More Yellow Jobs than Green
03/10/2010
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President Obama said that his stimulus bill would be spent for green jobs in a green economy.

Because we know we can't power America's future on energy that's controlled by foreign dictators, we are taking a big step down the road to energy independence, and laying the groundwork for a new, green energy economy that can create countless well-paying jobs. "Obama Signs Stimulus Plan Into Law", President Obama, Denver Colorado, Feb. 17, 2009

Obama’s hope that lots of high-paying green jobs are going to be created has one major hitch — most of them will be yellow jobs in Communist China! Stimulus money is being used to fund products made in China, and to utilize Americans only when absolutely necessary.

In a recent blog I explained that 8 out of 10 stimulus dollars for wind power goes overseas. It's not only wind power projects that are going to China and other countries even though our solar energy industry is non-existent, and stimulus money isn't going to change that reality. Peter Morici explained the problem in stark terms:

Longtime China critic Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland and former chief economist of the U.S. International Trade Commission, pins the blame on the Obama administration, which he says has failed to push China to reform its trade practices.

"It's absolutely disgraceful that Obama is going around the world saying we will not resort to protectionist measures against China when they're stealing the solar-panel business out from under us," Morici said.

Morici noted that China's protectionist measures include a requirement that 75 percent of the content of government-purchased solar panels be Chinese-made. The United States has no such requirement. "China eating our lunch in solar-panel marketplace", by Dean Calbreath, San Diego Union-Tribune, August 30 2009

Arizona's reputation as the sunniest state in the union is attracting stimulus money but the problem is that the bulk of the business is going to two Chinese companies: Suntech Power Holdings and Yingli Solar Energy. Stimulus funds are going directly into the hands of these two Chinese companies in order to build solar panels for consumption in the U.S.

My contention is that if the Obama administration continues to allow stimulus funds to go to foreign countries, very few good jobs will be created and we will not develop the engineering and manufacturing infrastructure needed to make our own stuff.

I wish to thank Mary Teagarden [email her] for inadvertently proving my point in a recent article in the Phoenix Business Journal.

Economic developers and solar energy firms in the Valley have welcomed Chinese and other foreign investment as a way to help the region recover from the recession, create new jobs and finance projects when traditional and domestic funding sources have run dry.

Rob Sanchez, editor of the Job Destruction Newsletter in Chandler, said linking Arizona’s solar growth with China could mean manufacturing and engineering jobs will be based in Asia, where costs are lower. That would leave more service- and distribution-oriented jobs in Arizona.

"Arizona promoters are deluding themselves if they think foreign investors are going to sink money into photovoltaic research and production centers when they can build them anywhere in the world that is cheaper than Arizona," said Sanchez, who is critical of free-trade policies in general. "Sure, Arizona has lots of sunshine, but so does the Gobi Desert. If the Chinese invest money in Arizona, it will be for marketing offices and maybe a few small production facilities where prefab parts are put together."

Suntech will create 75 jobs in Goodyear, but those jobs will involve assembling products manufactured in China, said Mary Teagarden, a global business professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale. ”China's influence creeps into Arizona solar”, Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks and Patrick O'Grady, March 6, 2010

Teagarden is a business professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, AZ. Not surprisingly she is a champion of offshoring jobs to the Chinese. Thunderbird School is in the business of training (brainwashing) future executives to become globalists that have the skills to offshore jobs to countries where costs are cheaper than the U.S. Teagarden is recognized for her research that has a rather descriptive and alarming title: "The role of Global Mindset in developing global leaders."

So, what Teagarden seems to be saying in the Phoenix Biz article is that after spending millions of dollars of green money in Arizona for solar energy we will get 75 low paying jobs to assemble components, and maybe a few temporary construction jobs. Most of the manufacturing, engineering, and research dollars will go to China.

So how could stupidity of this magnitude happen? The best explanation I have read was written by Maryann Scarangello, who says that she is "a wife and a mother first and an avid political writer second." She obviously isn't an economist because her writings exhibit too much common sense!

American manufacturing has taken such a hit in the past 20 years (down 37% since the early 90’s) that small manufacturing firms were not properly prepared to handle the mass of manufacturing needs the stimulus created. Thus, loopholes were added to the legislation and this meant billions in stimulus dollars went to foreign countries instead of to an ill American economy which could have used this opportunity to restructure our manufacturing and bring prosperity back to the sector. Taking the short cut approach not only allowed for money to go overseas, but also resulted in little to no effect on unemployment and still left unaddressed, the ability of our nation to rebuild and repair our manufacturing industry which is vital to our nation’s future growth..

Obama, like his predecessors, has not clamped down on the unfair playing field of international manufacturing. Particularly with China when it comes to manufacturing jobs and manufacturing products, the United States has allowed China to keep its exports and currency artificially cheap. The value of the Chinese currency has been an argument for a decade now, yet no real pressure has been placed on the nation to correct it. "Manufacturing and Our Failing Stimulus", by Maryann Scarangello, AllVoices

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