| Dangerous Man
|
15 March 2004
|
Lou Dobbs Sees the Light
Lou Dobbs is CNN's financial heavyweight. So why are media giants like the Financial Times, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal attacking him? It seems that Mr. Dobbs won't drink the Kool-Aid on jobs and economics. Instead, he calls for a "balanced US trade policy." Too many truths got in his way.
Mr. Dobbs cites three facts that none of his attackers seem able to address. As Mr. Dobbs says, "We're not creating jobs in the private sector, and that's never happened before in our history. Our economists and politicians need to be coming up with answers, not dogma . . . We haven't had a trade surplus in this country in more than two decades, and our trade deficit continues to soar . . . and we've lost three million jobs in this country over the last three years, and millions more American jobs are at risk of being outsourced to cheap overseas labor markets. That seems to me, at least, to be more than sufficient evidence for all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, to question critically the policies of both parties that have led us to this critical juncture in our economy and our history. "
The problem ultimately is jobs. Not everyone in the US can live off their dividends, and so for most, work is necessary. Thanks to fears of socialism, a job is not just a paycheck, it is also health care and life insurance. Take the work away, and the American middle class is under attack. At first, the loss of high-wage jobs on factory floors was not mourned (except by those who lost them) because new, better, cleaner jobs were coming. Now, those white-collar jobs are heading out of the country, and there seems to be no replacement.
The reason this troubles Mr. Dobbs is the reason it should trouble every thinking American. Too few jobs means depressed wages, and that yields weak demand. Moreover, middle-class Americans who fear the fall into the under-class (that is each and every one of them) are easily manipulated. It is no accident that Nazism arose on the backs of a middle class under threat. America has been, since the Second World War at least, a middle-class nation. Now, mainstream politicians speak of two Americas.
Fault can be laid at the feet of poor trade policy. It is not enough to encourage free trade unless the nations who agree to it play by the same environmental and social rules. The American worker can beat any worker in the world, but make American industry bear higher costs by requiring anti-pollution expenses, higher costs in worker pay, higher costs derived from software on which royalties are actually paid, and the playing field is clearly not level. The solution is not to abandon America's clean air and water, slash the minimum wage or pirate software. The solution is to negotiate trade deals that require other nations to raise their standards. That is what Mr. Dobbs favors -- quite rightly.
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