Meanwhile, on the home front

by David Grand
September 11, 2003

All the way to Bombay! I almost hung-up the phone, thinking I must've mis-dialed AOL's number, when the crisp voice I heard on the other end sounded like that of an Englishman, and that I'd be charged for an overseas call. But not so, for it turned out my call had been transferred to his desk in Bombay, where he was employed by AOL as a trouble-shooter. His English was as flawless as it was precise as he quickly solved my problem. Those 200 years the British ruled India paid-off at least in that respect.

While I was aware that hundreds of thousands of jobs here in America, particularly in the manufacturing and textile industries, have been lost by companies relying more and more on producing their products (for cheaper labor costs) south of the border and overseas, I didn't appreciate till now how widespread that trend is.

Just for fun, I checked the labels on some of my clothes and found: that my "Route 66" denim shirt was made in Mexico (that's some detour), and that its shorts came from Indonesia; that my Haggar pants were from Mexico; that my "Izod" shorts came from Egypt; that my rain jacket was from Sri Lanka; and that my L.L. Bean raincoat was made in Taiwan, my jeans and winter shirts in Mexico and my sheepskin slippers in China. And oh yes, that's where the desk lamp came from I'm using to illuminate the computer screen (if not my mind) in typing this column.

No wonder there's 9 million Americans unemployed, that there's a 6.2 unemployment rate, that 600,000 jobs have been lost since February alone, that more than a half-million of the unemployed have given up trying to find a job, and that our trade deficit is 530 billion (close to the federal deficit).

And talk about hitting American workers when they're down, the administration has come up with a proposed federal regulation that would end overtime eligibility for at least 8 million workers, in order to help businesses cut labor costs. But it might not happen, if Congress passes the amendment to the 2004 Labor-Health and Human Services spending bill put forth by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa that would stop the Labor Dept. from continuing work on the proposal. As Harkin said, "hard work should be rewarded, and this the most anti-family proposal I've seen in my years in Congress."

Equally disturbing is our rapidly deteriorating infrastructure. As a report of the American Society of Civil Engineers said, "the condition of 12 key categories of infrastructure showed little or no improvement- and in many cases worsened- in the past two years."

The report cites as examples of that failure, "the congested roadways, crumbling bridges, the poor condition of 75 percent of the nation's school buildings, outdated drinking water systems, and last month's massive blackout in the Northeast and Midwest due to an over-burdened, electrical grid system." As Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., said "the needs are immediate, and that if we can spend a billion dollars a week to help re-build Iraq, we should be doing as much for the people in this country."

The Society recommends an investment of $1.6 trillion over five years, with $127 billion earmarked for building new schools and fixing old ones; and that Congress increase the user fee on gasoline by six cents to help pay for infrastructure projects. But that might be so much wishful thinking, considering that the federal budget deficit is now 550 billion (not including the 87 billion the president asked Congress for this week) and that the deficit could reach well over 1.5 trillion just over the horizon.

But the biggest question mark is how long will taxpayers be willing to pick-up the tab for the war on terrorism at the expense of neglecting, or setting aside, urgently needed spending for programs and projects on the home front, given the president's resolve to pursue the war to the end, no matter the costs or how many troops it takes.

By the way, if you're curious as to what a billion is, it would take you about 29 years, working 12 hours a day without stopping, to count a billion dollars in one-dollar bills at the rate of 127 a minute. But you'd undoubtedly quickly join the ranks of the unemployed or go mad if you tried to.