Thursday 20 May, 2010

Jobs that cannot be exported to China and India

Every American politician wants jobs that cannot be exported. Well, do they ever ask themselves what happens when they buy oil from Saudi Arabia, or coffee from Brazil, or timber from Canada. They pay. And when they pay, the money goes to employ someone in the country that imports.

In other words, every time America or any other country imports anything, it exports jobs. Of course, it can be argued that if America had a trade surplus it would be a net importer of jobs. But it isn’t quite so because the per capita income in the US is higher than that in most countries it trades with.

The point is that the whole argument is ridiculous, more so because those very same politicians want free trade, exports and what not.

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