As published in the

Pasadena Star-News - March 18, 2004

San Gabriel Valley Tribune - March 18, 2004

Whittier Daily News - March 18, 2004

Drugs from Canada and outsourcing --- Connect the dots

by

Gerald Plessner

March 18, 2004 - There is something very wrong with a government that protects major corporations from competition in the world marketplace while it does nothing to protect ordinary citizens from the same influence.

When you compare the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to stop older Americans from purchasing drugs from Canada with the lack of government action to curb the export of white collar jobs, the favoritism to corporations over citizens is dramatic.

The excuse that drugs shipped from Canada are dangerous to American buyers is a sham that justifies protectionism for corporations that contribute to incumbent Senators, Members of Congress and the political parties at election time. It's no secret and our elected officials, including our president, have no shame about their sweetheart relationships.

If drug quality is such a danger, the FDA could just as easily monitor it and enforce standards if it wanted to --- and if Congress and their drug industry patrons would permit it.

Compare this betrayal of ordinary Americans, many in their sunset years, with the cavalier disregard for workers, many in their most productive years. When it comes to shipping jobs to other countries, ordinary citizens are left to a job market that is less than robust. It is also much less expansive than the president regularly predicts it will be.

Ask any Libertarian-leaning politician about the plight of workers and you'll usually get a sound bite on the glory of free market capitalism. The truth is that the economic atheism of Libertarianism makes those politicians unconcerned about the plight of workers. They see labor as just one more resource available to corporations, along with raw materials and equipment.

Ironically, few people cared when low skilled jobs went to China, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Now that industry has learned how to replace higher skilled workers with people in Bombay and New Delhi, a whole new class of Americans are being declared obsolete. They should become an interesting force by election time.

It ought to be possible to see international trade as a win-win business for both exporting and importing countries, without allowing labor on both ends to suffer all the consequences while businesses receive all the benefits.

For starters, companies that were founded on American soil should not be allowed to reincorporate in tax havens at Americans' expense in evaded taxes. If they or their subsidiaries have businesses here, or benefit in any way from commerce within the United States, they should pay our taxes like everyone else. And their taxes should go to offset the consequences to America of their outsourcing of jobs and other displacements of American workers. They should also be prohibited from bidding on government contracts.

Because those companies effectively renounce their American citizenship, they and their officers and directors should be prohibited from contributing to federal and state political campaigns just as other non-citizens should be.

It is dangerous to our way of life that American workers have been convinced that they must be completely at the mercy of international corporations that care for nothing but the bottom line and lower costs.

The coming election should give citizens the opportunity to tell elected officials that they expect them to work for ordinary Americans at least as hard as they work for their corporate friends.

About the author: Gerald Plessner is a Southern California businessman who writes regularly on issues of politics and culture. He would be pleased to hear from you and may be contacted at gerald@geraldplessner.com.