<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040308/005369.html>
from which -
I do not want to speak for anyone else on this list, but I have a hunch that most lefties and pwogies would eagerly join the "Amerika uber alles" crowd in denouncing such "capitalist excesses" and cry for saving "our" jobs from those "damn foreigners." Which brings us to another question: "Are the US high wages worth preserving?"
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One. Reasons for objection which tend not towards edification
Yes, nativist resistance to offshoring inspired by a fear of 'damn foreigners stealing our jobs' is a bad road to walk down and I don't support it. Still, as I've written before, real people with real bills are losing real jobs. As Doug points out, the number at which these jobs are being lost to offshoring do not merit the 'sky is falling' rhetoric but for those sectors under fire the effect is quite real. So there's resistance, but not all resistance is nativist. Much is inspired by the simple fact that on Monday Susan could pay her mortgage but on Friday she lost the ability to do so. If her labor is still considered valuable and 'in-demand' but, due to a cheaper alternative being available in Bangalore et. al. she can't find work which replaces what was lost it's only natural she'd feel emnity towards the process underway.
Human nature yes?
The process is the enemy, not the people caught up in it -- a surprisingly high percentage of USers (to borrow your term) understand this if my conversations with colleagues, very few of whom express hatred or fear for offshore workers who're merely grabbing opportunities, provide any indication.
Also, many of my Indian colleagues have zero illusions about the long term prospects -- an Infosys employee I know (Infosys is one of the major offshore firms catering to the US market) predicts that within 3 years he'll be out of work as the gravy train moves on. In other words, he doesn't interpret the long hours, difficult working conditions and strained family ties (due to the long hours and difficult, stressful working conditions) to be a remarkable breakthrough for Indian workers -- merely a transfer of the locus of exploitation from foreign (non-Indian) actors to domestic ones.
Which brings me to your wage depression argument.
Two. Sure, I'd take $1,000.00 a year in pay if my rent was a dollar a month.
Yes, high US wages support the high consumption lifestyle -- as you said.
And of course, people can get by without shiny new Audi A8s, airy McMansions, silk nightclub shirts and an endless supply of gadgetry -- or, they could get one set of these sorts of things (excepting the house) purchased every now and again but not as often as Americans tend to do. Still, there are structural reasons for comparatively high incomes which cannot be easily dismantled.
When housing costs fall...
When healthcare costs fall...
When education costs are righted...
When transportation costs fall..
When corporate entities, which determine large parts of or lifestyle, are dismantled or controlled via democratic means...
When at least a million other micro-factors I'm not even aware of are adjusted...
When, in other words, the entire American 'way of life' as currently lived is turned more or less upside down, then people can start to lose income without ending up on the street in vast numbers.
A non-trivial project.
DRM