Openers

Dear Readers:

 

If you have watched the news of late, you are no doubt hearing stories about the outsourcing of American jobs, the unfair trade practices of our global competitors and the replacement of American workers with imported workers.

 

CNN's Lou Dobbs and many others are lumping all of these stories together and calling for an end of the "exporting of America." This is a backlash against an evolution toward globalization that has accelerated in recent decades as technological advances, the liberalization of economies and the reform of political systems around the world have created a truly global marketplace for goods, services and ideas. America has benefited from the changes more than most countries though you would hardly appreciate this if you only watched the news.

 

We have one of the world's most open economies and that has led to Americans enjoying higher living standards than nearly any other people in the world. While most people around the globe look to their governments to protect them economically, Americans generally believe in the free market and don't trust bureaucrats and politicians to get it right. Whatever the roots of this thinking - perhaps coming from the deep-seated belief in liberty which guided the foundations of this country or the rugged individualism that became part of the American ethos during the settlement of the frontier - economists generally agree that Americans have it right. The freewheeling US economy encourages innovation and risk-taking and allows companies much more freedom to make the best business decisions. The upside of taking such risks are enough to get American businesses motivated to take on the world and lead in industry after industry.

 

Despite what we hear night after night on Dobbs' Moneyline show, Americans are still winning the globalization race, a competition that began generations ago. There is absolutely nothing new in today's protectionist rhetoric. We have the same complaints every time there has been an economic downturn. In past years, we heard about the exporting of manufacturing jobs to Central America and Asia (today we hear the same about high tech jobs being lost to India). In nearly every generation - dating back to the nativist parties of the 18th century - we hear complaints about immigrants taking jobs for Americans. And for much of the 1980s we heard about how Japan was using unfair trade practices to become the world's new economic powerhouse (today we hear the same about China).

 

If the naysayers of past years were to be believed, the US would long ago have been relegated to the lower echelon of countries and not the leader in just about every area. But Americans have largely ignored the protectionists and allowed our companies to confidently take on the competition. As a country, we've been rewarded handsomely. We're seeing these benefits today even in a recession. Our measurement of suffering has certainly changed. We have 6% unemployment, a figure that other countries would practically consider full-employment even in a booming economy. A higher percentage of Americans own homes than in nearly any point in our history. The average American's daily living standards today are extravagant in comparison to generations past. We cannot lose sight of the fact that our country's development is probably one of the greatest success stories in the economic history of the world.

 

With our success comes a fear of losing it all. What if the sun is really setting on America's leading role in the world's economy? The natural reaction is to lash out against those perceived to be threatening our success. Keep out immigrants. Protect US industries from competition. Punish countries that don't allow American companies access to their markets as openly as we allow theirs.

 

We must resist the temptation of protectionism. Protectionism NEVER works in the long run. Sure those in protected industries will get a temporary boost from being insulated from competition. And some Americans may keep jobs that might go to an immigrant. But the country as a whole loses a lot more. Companies become less competitive globally. Prices rise and consumers have less buying power. When companies can't bring in foreign workers - either because American workers are unavailable or too expensive - they outsource their entire operations and employed US workers lose their jobs (and consequently spend less which causes more layoffs as profits continue to dwindle). Most credible economists will not defend protectionism - either in the importation of goods or labor - as sound economic policy. Of course, we only need to look to Japan - the country that we complained about being too protectionist and keeping out American firms in the 1980s. They've been in an endless recession with an economy that has not been dynamic enough to bounce back. Many credit the government's tight controls on imports and its highly inflexible labor force as contributing to their misery.

 

The folly of Dobbs and others of the same mind is believing that America's situation today is truly different than that which we faced in yesteryear. It is not and, in fact, in every generation there were protectionists who have claimed that the threats of the day were unique. Americans' willingness to work hard, our entrepenurial, individualist spirit and our distrust for paternalistic government interference in our economic affairs are the attributes that led to success in the past and will ultimately ensure we continue to thrive no matter what the doom-and-gloomers have to say.

 

*****

 

Readers of this newsletter know that my Openers column has been the main place where I express my opinion. We deliberately avoid editorializing beyond this column and that has a lot to do with why the publication is trusted by so many people with different perspectives on immigration law. Folks that would like to hear more commentary as well as breaking news updates will be interested in our new weblog. You can see the regularly updated page at www.visalaw.com/blog.html. Those of you familiar with "blogs" know that they are one of the hot new ways to deliver content on the web. You may be interested in knowing Siskind Susser actually created the first legal weblog back in 1998. Longtime readers will remember the H-1B Emergency Update page that we maintained when the H-1B cap first became a serious problem. That section of our web site was actually the earliest example of a blog on a legal subject (though that page actually preceded the coining of the term "blog" - at least to the best of our knowledge). Now that the H-1B debate is heating up again and there are so many other important issues to discuss, we've decided to revive our blog. We're looking forward to getting your feedback and plan on rolling out more blog features soon.

 

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

 

Regards,

 

Greg Siskind

 

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