President Obama was in India recently claiming that trade with
India was good for the US workers. President Obama said that
$10 billion in US exports to India would create 50,000 jobs in the
US, which works out to about 5,000 jobs for each $1 billion in
exports. So, is trade with India really good for the American
workers?
On thing that the President did not mention was our large trade
deficits with India. One of the reasons that India has prospered
over the last ten years is the large trade deficits that the US runs
with India. During the past ten years, India has gained over $80
billion from the large net trade deficits that the US has accumulated
while trading with India.
So, if the US has net trade deficits of $80 billion over the last 10
years with India, that would work out to about 400,000 (5,000 X
80) net jobs lost by the US during the same time period, using the
math used by the President.
It is obvious that the large US trade deficit with India is causing US
workers to lose jobs.
It appears to me that there could be two possible explanations for
our politicians telling us that all this trade with India is benefiting
the American workers. First, perhaps the politicians are purposely
trying to mislead us by putting political “spin” on what is
happening, by telling us the good, but not the much larger bad.
The second possible explanation is that the politicians have
themselves been misled by advisors and corporate lobbyists
concerning the benefits of trade with India.
But, regardless of the motivation of our politicians, the American
workers are being forced to compete with cheap labor in third
world countries, such as India, which will lower our standard of
living. And our leaders are doing nothing to stop it.
Thank you very much for having this website, is very helpful and informative. Will try to get more people to read it but although Americans are unhappy, seems not unhappy enough to see the real picture of things and what is going on with the democrats and republicans and the lobbyists.