Unexportable Jobs
David Kreutzer /
Here is a quote from the President’s new budget (emphasis added):
“If we lead the world in the research and development of clean energy technology, we can create a whole new industry with high-paying jobs that cannot be shipped overseas. Some compare the promise of this sector to information technology.”
“High-paying jobs that cannot be shipped overseas,” is a mantra of the left. It is an entirely bogus claim and even if it weren’t, it would be a bad idea.
First, developing technology in the USA doesn’t guarantee that the jobs using the technology will stay in the USA. The budget’s author couldn’t have chosen a more ironic example than information technology. Virtually all of the cell phones, computers, MP3 players, pick any information technology, are made overseas.
Green technology has no magical immunity to trade pressures. About half of our wind turbines are manufactured by foreign companies. No matter what we do to develop more efficient solar cells, there is nothing to insure that they will not also be manufactured overseas.
But, here is a more fundamental problem with the “jobs that can’t be exported” vision: It would focus our workforce on making goods that can’t be imported and, therefore, on goods that can’t be exported. That is, we would have a no-trade economy.