Statements from President Obama and others

Please read this post in conjunction with my basic position paper "What is this blog all about?".

During the presidential election campaign in 2008, on TV I saw and heard then-Senator Obama say "we have to get the jobs back from China".  I did not see every speech made by Senator Obama.  However in the speeches I did see, I did not hear him make the same statement again.  I suspect that his handlers and advisers ganged up on him and told him he cannot make this type of statement.

Nevertheless, the "man-in-the-street", the ordinary working man or woman, knows that we must get the jobs back from China. 

In late August 2010, President Obama made a speech about the economy.  He said that, with his advisers, he has been looking at many possible ways of increasing employment.  He said that he will offer incentives to business to "create new jobs here in America". 

This statement is very good in one respect and I hope the President will follow through.  The President is also trying to get China to let its currency float, rather than artificially keeping the currency down.  China has promised to do something.  A report issued by the G20 group at the same time states that "vigorous implementation (of loosening of the yuan) is now necessary".  "Unfortunately so far only limited progress has been made." 

So we have acknowledgement at the highest levels that job-killing imports from China have to be brought under control.  But what happens if China continues to refuse to loosen control of the yuan?

President Obama's statement that we want to "create new jobs here in America" is very disappointing in another respect because it implies that we are writing off the millions of jobs already sent to China and other overseas locations.  In other words, no attempt will be made to get these jobs back. 

While "creating new jobs here in America" sounds very good, it will be a slow process because it implies new technological areas with extended times for product and market development.  People who are unemployed cannot wait five or ten years for these new jobs to materialize.  "Getting the jobs back from China" relates to reinstating production in America of thousands of known products for which is there an immediate market. 

Further, if there is no government policy to control import of manufactured goods from countries that don't buy from us, then new jobs created in America, in new areas such as solar technology, could easily be lost also.

President Obama has an advisory panel of 300 members, and recently convened a Blue Ribbon panel on the economy.  It reminds me of the Mr. McGoo cartoons of 40 or 50 years ago:  Looking keenly in every direction but not seeing anything.  All these advisers and Blue Ribbon people don't identify the one thing that will solve the problem and that is "get, or take, the jobs back from China" and other countries that don't buy manufactured goods from us. 

In late August 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger stated that "California simply cannot solve its budgetary problem without addressing government employee compensation and benefits".  Undoubtedly this statement is valid, correct, and true.  But note the complete absence of any reference in the Governor's statement to measures to increase employment in California, thereby increasing California tax revenue,

Governor Schwarzenegger is typical of most of our officials and legislators at all levels of government in appearing to view the reduced employment situation in business and industry as something etched in stone which cannot be changed or even discussed.