Yes, But Corporations Are Different!

Pallavi Gogoi had an excellent article in Slate yesterday about how American jobs continue to move overseas.

All but 4 percent of the top 500 U.S. corporations reported profits this year, and the stock market is close to its highest point since the 2008 financial meltdown.

But the jobs are going elsewhere. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies have created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year, compared with less than 1 million in the U.S.

This being Slate, the comments attached to the article are all about how corporations are greedy and the fatcats are getting tax breaks and blah blah blah, but they all miss the point. Corporations, like the commenters, shop around to find the best prices for what they want to buy. In the case of the commenters, it's food and clothing and transportation. In the case of the corporations, it's labor. The corporations are just doing what the commenters do - buying what they need at the lowest price available.

If you don't want the jobs going overseas, then cut the regulations and wages that make us more expensive.

Tim Robbins explains how it all works.