America's New Addiction: Outsourced Jobs

As President Obama was departing for an overseas trip to Asia this week, he commented:

"The primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and we can create jobs here in the United States of America."   - President Obama

I believe the President but I'm not sure the problem is closed markets.

Over 200 business executives will accompany President Obama on the trip.  They are the same executives that have fired American workers and replaced them with workers in Asia during the Great Recession.

According to a poll conducted by San Jose State University researchers (see chart to the right), 2 out of 5 Silicon Valley households have been hit by job losses since the Great Recession began nearly three years ago.  

Tech had done well during the Great Recession

During this same 3 year period, the NASDAQ has returned to par (not bad for a recession) and tech headliners like Apple have soared. In other words, while American CEOs have argued that they must lay off workers because of the economic downturn, their companies have done quite well and weathered the Great Recession in flying colors.  That's a great testament to American business know-how.
 
While at lunch with a friend the other day he said I had buried my head in the sand and and wanted to know why I refused to accept that America's best days were behind us.  I believe that our enterprising nature will always find ways out of short term problems if given the chance.  I just wish more American companies would give American workers a chance.