medicine or hospital care for your sick child? In fact, you don’t even mention the cost of healthcare at all, which is unaffordable for millions of Americans who aren’t lucky enough to receive benefits through employers.
I was also wondering if you noted that, because of these lower wage jobs, more middle class Americans have had to depend on their credit cards to buy necessities they can no longer afford (like gasoline and heating oil, milk and eggs, daycare, etc)? You completely failed to mention that their lower wages don’t go as far as the offshored higher wage jobs and can’t keep up with inflation (or for that matter the increased cost of fuel borught on by a costly foreign war)?
Did you note that, thanks to bankruptcy legislation passed in 2005, those same credit cards can charge interest rates that used to be described as “usury”, putting people further and further into debt.
You also don’t mention the fact that because of the crashing dollar, those cheap imports are getting more expensive every day.
If you’re forced to pay $20 an hour to an American for goods you could have bought from a Mexican for $5 an hour, you’re being extorted. When a free trade agreement allows you to buy from the Mexican after all, rejoice in your liberation — even if Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney and the rest of the presidential candidates don’t want you to.
Did you forget that after NAFTA shipped the good American jobs down to Mexico, once the Mexicans’ standard of living increased leading to demands for better wages and benefits, the same corporations picked up and moved to Chinese slave labor camps?
Finally, I would like to know what your salary is at the University, and whether you are tenured. If you are tenured, how long has it been since you had to work for the going wage? How long has it been since your good-paying blue collar job was outsourced, or since Wal-Mart moved in and (with the assistance of the government) smashed your small business, leaving you to make up the difference working at Waffle House?
Thanks for any responses you can provide.
Brendan Skwire
See here for more about the REAL state of the economy, featuring higher prices for everything, high unemployment, and the inability of lower-wages to bridge the gap. Then ask yourself what fucking planet Steven Landsburg is writing from.
2 Responses to “A Letter to Steven Landsburg (Expanded)”
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January 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
all economists, huh? i don’t think paul krugman would agree.
“If you’re forced to pay $20 an hour to an American for goods you could have bought from a Mexican for $5 an hour, you’re being extorted.”
i love that line. did a mexican that replaced an american ever make $5 an hour? that’s real wealth for many workers there.
and the extortion occurs when companies charge essentially the same for the product that’s being manufactured so much more cheaply and pocket all that extra profit. this is where free trade fails. there is no sharing of the wealth. an ability to buy a few more gewgaws for a tiny bit less is not wealth sharing.
costs for all essentials - housing, fuel, food, healthcare - have skyrocketed. i’d rather pay a buck more for my socks. oh wait, they’re no cheaper than they were 10 years ago either.
i’m wondering if my rent will go down when the great depression comes. bwahahahahahaha.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
What happens to renters when their landlord defaults on the mortgage? There are so many variables to the “economy” scenerio. I’m going to brace myself for the unraveling because it’s commin’, and all bases need to be covered.