American Consumers Responsible for Jobs Going Overseas

You're shifting through home and garden items at a merchandise store. As someone that cares about the environment, you want to get solar powered sidewalk lights. You plan on reducing regular electricity use by using renewable energy lights whenever possible.

So you're shifting through boxes of solar powered sidewalk lamps. Out of all the options on the shelf, you find yourself comparing two products from two different companies. Price clinches your decision as you place a solar powered light set into your cart, and return the other one to the shelf.

But again, as a smart shopper, you're doing what millions of Americans are doing; getting the best quality products at the best possible price. This is happening in every store across the country and across the world.

As a consumer base, we penalize companies for charging too high when they could charge less. These companies study and react to our purchasing habits; then plan accordingly. They have to.

So, what's the best way to drop prices without sacrificing quality? One way is by reducing labor costs. Companies call this "labor expense."

The best way they could cut labor expense is to move manufacturing overseas; where they could pay someone from $5.00 to $9.00 a day and not worry about paying them benefits. If they do include benefits, premiums aren't as high as those in the United States. They'd still save on labor costs compared to an American working minimum wage, without benefits.

This isn't the only area where they'll be able to save. The country the company moves its manufacturing operations to charge that company less taxes. Some of these countries have tax havens where these companies don't pay taxes.

These companies have a choice; pay taxes in the U.S. or pay little to no taxes overseas. If you were that company's CEO, you'd move your operations overseas in a heartbeat. Paying less taxes means that the company reduces the costs of producing merchandise. It also means that you guard against your competitors doing the same thing. If you don't move overseas when your competitors do, you'll get priced out of a business.

Even if these companies move overseas, they could still provide good, or better, quality. Many people claim that products made overseas are substandard; but consumer activity proves otherwise.

Granted, there are those who look for products made in America. But those products are getting rare, and when they're found, they tend to cost more; or have quality that doesn't compare to that of other merchandise.

So, the chances are that you're one of those who'll go for the best quality merchandise at the best price.

Moving manufacturing overseas is a smart business decision. This is why competing companies also move their manufacturing overseas; if they don't, companies that do move overseas undercut them and drive them out of business.

It's not just the American companies doing this.

Every industrialized nation on Earth is seeing the same thing; home companies moving manufacturing overseas to cut production costs. This means that if U.S. Politicians successfully stop jobs from going overseas, American manufacturing industry would be doomed to extinction.

If U.S. companies fail to take advantage of cheap foreign labor to meet consumer demands, their foreign competitors will. If that happens, they'll eliminate their U.S. counterparts.

Protectionism, like barring imports into this country, or increasing taxes on them, would be fatal to our economy. Just look at what happened when they tried that stunt in the 1930s.

So the next time you read news that jobs are being shipped overseas, and you feel the frustration and indignation fester, look at everything that you've purchased. Then look at the mirror to levy the blame. If you're surrounded by merchandise with "made in the USA" labels, then more than one neighbor has canceled you out.

The American consumer is the main reason jobs are shipped overseas; our purchasing habits requires companies to move manufacturing outside this country.