"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
...
After following some of the links showing job loss and productivity gains,
it's quite depressing, I've come to the conclusion that one of my main
goals
has been to eliminate employees' jobs. In the past year I have eliminated
3
people and outsourced semi-finished goods from other American companies at
least. But guess what? Boxes of parts don't have mood swings, PMS,
holidays, don't have to be heated or cooled, and NO SCRAP! They come in
at
a set cost with out the variables. Kind of sad that I can no longer
devote
the HR to barely breaking even ...on good days. But, specialized
suppliers
can do so much better due to their economy of scale than I can.

I wouldn't say you're part of the problem, Tom. Outsourcing and productivity
improvements are part of the game. If it occurs gradually, the economy
adapts, we all benefit from the improved productivity, and life goes on.

The problems are surges of imports, companies chasing low wages around the
world and shutting down US plants to do so, and foreign countries
manipulating the factors of production for the purpose of predatory pricing.
It's a combination of profiteering and predation. When the numbers behind
those phenomena get large, we wind up with industries that, suddenly and
overwhelmingly, become non-competitive

Ed Huntress